27 September 2023

The Great Repair

Exhibition, 14 October 2023 – 14 January 2024
Opening on Friday, 13 October 2023, 7 pm
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg

Invitation to the press preview
Thursday, 12 October 2023, 11 am
Exhibition spaces open from 10 am

With
Kathrin Röggla, Vice-President of the Akademie der Künste
FlorianHertweck, Christian Hiller, Markus Krieger, Alex Nehmer,
Anh-Linh Ngo (Member of the Akademie der Künste) and Milica Topalović,the exhibition curators
and a selection of artists and contributors to the exhibition

Please email your accreditation to presse@adk.de

The exhibition The Great Repair opens at the Akademie der Künste on Hanseatenweg on 13 October. Against the backdrop of current ecological and societal crises, it presents over 40 positions from art, architecture and spatial practices in which repairing becomes tangible as a new design paradigm. The exhibition, which takes the Akademie’s building as a starting point, gives visibility to the processes of maintenance and upkeep and the spaces dedicated to this labour. It examines the topic at different scales ranging from the routine work needed to take care of the museum on a daily basis to examples of a building practice that looks to work with the existing stock rather than building anew.
Teaming up with its project partners, the Akademie der Künste, ETH Zürich and the University of Luxembourg, ARCH+ is bringing to Berlin the thematic discussion it initiated as part of the collective curating the German contribution to this year’s Architecture Biennale in Venice. The focus of the project is on the recognition that our current economic system, with its emphasis on innovation, growth and progress, has led to the reckless exploitation of humans and nature. Architecture plays no small part in this development, as is evident from the statistics on greenhouse gas emissions and waste from construction and demolition.

With positions by:
Assemble, Atelier Bow-Wow, Kader Attia, Brenne Architekten with Jana Hainbach / TU München / HfBK Dresden / Akademie der Künste Baukunstarchiv, Matthias Brenner, Center for Spatial Technologies, Manuel Chavajay, Collective Architecture Studio & Ana Miljački, Collective Works, Agnes Denes, Kathrin Dörfler & Lidia Atanasova, Edit, Haus für Poesie with Hinemoana Baker, Don Mee Choi, Tim Holland, hn. lyonga, Katharina Schultens, Studio Anna Heringer, Florian Hertweck & Caroline Faber & Marija Marić & Céline Zimmer / Master Architektur Universität Luxemburg, Manuel Herz Architects, Hans Hortig with Tang Wei, Inga Community in Columbia with Santiago del Hierro, Interboro with Center for Justice Innovation & Patterson Houses NeighborhoodStat Team & Richard A. Chance & Coco McPherson, Kleine Reinigungs- und Dienstleistungsgesellschaft, Bettina Knaup, Folke Köbberling & Martin Kaltwasser, Lacaton & Vassal, Silke Langenberg, Limbo Accra, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Mapping Ukraine ETH Zürich, Material Cultures, Fuminori Nousaku & Mio Tsuneyama, Zara Pfeifer, Marjetica Potrč, Bas Princen, Sakiya, Alexander Stumm, Takhayali, Paulo Tavares, THEMA (Sarah Nichols, Akshar Gajjar, Marion Moutal) with Syn Liu, Milica Topalović / Architecture of Territory ETH Zürich, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, UVW-SAW, Michael Wolf, ZAS*, and others.

Presented in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, a performance by FORWARD DANCE COMPANY by LOFFT – DAS THEATER and Alessandro Schiattarella will be given in the Akademie spaces on the exhibition’s opening night (13 October).
On Saturday, 14 October, the School of Repair will offer an all-day programme of events: some thirty artists will present their work and discuss different approaches to repair with visitors.
For the closing of the exhibition on 14 January 2024, the pioneering artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles will speak for the first time in Berlin about her extensive œuvre. Details about the event organized by the Akademie der Künste in collaboration with curator Bettina Knaup will be announced shortly.

Two issues of ARCH+ Journal for Architecture and Urbanism will accompany the exhibition.

The Great Repair is a project of ARCH+ gGmbH in cooperation with the Akademie der Künste, the Department of Architecture at ETH Zürich and the University of Luxembourg’s Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences under the artistic direction of Florian Hertweck, Christian Hiller, Markus Krieger, Alex Nehmer, Anh-Linh Ngo and Milica Topalović. Curatorial assistants: Marija Marić, Nazlı Tümerdem. Production management: Felix Hofmann.

The exhibition is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The Great Repair workshop programme is funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education. Other sponsors include the Wüstenrot Foundation, the Hans Sauer Foundation, Pro Helvetia and Experimental.

The Akademie der Künste’s programmes are integral to its sense of mission, providing intellectual stimulus and education on the issue of sustainability. The Akademie’s own institutional reality is also under scrutiny here. Participation, cultural education and sustainable modes of production are key objectives for the Akademie.

Further information available on the website archplus.net/the-great-repair

Exhibition details
Exhibition opening: Friday, 13 October 2023, 7 pm, free admission
School of Repair: Saturday, 14 October 2023, 11 am – 5 pm, admission: € 9/6
Run: 14 October 2023 – 14 January 2024
Tue–Fri, 2–7 pm; Sat + Sun 11 am – 7 pm
Admission: € 9/6, free for under-18s and on Tuesdays and the first Sunday of each month
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin
Tel. 030 200 57-2000, info@adk.de

Press contact: Barbara Schindler, ARCH+, tel. +49 (0)30 340 467 19, schindler@archplus.net