Metaxy : Between Destruction and Reconstruction Exhibition - Guided Tour

Wars, conflicts, and the consequences of the climate crisis are destroying homes, cities, and landscapes worldwide. Millions of people are losing their homes. Rebuilding these living spaces is therefore an urgent task. However, if reconstruction is reduced to a technical project—as a return to order, a supposed “zero hour,” or an opportunity for capital-driven investment—it obscures the fact that it is not only buildings and cities that are destroyed, but also social relationships, ecological structures, communal ways of life, and historical contexts. The crucial questions of reconstruction therefore arise before any building even begins.

This is where the project “Metaxy: Between Destruction and Reconstruction” comes in, with an exhibition and a four-part program of events.

Metaxy, the ancient Greek word for “between,” refers to a space in which the past and the future, memory and new beginnings, as well as loss and hope, are all simultaneously at play. Reconstruction does not mean a return to a previous state, but rather the uncovering of the destroyed connections.

Taking the Academy building on Hanseatenweg—an exemplary site of post-1945 reconstruction—as its starting point, the exhibition traces the colonial and Nazi history of Berlin’s Hansaviertel and presents perspectives from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Israel, Yemen, Palestine, Poland, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and the United States. The largest exhibit is the exhibition architecture itself: it traces the floor plan of the site’s former buildings. This 1:1-scale palimpsest makes the history of the place spatially tangible through the “in-between.”

An event space, which is part of the exhibition, invites visitors to participate in discussions, lectures, and artistic and musical performances.

An educational program featuring guided tours and lecture-performance walks, as well as an issue of the magazine ARCH+, explores the exhibition’s themes in greater depth.

Participating artists and spatial practitioners:

Hala Alnaji, Archigrest, Marina Tabassum Architects, Maja Bajević, Karim Bingöl, Centre for Documentary Architecture, Kees Christiaanse, Tiffany Chung, Co-Haty, Salma Samar Damluji, Nir Evron, Ola Hassanain, Paul Hübner, Anton Kolomyeytsev, Omer Krieger, V. Mitch McEwen, megouem, Kioomars Musayyebi, Marina Naprushkina/Neue Nachbarschaft Moabit, Open Group, Ute Richter, Sasha Marianna Salzmann, Immanuel Schumacher, Arinjoy Sen, Nurit Stark, Syrbanism, topoScape, Feda Wardak, Eyal Weizman, Ines Weizman, Julita Wójcik, Lebbeus Woods, Ina Wudtke

Exhibition Design:

Zita Leutgeb, Olivier Therrien

Curators:

Anh-Linh Ngo, Johanna M. Keller, Christian Hiller, Felix Hofmann, Markus Krieger, Daniel Kuhnert, Melissa Makele

Project Director, Academy of Arts, Architecture Section:

Annette Maechtel

Metaxy: Interludes

The musical-performative INTERLUDES are a standalone format within “Metaxy: Between Destruction and Reconstruction.” They bridge the exhibition and the program, opening up new forms of perception.

An ensemble led by Immanuel Schumacher (concept and percussion), Karim Bingöl (percussion and voice), Paul Hübner (trumpet), Kioomars Musayyebi (santur), and Nurit Stark (violin and viola) moves through the exhibition and event spaces. Musical interludes and performative segments pick up on conversations and situations, shift the perspective on the exhibition, and create transitions between individual program items. The four musicians work at the intersection of interpretation, composition, performance, and improvisation.

The INTERLUDES will take place during the events on the following days without a specific time being announced in advance:

• Opening: September 9, starting at 6:30 p.m.
• Metaxy, September 10, 6–9 p.m.
• Häuser, September 11, 6:00–9:00 p.m.
• Böden, October 13, 6:00–9:00 p.m.
• Zeiten: December 6, 12:00–3:00 p.m.