Remembering Rembrandt! This can’t be a coincidence! I started my Blog in the Rembrandt year 2006! And now he was visiting me! So of course not the real one. He died 345 years ago after all. But this wonderful copy, which was left to me by the Alte Pinakothek Munich. Only condition: I should show Rembrandt my world. What I experienced with this guy and why I think this wonderful social media campaign deserves a prize, you can read in this article.
At the beginning of June, my personal filter bubble of creative artists and museum people flushed this action of the Alte Pinakothe Munich into my timeline.
“However, the current partial closure of the Alte Pinakothek by the renovation of the building forced Rembrandt’s self-portrait to move out over the summer of 2014. We take the opportunity and send the picture as a reproduction on our travels. We are mainly dependent on your help. Take him with you on your journey! Whether it’s a summer holiday lasting several weeks, a short city trip or a trekking tour through Nepal: Rembrandt’s thirst for knowledge makes all destinations possible. Send us your photos with Rembrandt, whether “Selfie” or proof photo in front of the Eifel Tower. Participating is very easy: Apply, get a picture, travel, photograph, mark, share”.
I applied immediately and found out that in July Rembrandt’s happy travel companions would be selected by lot. Exciting! And this excitement increased even more, because the action had really taken off in the course of the summer. It was the fault of a few top actions that brought unforgettable pictures for the campaign. There was the photo where Ai Weiwei holds the Rembi (in the meantime he even had a nickname) in his hands in China. The devil Marc Lippuner did it! And – what a coup – the cultural consorts actually beamed the self-portrait of the young Rembrandt onto the ISS!
Suspicious of prizes
A Storifying collects all previous destinations of #myRembrandt. A fantastic compilation of user-generated content in a museum context. And the entire campaign is a reason to think about a prize for successful social media campaigns in the museum landscape, isn’t it? Don’t we want to offer something comparable like the virus spin price? I would be happy to volunteer for the Orga. The only thing missing is the appropriate framework.
Why is #myRembrandt so successful? On the one hand, the idea behind it is simple and charming. Nobody is excluded, you don’t have to be an art historian. Everyone goes on holiday ;-)I also liked the instructions on the back of the picture. It also shows here: good ideas always need a clear and unambiguous communication. Then it works best!
Sure, the creativity of the participants is a decisive moment and the Alte Pinakothek simply has a very good network. That above all is ready for interaction! I also really liked the presence of Bianca Henze and Antje Lange, who not only retweeteted and commented on the official accounts of the Pinakothek, but also showed themselves to be visible as a person. I think this is indispensable if you want to activate a community. A great job!
Rembrandt in Cologne
But now to my journey with #myRembrandt. He went on vacation a few days before our departure and so I had the pleasure to show him around in my hometown. To look at places of interest – of course. But you only really get to know a city when you get to know the people there. And as a cultural chick I dragged Rembrandt to three museums where he met special people. The DOMID already wrote a detailed Blogbeitrag about our meeting.
Since I am a big fan of the artist Käthe Kollwitz, it was of course clear that we also stopped by here. By the way, there are many points of contact between the two artists. Not only that Käthe certainly thought of Rembrandt’s role model in her self-portraits. The special treatment of light and shadow that one sees in some of Kollwitz’s works is certainly due to a certain reverence for the master!