The Great Museum

Everyday life in one of Austria's great cultural institutions, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna: Johannes Holzhausen's film shows routine hand movements, but above all lively micro-dramas in which the workers emerge as protagonists: One restorer is on the trail of the history of a Rubens painting that has been worked on several times; another expressively despairs over the repair of a model battleship. A woman from the visitors' service does not feel integrated at the house; a deserving collection manager retires. An art historian experiences the excitement and frustration of an auction; the commercial director finds the "3" on a poster motif too "biting". The result is not only a portrait of a state cultural institution that must balance its integrity with budgetary constraints and competitive pressures. THE GREAT MUSEUM also unflinchingly poses far-reaching questions: How can we mediate between the preservation of works and their contemporary presentation? What purposes does art have to serve for a nation's self-presentation in politics and tourism?

"Everything must change in order to remain as it is." GIUSEPPE TOMASI DI LAMPEDUSA