11.05.2020
Neue Nationalgalerie
The German documentary Die Neue Nationalgalerie. Das Jahrhundertbauwerk des Architekten Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (The Neue Nationalgalerie: Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Building of the Century) is available as video on demand (VOD) for two days (16‒17 May 2020) free of charge. The VOD stream aims to allow a broad public to learn the history of the Neue Nationalgalerie, from its inauguration to the current major renovation.
The Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is a landmark building by architect Mies van der Rohe. Fifty years after its opening in 1968, film director Ina Weisse revisits the period of the legendary building’s origins in her tracing of its story. She is the daughter of Rolf Weisse, an architect who worked in Mies’ Chicago office.
In a series of interviews ‒ with her father; Dirk Lohan (Mies’ grandson); architect David Chipperfield, who was commissioned to restore the building; and other prominent figures ‒ Weisse explores how the Neue Nationalgalerie came about and discusses the type of worldview expressed by Mies’ chosen architecture. In addition to Ina Weisse’s interviews and images showing the museum being emptied prior to the comprehensive restoration of the structure beginning in 2015, the film includes previously unreleased footage from the 1960s that Rolf Weisse shot at the time in Mies van der Rohe’s office.
Watch it at no charge as a VOD stream, from 12:00 midnight on 16 May to 17 May 2020 at 11:59 pm
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/220562/397176490
Director: Ina Weisse
Length: 48 minutes