‘Very unpleasant’ tour with Josef Langerink offered by Kunstpalast Museum in Düsseldorf
What are the characteristics of a good museum guide?In the case of Josef Langerink, a character in the Kunstpalast in the German city of Düsseldorf, he was in a bad mood, an irritable state that fascinated those who arrived at the place.
As for the success of the “Grumpy Guide,” as he is known, a September post on the property’s Instagram announced that tours he leads are “sold out until the end of the year.” The Kunstpalast and other publications said the “very unpleasant” tour cost 7 euros, or about 42 reais at current prices.
The idea to create a crude museum guide came from Kunstpalast director Felix Kremer. He based his stories on restaurants around the world that deal with rude waiters, such as Censio La Parolaccia in Rome, Italy. Performance artist Karl Brandy, 33, who plays the character Joseph Langerink, was chosen for the role.
“There are many regions in Europe where there is a kind of local pride in the indigenous traditions of sulkiness,” Brandy explained.
The publication says that current pressures on national resources are causing museums like the Kunstpalast to explore new, less elitist formats to attract a diverse younger audience.
“In museums, there’s always a kind of power imbalance between the museum’s insistence that we decide what’s worth seeing here, and the visitors who, in a sense, have to obey,” Brandi recalls.
For him, this character makes it possible to “reverse this imbalance”, questioning the museum’s own authority as a holder of knowledge.
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