The Broken Archive: Archival Absence

From remembering people gone missing during the Lebanese civil war to the loss of cultural heritage in Syria: in presentations and discussions, artists and activists look at non-state practices of remembrance.

European Culture of Resistance against Fascisms

At its core, Europe is an anti-fascist project. In four online workshops, young adults explore anti-fascism as well as artistic, community, digital and educational practices of resistance that could contribute to the realization of a (European) community.

Director of HKW

A new director of Haus der Kulturen der Welt will be hired for January 1, 2023. Interested persons with relevant professional experience and conceptual ideas for the future of HKW can apply on or before March 25, 2021.

The New Alphabet

Alphabets, binary code, DNA – our present-day knowledge explosion is based on breaking down the world into its smallest units; making it predictable and manipulable. The new series explores linguistic and semiotic systems between regulatory cosmos and living chaos.

Education Shock

Rethinking spaces for learning: The Education Shock exhibition and two publications take a look at the unparalleled utopias and global developments of the 1960s and 1970s and rediscover them as resources for current debates.

Education in Concrete

From clinking concrete to interventions in the school system: in the run-up to the Education Shock exhibition, students research their local school buildings together with artists. Using artistic means, they speculate about possible learning environments and have drafted a manifesto for their redesign.

Statement by the “Initiative GG 5.3 Weltoffenheit”

As representatives of public cultural and research institutions in Germany, we share a mandate from the state to promote arts and culture, historical research and democratic education and to make these accessible to the general public. Toward this end, we rely on a public sphere that welcomes controversial debates in accordance with the norms of the German constitution. At the center of our initiative lies a common struggle against antisemitism, racism, right-wing extremism and any form of violent religious fundamentalism.

HKW Friends

Free admission to exhibitions, discounted tickets for selected events, previews and looks behind the scenes: HKW Friends explore the present together and get up close to contemporary art production. Become part of the community or gift a membership!

Animism

Animism is the belief that all things in nature are animated. The 2012 exhibition by Anselm Franke suggests the revision and decolonization of the traditional understanding of animism. It can now be seen as a digital exhibition on e-flux.

Institute of the Cosmos

The ideas of the cosmists live on: In Art Without Death, HKW looked at the Russian cosmism movement, which called for immortality for the living, the resurrection of the dead and travel into space. Approaches from the exhibition and conference have now been incorporated in a digital platform that brings together historical material and contemporary essays, videos and printable 3D sculptures. The many contributors include Boris Groys, Hito Steyerl, Trevor Paglen and McKenzie Wark.

Education Shock

New Alphabet School

Schools of Tomorrow

The Whole Life: An Archive Project

The New Alphabet

From the cosmological aspects of non-Western writing systems to binary code and songs that teach the alphabet: The first volume of the series explores spoken language and its written notation between a regulatory cosmos and the chaos of life.

Listen to Lists

Lists have long provided orientation in the world of music. Playlists created by algorithms change how we listen to and discover music. What new practices and aesthetic tendencies arise? How do lists reorganize and reformat music?

Counter_Readings of the body

Human bodies appear as semiotic systems. Gazes construct and deconstruct them, determine identities, actions, power relations and communities. How can the body be removed from the firing line of these judging and derogatory glances?

Education Shock. Learning, Politics and Architecture in the 1960s and 1970s

The “Sputnik shock” of 1957 was followed by a period of unprecedented reforms, experiments and upheavals in global education. As part of the research project and the Education Shock exhibition, the publication explores the utopias of this era when – as today – the reformation of education seemed inevitable.

Gezeitendenken

What forms of political organization are possible beyond national structures? The final volume of the 100 Years of Now Library questions the nation state system, investigates how its mechanisms structure today’s world order and encourages looking beyond its boundaries.

Aby Warburg: Bilderatlas Mnemosyne – The Original

In the 1920s, Aby Warburg created his Bilderatlas Mnemosyne which in the modern art and visual studies has taken on mythical status. The volume gathers the 63 plates – newly photographed from the original images, along with essays by Roberto Ohrt, Axel Heil, Bernd Scherer, Bill Sherman and Claudia Wedepohl.

New Alphabet School

How does language influence thought? How can we develop other forms of learning and acting? From the politics of translation to practices of weaving: Speakers and workshop participants from the New Alphabet School share their questions, observations and studies on solidary practices of knowledge production on the blog.

Wörterbuch der Gegenwart

What comes after universalism? The volume uses key words such as Thing, Justice and Body to ask about ways to redesign the world linguistically and visually. With new and historical contributions by, among others, Philippe Descola, Nikita Dhawan, Liz Johnson Artur, Achille Mbembe, Sarah Sharma and Wole Soyinka.