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Review

Brandlhuber+ Hertweck, Mayfried

The Dialogic City : Berlin wird Berlin

The autumn of 2015 marks the second collaborative project between four of Berlin’s leading art institutions: Berlinische Galerie, Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, and Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin will present a total of four thematically related and coinciding exhibitions.

The exhibition The Dialogic City : Berlin wird Berlin, planned by Brandlhuber+ Hertweck, Mayfried, reveals perspectives of dialogic behavior in the city in seven chapters; the publication of the same name provides its central point of departure. Going beyond the rudiments of participation, possibilities for combining seemingly irreconcilable differences are sketched from various points of view. The first issue of Dialogic City is dedicated to Berlin, where these antagonisms are more extreme than elsewhere.

Following the subject matter of the publications chapters, seven comments will be installed in the large exhibition room of the Berlinische Galerie. The presentation comprises about 500 models from the Berlinische Galeries architectural collection; in its capacity as federal state museum for architecture, the gallery stores the documentation and models of Berlin building competitions. Due to a lack of funds and manpower, only a small part of the material has been digitalized so far. The exhibition addresses this problem by  transporting the models from the depot to the exhibition room. An important part of museum work that is usually hidden from the public eye thus becomes visible. On the one hand, the models help to imagine an alternative Berlin, which may be reconstructed on the basis of the competition entries; on the other, they illustrate a history of ideas that continues also in its unimplemented form and which may be used as a source of inspiration for present-day debates about the city.

The exhibition trailer