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Tao Schirrmacher's Collection: Eisbach Treasures
Over a decade of objects recovered from Munich's Eisbach River by river-surfing champion Tao Schirrmacher, forming a hidden archive of urban life and untold city stories.
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Among the finds are two wedding rings with matching details and engravings, both pulled from the bed of the Eisbach. Were they lost together, the museum asks, or thrown in to seal a separation? It doesn't say.
Tao Schirrmacher, three-time European champion in river surfing, started diving here for broken surfboard fins, and a gold ring he found in 2008 began the collection he calls Lost and Drowned. You look down into galvanised wire baskets under Plexiglas, sorted by type: keys and car fobs, bent cutlery, watches with swollen leather straps. The museum's list also includes Second World War cartridges and air pistols. Asked about Oktoberfest, Schirrmacher told Mit Vergnügen he'd be underwater, looking for tourists' lost rings.
Monopol's critic found the show discreet beside the building's big exhibitions and said that's no reason to let it go under. It is one room, the Archiv Galerie, and entry is free. Open 10am to 8pm, closed Tuesdays.
Look for
The two wedding rings
Look for a pair of rings whose matching details and engravings mark them as a couple's; the museum leaves open whether they were lost together or thrown in.
The key baskets
Generations of keys sorted together, from flat ones and small furniture keys to long, heavily rusted ones, plus car keys and remote fobs from Volkswagen, Ford and BMW.
The watches
Wristwatches with rectangular LCD screens gone blank, and analogue and pocket watches with discoloured dials, missing glass and swollen leather straps.
The cutlery
Forks, spoons and knives, bent out of shape and coated in dark deposits from the riverbed.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Cheap Culture
- Locals Who've Seen It All
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Image credits
7
- Tao Schirrmacher's Collection: Eisbach TreasuresCourtesy of Haus der Kunst
- Stonehenge. Ancient Discoveries, New MysteriesCourtesy of Bavarian State Archaeological Collection
- Liminal SpacesCourtesy of Bavarian National Museum
- Haus der KunstAvda / www.avda-foto.de, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Bavarian State Archaeological CollectionBurkhard Mücke / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
- Bavarian National MuseumRufus46, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Munich ResidenzAvi1111 dr. avishai teicher / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0