14 July 2023

Preview Autumn Programme
The Great Repair

Exhibition, 14 October 2023 – 14 January 2024
Exhibition opening 13 October 2023
School of Repair 14 October 2023
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg

Against the background of the current environmental and social crises, the exhibition “The Great Repair” presents more than 40 positions from art and architecture, as well as spatial practices, showing repair as the new design paradigm. The exhibition opens on 13 October 2023 at the Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg. Starting with the building itself, an unusual tour will take place that highlights processes and spaces of preservation, conservation and maintenance. ARCH+, together with the project partners Akademie der Künste, ETH Zurich and the University of Luxembourg, is continuing the discussion that it began as part of the curator collective of the German contribution to this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale (with Summacumfemmer, Büro Juliane Greb).

At the project’s core is the realisation that the current economic system, with its focus on innovation, growth and progress, and the underlying logic of consumption, utilisation and waste, has led to a ruthless exploitation of humans and nature. Architecture contributes in no small measure to this problem, as is evident by statistics on greenhouse gas emissions and construction and demolition waste. The exhibition examines to what extent repair politics and aesthetics from a postcolonial, feminist and posthuman perspective can provide a meaningful alternative. Sufficiency, longevity, solidarity, re-appropriation, plurality and care are explored as the politics of a repair society.

On the opening weekend, an extensive programme of events will be held as part of the “School of Repair” to explore individual themes of the exhibition. Two issues of ARCH+ magazine for architecture and urbanism will be published to accompany the exhibition. The first issue (ARCH+ 250 The Great Repair – Politiken der Reparaturgesellschaft, Dezember 2022) serves as a theoretical introduction to the topic, while the second introduces practices of repair and will be published on the occasion of the exhibition’s opening as a catalogue.

When it comes to the issue of sustainability, the Akademie der Künste sees itself and its various programmes as a catalyst for ideas and a mediator on the topic. With “The Great Repair”, the Akademie continues a series of events that deals with the climate and environmental crisis.

“The Great Repair” is a project by ARCH+ gGmbH in cooperation with the Akademie der Künste, the Department of Architecture of the ETH Zurich and the Faculté des Sciences Humaines, University of Luxembourg and is curated by Florian Hertweck, Christian Hiller, Markus Krieger, Alex Nehmer, Anh-Linh Ngo and Milica Topalović.

With positions by: Assemble, Kader Attia, Atelier Bow-Wow, Brenne Architekten with Jana Hainbach / TU München & HfBK Dresden and the AdK Architectural Archives, Center for Spatial Technologies, Manuel Chavajay & Samuel Cumes, Collective Architecture Studio & Ana Miljački, Santiago del Hierro with AWAI and Cabildo Inga de Mocoa, Edit, Anna Heringer, Florian Hertweck / Master Architektur, University of Luxembourg, Manuel Herz, Hans Hortig, Interboro & Richard A. Chance, Folke Köbberling & Martin Kaltwasser, Lacaton & Vassal, Mierle Laderman Ukeles curated by Bettina Knaup, Silke Langenberg, Limbo Accra, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Mapping Ukraine ETH Zurich, Material Cultures, Riccardo McAvinue / Kleine Gebäudereinigung, Sarah Nichols, Fuminori Nousaku & Mio Tsuneyama, Zara Pfeifer, Marjetica Potrč, Bas Princen, Sakiya, Mai Al-Battat, Yara Bamieh, Basel Nasr, Natasha Aruri, Sahar Qawasmi, Andreas Brück, Alexander Stumm, Paulo Tavares, Milica Topalović / Architecture of Territory ETH Zürich, UVW-SAW, Michael Wolf, ZAS* et al.

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

“The Great Repair” is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media. The workshop programme is funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education. Additional sponsors are the Wüstenrot Stiftung and the Hans Sauer Stiftung.

Exhibition information
The Great Repair

Exhibition opening: Friday, 13 October 2023, 7 pm, free admission

Exhibition duration: 14 October 2023 – 14 January 2024

Tue – Fri 2 pm - 7 pm, Sat + Sun 11 am - 7 pm

Admission: € 9/6, free admission under the age of 18, Tuesdays and every first Sunday of the month Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin Tel. 030 200 57-2000, info@adk.de

Press contact

Barbara Schindler, communication ARCH+, Tel. +49 (0)30 340 467 19, schindler@archplus.net