The Great Repair

Exhibition venue: Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin
Duration: October 14, 2023 – January 14, 2024
Opening: October 13, 2023, 7 pm, free entrance
Press conference: October 12, 2023, 11 am
School of Repair: October 14, 2023, 11 am – 5 pm
Opening hours: Tue – Fri 2 pm – 7 pm, Sat & Sun 11 am – 7 pm
Admission fee: € 9/6, Admission free up to 18 years, Tuesdays and every first Sunday of the month

Intro

The socioecological crisis directly impacts us all. It is no longer solely the concern of environmental activists but permeates everyday life.

Adhering to a growth-driven economic model fuels resource depletion, environmental degradation, and their societal consequences.

Reconciling limitless growth with climate protection verges on the impossible, demanding a transformation of our material culture and the adoption of new forms of coexistence.

Spanning art, architecture, and spatial practices, the 40 positions presented in this exhibition trace the contours of a new design paradigm: The Great Repair.

The exhibition begins with a look at the repair and maintenance of the Akademie der Künste building itself, highlighting the value of care work for the institution.

The showcased practices not only exemplify reparative approaches to artifacts within the built environment but also underscore the need for repair in socioeconomic, geopolitical, and ecological contexts.

The act of repair inevitably reveals what cannot be repaired. Acknowledging these scars and assuming responsibility for ecological damage from colonial entanglements is integral to a great repair as a process of reparation.

Only through the lens of social and ecological justice and equality can we truly approach repair as a collective effort and find new optimism in what has been repaired.

The Great Repair is an oxymoron. The title captures the convergence of two seemingly contradictory principles: the revolutionary ambition for systemic change and the evolutionary act of repair. Despite the justified (postmodern) skepticism toward revolution as a concept of rupture, we must not abandon our aspiration to bring about profound transformation. The philosopher Eva von Redecker formulates this thought along similar lines in this issue:

Two English language issues of ARCH+ Magazine for Architecture and Urbanism are published in collaboration with Spector Books to accompany the exhibition. The first issue (ARCH+ The Great Repair – Politics of the Repair Society, May 2023) serves as a theoretical introduction to the topic, while the second (ARCH+ The Great Repair – A Catalog of Practices) introduces practices of repair and will be published on the occasion of the exhibition’s opening as a catalog.

On the opening weekend, the "School of Repair" will feature workshops and round-table discussions to explore individual themes of the exhibition in greater depth. The program will be announced here at a later date.

With Ana Miljacki, Assemble, Atelier Bow-Wow, Bas Princen, Brenne Architekten, Bettina Knaup, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Florian Hertweck, Folke Köbberling, Forward Dance Company, Hans Hortig, Kathrin Dörfler, Manuel Herz, Material Cultures, Marjetica Potrč, Matthias Brenner, Milica Topalovic mit Power to the People ETH Studio, Sarah Nichols, AWAI und Santiago del Hierro, Takhayali, Zara Pfeifer, ZAS*, Marija Marić, Nazlı Tümerdem u. a.

KUNSTWELTEN

In collaboration with The Great Repair, Kunstwelten, the education program of the Academy of Arts, is developing an independent format for children and young people. Based on the themes of the exhibition, participants will be introduced to practices of repair related to their everyday world in weekly workshops.

Guided Tours & Other Events

Guided exhibition tours: € 3 plus exhibition ticket

Regular guided tours: Tue 5pm except 26.12.
5.12. with translation in DGS for deaf guests

Curator tours: Sun 2pm except 24 & 31 Dec.
5.11. with translation in DGS for deaf guests

Inclusive tours for blind and visually impaired guests
Tue 7.11. & Thu 7.12. 5.30 p.m.

Curators: Florian Hertweck, Christian Hiller, Markus Krieger, Alex Nehmer, Anh-Linh Ngo, Milica Topalović

Curatorial Assistants: Marija Marić, Nazlı Türmerdem

Production management: Felix Hofmann

Team: Elke Doppelbauer, Nora Dünser, Mirko Gatti, Daniel Kuhnert, Arno Löbbecke, Victor Lortie, Mona Rauch, Lea Scherer, Barbara Schindler, Finn Steffens

Partners: Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Departement für Architektur, ETH Zürich; Faculté des Sciences Humaines, Universität Luxemburg

Participants: 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*

With special thanks to: Bauhaus Erde & Experimental, Johannes Odenthal, Mike Schlaich, Stephan Arendt / Schlaich Bergermann Partner

Press conference: Oct 12, 2023, 11 a.m., Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, Berlin

Contact ARCH+: Barbara Schindler, schindler(at)archplus.net, +49 30 34046719

Contact Academy of Arts: Press and Public Relations, presse(at)adk.de, +49 30 20057-1514