Mäusebunker & Hygieneinstitut

In the exhibition "Mäusebunker & Hygieneinstitut: Experimental Setup BERLIN Ar- chitetture di G+M Hänska I Fehling + Gogel ", curated by Ludwig Heimbach, these ques- tions are negotiated on the basis of two icons of post-war modernism that are commonly attributed to "Brutalism": The demolition-threatened Central Animal Laboratories of the Free University of Berlin ("Mäusebunker") by Gerd and Magdalena Hänska (1966 - 1981) and the Institute for Hygiene and Microbiology by Fehling+Gogel (1967 - 1974), which was listed as a historical monument in the course of the debate in January 2021.

On the occasion of the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, the much-discussed exhibition of the BDA Galerie Berlin shown in Berlin in autumn 2020 has been invited by the Univer- sity of Venice (IUAV) to be presented in an expanded and updated version in the "sala es- positivo Gino Valle" of the IUAV in the worth seeing building of the Cotonificio Veneziano from 07 September to 07 October 2021.
The two buildings are presented in the context of their development in the "frontline city of Berlin" in their great difference in construction and architectural expression, which nevertheless form an "ensemble of soloists" in the Berlin urban landscape and are not only related to each other in terms of urban space, but are even connected to each other underground.
At the same time, they are to be understood as a "case study" for dealing with buildings of high design power and individuality, which can be related to the current worldwide de- bate on the "brutalist" heritage.
Alongside original plans and construction documents by the architects, contexts and cul- tural implications are associated: from pop-cultural transformations of cyberpunk, stealth and soft-edge design to bunker archaeology, landscape, aesthetics of the uncanny and the paradox of the ugly.
The documentation of the ongoing discussion process about the future of the buildings is presented as part of the continued "social sculpture" of the buildings. In this, the exhibi- tion is related to the theme of the Biennale, "How we live together". In particular, the cu- rator of the Biennale, Hashim Sarkis, calls on architects to play the role of "cordial inviter and guardian of the spatial contract".
Artistic positions by Julian Rosefeldt, Lothar Hempel, Kay Fingerle, Tracey Snelling and Andreas Fogarasi as well as works by students from KIT Karlsruhe, ETH Zurich, Bauhaus Universität Weimar, TU Berlin, Aarhus School of Architecture, ENSAP Bordeaux and the Estonian Academy of Arts open up perspectives on the possible future of buildings.