The Haus der Kulturen der Welt in 2012

Time for a rethink. In 2011, the wave of protests that began a year ago on Tahrir Square in Cairo, the events in Fukushima and the financial crisis showed just how decisively global connections affect our lives. It has become clear that the big global questions are no longer necessarily being asked in Europe, not to mention being answered exclusively by the western world. In 2012, Haus der Kulturen der Welt turns its focus to the political, relying on the ability of art to develop and hone a keen sense of contemporary developments. Exhibitions, festivals and theme days reveal the power of pictures, how stories can be told in different ways and what areas of action are available beyond the western cultural industry.

In January, exactly one year after the Tunisian revolution, the festival “Meeting Points 6” brings together Arab artists to explore the logic and practices of civic society in the Arab world. In February, the theme days “Global Prayers” investigate how religious movements can change everyday life, societies and economies in the world’s metropolises. In the spring, the “Berlin Documentary Forum“ addresses the documentary as a means of historical and political analysis. We approach the political through artistic means. It is not our intention to illustrate political statements but to place our trust in the capacity of art to act as a seismograph of social change.

In 2012, HKW investigates the question of how art can make visible and tangible what normally remains hidden in conventional forms of portrayal and traditional perspectives. The exhibition “Animism” explores the language of Western modernity and reveals how complex demarcations are in modern worldviews. The “Berlin Documentary Forum“ investigates forms of portrayal in the media, art and photography and their ability to create truth and authenticity. Catherine David’s exhibition “A Blind Spot” goes beneath the surface of images with the aim of revealing the openness and indeterminacy of the photographic picture.

Taking the architecture of the former congress hall as a starting point, the exhibition “Art, Architecture and Ideology” looks at the value systems that determine the spaces in which we live and work, and what alternative designs might be possible and/or desirable. The artists involved in “Labor Berlin” and the artistic and academic city researchers behind “Global Prayers” also reveal the deep-seated structures of society. Hence, in 2012, HKW is developing an archeology of the present.

Film festivals such as “Busan Film Festival“ and “Première Brasil“ acknowledge the new role of emerging industrialized nations. “Wassermusik Süd-Süd“ explores the interrelationships between the countries of the south through music, films and discussions.

Questions of the future have always been and remain the focus of “Über Lebenskunst” , the initiative for culture and sustainability we have been jointly developing with Kulturstiftung des Bundes since 2010. Our new long-term project “Aufbruch ins Anthropozän“ (“Departure to the Anthropocene”) is in a similar vein. From 2012 to 2014, this extensive project will carry out fundamental cultural research at the interface of culture, academia and technology.