PROTEST / ARCHITECTURE

September 16, 2023  –  January 14, 2024

Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation),

funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media).

Sub-project Film + Audio in cooperation with the Wüstenrot Foundation.

Protest movements shape public space not only through their messages, but also through their (mostly temporary) buildings: The Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) is investigating this thesis with the exhibition project “Protest/Architecture” using numerous examples from the last 170 years. For the first time, various forms of protest will be systematically compared with each other from an architectural perspective, including the barricades of the 1848 revolution, the pile dwellings of the opponents of nuclear power in the “Free Republic of Wendland” in Gorleben (1980), the tent cities of the Arab Spring (2011), the tree houses in the Hambach and Dannenröder forests (2018/2019), and the fluid, laser pointer-based light spaces of the demonstrators in Hong Kong (2019). The project aims to present the devices of protest in all their versatility, but also in all their ambivalence.

An exhibition of the DAM – Deutsches Architekturmuseum and the MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna

Curator in charge: Oliver Elser, DAM

Curatorial assistance and research: Anna-Maria Mayerhofer

Scientific trainee: Jennifer Dyck

Editing and catalogue management: Miriam Kremser