Chapter 10 - Curating the Anthropocene at Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt

Summary

This essay describes how the HKW (Haus der Kulturen der Welt) in Berlin was been transformed through its exploration of the Anthropocene. Originally an institution dedicated to showcasing non-European cultures, it now focuses on the new relationship between culture and the planet. The “Anthropocene-Project” began by asking how a cultural institution might approach the large-scale transformation confronting our societies? It soon became clear that the HKW must change its methods and processes. Instead of approaching the world via representations in exhibitions and talks, the HKW developed an experimental mode of active cultural production that called “curating ideas in the making.” This method combines aesthetic with scientific approaches, and reflects the fact that in the Anthropocene, knowledge production has to change: the categorical frameworks developed during the last 200 years are no longer adequate to confront the problems of the radically altered situation we find ourselves in.