Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is among the international contributors to Kassel's new museum dedicated to the Brothers Grimm. But don't expect to take your picture with Cinderella at this artsy house.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pförtner
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Brothers Grimm get new museum in Germany
From Cinderella to Snow White, the Brothers Grimm are world-famous for their fairytales. Here's a sneak peek at the new Grimm Museum opening in Germany on September 4, 2015.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pförtner
A Grimm world
The new Brothers Grimm Museum in Kassel explores not only the work of the fairytale duo, but also art associated with their tales. Ukrainian artist Alexej Tchernyi studied in Kassel; his installation "First Delivery" is among the works on show in the museum, which opens on Sept. 4, 2015. It takes visitors back to the 19th-century world of the writers, who worked for a time as librarians in Kassel.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pförtner
Professors on the run
Alexej Tchernyi is still working on his installation "Jacob Grimm's Dismissal from Göttingen and Exile," referring to the Grimm brother's flight from the central German city of Göttingen. In November 1837, seven professors including the Brothers Grimm staged a protest planned changes to the Kingdom of Hanover's constitution - and lost their jobs as a result.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pförtner
Ai Weiwei's 'Colored Roots'
Kassel is not only known for its connection to fairytales, but also for hosting the contemporary art exhibition Documenta. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei exhibited at Documenta 12 in 2007. In 2010, he announced that he felt so inspired by the city, which had honored him with a civic award, that he wanted to create a work for the Grimm museum. The result: "Colored Roots 2009-2015."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pförtner
A gift for Kassel
Just a few weeks prior to the opening of the Brothers Grimm Museum in September, Ai Weiwei's installation arrived in Kassel. The five boxes each weighed half a ton. The artist himself traveled to Germany on July 30 when Chinese authorities returned his passport after revoking it four years ago.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/U. Zucchi
Fairytale meets modern art
Filmmaker Hannah Leonie Prinzler specializes in cross-medial documentary projects. She created the video installation "Telling Rumpelstiltskin" for the Brothers Grimm Museum.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pförtner
The book of words
Ecke Bonk's installation "Buch der Wörter/ Book of Words: Random Reading" was on show at the Documenta in 2002 and has been reinstated in Kassel's newest museum. The "German Dictionary" written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm included 318,000 entries - some of which are incorporated into Bonk's work.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pförtner
Listen to the grass
This work, called "Thorn Hedge," is a prickly affair made up of turf-covered poles and a corresponding sound installation that will undoubtedly draw in visitors of all ages.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pförtner
Between fantasy and reality
Small windows resembling arrow slits give visitors to the museum an altered view of the real world outside. Starting on September 4, the museum dedicated to the lives and fairytales of the Brothers Grimm expects some 400 visitors daily.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
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The central German city of Kassel is a rather sleepy village where Wilhem and Jacob Grimm lived on multiple occasions and worked as librarians for a short time in the early 19th century - though they also spent time in Göttingen, Berlin and other cities.
But it was in Kassel that the duo started working on their "Children's and Household Fairytales" as well as their "German Dictionary," which contained 318,000 words.
Kassel is best known for its international art exhibition, Documenta, which has taken place every five years for the past six decades - so it's not surprising that the city's new Brothers Grimm Museum has a distinctly artistic flair.
Opening on September 4, 2015, the 20-million-euro ($22-million) newly constructed museum will open to the public. It expects to welcome 80,000 visitors per year.
The exhibition includes original documents from the Grimms' estate, but also works by Documenta artists which were inspired by the fairytale makers. Ai Weiwei's "Colored Roots 2009-2015," an installation of five brightly painted tree roots, was a gift from the artist to the city of Kassel.
Click through the gallery above for more artistic highlights from the Brothers Grimm Museum.
