You see many identical sculptures of male figure in sitting posture. They have a white plaster-like skin surface and black hair with a prominent receding hairline and wear black button up shirts. They hold their arms forward in a right angle, palms down, heads slightly lowered. In this manner they line a red-patterned surface on the left and right, which appears to be a long table, forming a kind of tunnel. No figure sits at the end of this table.
You see many identical sculptures of male figure in sitting posture. They have a white plaster-like skin surface and black hair with a prominent receding hairline and wear black button up shirts. They hold their arms forward in a right angle, palms down, heads slightly lowered. In this manner they line a red-patterned surface on the left and right, which appears to be a long table, forming a kind of tunnel. No figure sits at the end of this table.
Katharina Fritsch, Tischgesellschaft, 1988, © VG-Bildkunst 2018, photo: Axel Schneider

The Tischgesellschaft

The ritual

The internationally renowned artwork Tischgesellschaft (Company at Table) by Katharina Fritsch is based on a ritual carried out every year on the first Monday in February: sixteen hosts and hostesses invite sixteen guests and all assemble at a long table dressed in dark clothing. The museum director presides over the event, which includes a banquet and an artistic contribution by an eminent guest of honour.

The following year, every guest him/herself becomes a host/hostess and chooses a person to be admitted to the “Company at Table”. By this means, a select circle forms, made up of persons who have dedicated themselves to supporting the museum in a special way: the Company at Table. Its members meet every two years for the “Large Company at Table”.

Your support

As a participant in the Company at Table, you are prepared to support the MMK financially. Each guest and each host/hostess donates 1,800 euros. The host/hostess moreover contributes to the cost of the banquet in the amount of 300 euros. The donations are applied towards purchases and exhibition projects which the MMK would not be able to realize without the support of the Company at Table. In your third year, you become a member of the Large Company at Table with an annual membership fee of 600 euros – and belong to the most exclusive circle of friends and patrons of the MUSEUMMMK für Moderne Kunst.

The goal

The goal of the Company at Table is to bring together a select circle of persons who have something in common: their interest in contemporary art. The event offers a way of establishing contacts between the museum’s friends and patrons on the one hand and protagonists of the art world on the other, and of joining in the effort to support one of the most important museums of contemporary art.

The members of the Company at Table meet every two years for the Large Company Table, a unique celebration with artists, the Frankfurt culture scene, and other outstanding patrons of the MMK.

Guest Speakers at the Company at Table

2023 Cameron Rowland 2022 Bernard Blistène 2021 Judith Hopf 2020 Pamela Rosenkranz 2019 Bunny Rogers 2018 Anne Imhof 2017 Ed Atkins 2016 Kader Attia 2015 William Forsythe 2014 Wilfried Kuehn 2013 Carsten Nicolai 2012 Douglas Gordon 2011 Tino Sehgal 2010 Stephan Huber 2009 Chris Dercon 2008 Daniel Birnbaum 2007 Rolf Ricke 2006 Axel Hecht 2005 Frieder Burda 2004 Sturtevant 2003 Heiner Goebbels 2002 Dieter Eckart 2001 Wolf Singer 2000 Friedhelm Mennekes 1999 Siegfried Unseld 1998 Daniel Cohn-Bendit 1997 Klaus Reichert

The Large Company at Table

The Large Company at Table takes place every two years as a way of thanking all participants and the outstanding patrons of the MMK.

Information & contact

If you are interested in the activities of the Company at Table, you are welcome to contact the office of the Freunde des MMK.

Telephone +49 (0)69 174 296
Fax +49 (0)69 174 297
E-mail: info(at)freunde-des-mmk.de