The Berlin World Improvement Machine
dal 22/8/2013 al 19/10/2013
Segnalato da
22/8/2013
The Berlin World Improvement Machine
Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
In the Berlin-based collections, seventy artefacts, which are to be components of the machine, are identified by supplementary exhibit texts. A treasure map guides visitors to the objects, which are housed in fifteen Berlin museums.
Since the seventeenth century, a secret plan has existed in different European metropolises to build a world improvement machine. This is based on the assumption that the correct arrangement of certain works of arts and artefacts as part of an architectural superstructure would release a powerful force. The idea stimulated fantasies of absolute power as well as enlightenment-inspired demands to improve the world.
The Prussian state, too, did not want to fall behind in the European competition and thus founded the Academy of the Arts (1696), the Academy of the Sciences (1700), and later the Royal Museums of Berlin (from 1830). Their primary assignment was to build this machine. The academies devoted themselves to scientific and artistic research, the museums collected the components that were thought to be necessary. When work on the world improvement machine was stopped in the late nineteenth century, the secret project fell into oblivion.
Now this historical world improvement machine is being critically reconstructed. In the Berlin-based collections, seventy artefacts, which are to be components of the machine, are identified by supplementary exhibit texts. A treasure map guides visitors to the objects, which are housed in fifteen Berlin museums, including the GermanHistoricalMuseum, the Old National Gallery, and the Museum of Natural History. In addition, a ten-meter-high pyramid-shaped model of the world improvement machine will be on display at the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin and two accompanying publications will be published by Merve Verlag.
The BERLIN WORLD IMPROVEMENT MACHINE is a cooperation between the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, the Museum of Natural History Berlin, the German Historic Museum, the Junge Akademie and the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg with funding from the Schering Foundation.
Image: The Berlin World Improvement Machine, Reconstruction (Merosteelscaffold) in front of the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin © Projektbüro Friedrich von Borries
Press Contact
Anne Schäfer-Junker tel: +49-(0)30 266 423409 E-Mail: a.schaefer-junker@smb.spk-berlin.de
Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart
Invalidenstraße 50-51 10557 Berlin
Opening Hours:
Tue 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Wed 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Thu 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Fri 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sat 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sun 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Mon closed
Adult 8,- Eurodiscounted admission 4,- Euro