The Haus der Kulturen der Welt presents Der Traum vom Fliegen – The Art of Flying open 4 March–8 May 2011.
This spring, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt is devoting a big exhibition to humankind’s greatest desire: the dream of flying. The exhibition Der Traum vom Fliegen – The Art of Flying connects knowledge from technology, biology and science history with culture historical, sociological, and ethnological findings. The curators, Thomas Hauschild and Britta N. Heinrich propose the following thesis: “All human beings possess basic mental and corporal faculties, from the dream of flighing to the physical conditions required for its fulfilment.”
Der Traum vom Fliegen – The Art of Flying. © Stefan Hartmaier/Gustav Mesmer Stiftung
The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through time and space—from the Montgolfière to the oldest and most valuable Shaman’s cloak in Europe, from model jet planes to prehistoric spearheads—and seeks answers to the question of whether human technology has fulfilled all of humanity’s ancient dreams. Visitors can experience for themselves the fantasy of flight, by trying out a space trainer for astronauts or by learning elementary aspects of the bird’s eye view and the technology of flight through playful experiments among many other things.
On top of the exhibition the HKW offers programs for children and teens. In the Flight Laboratory children and teenagers can look for answers to this question in a series of activities and experiments. Under the guidance and supervision of artists, they can follow their own imaginations in their quest for the “Dream of Flying”. What aids—fictitious or real—make floating and gliding possible? What’s the best way to build the perfect model plane?
Contemporary works of art comment on this line of argument. The contributing artists are:
David Altmejd, John L. Carroll, Lisa D / Franz Schmuck / Wilfried Prantner / Sukandar Kartadinata, Julius Deutschbauer, Tomas Fitzel, Roland Fuhrmann, Carsten Höller, Andy Hope 1930, Res Ingold, Werner Neuhaus, Christoph Niemann, Michael Oppitz, Chi Peng, Christina Maria Pfeifer, Antonio Riello, Anina Schenker, Eva Tappe, Florian Thalhofer, Young Timothy Dempsey Tjungurrayi
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication, “Von Vogelmenschen, Piloten und Schamanen”, edition Azur, edited by Thomas Hauschild, as well as a lecture program, featuring Michael Oppitz, Wolfram Voigtländer and Karsten Mühlenfeld.
Der Traum vom Fliegen – The Art of Flying
Curators: Thomas Hauschild and Britta N. Heinrich
Co-curators: Jörg Potthast and Viktoria Tkacsyk
Exhibition architecture: Hansjörg Hartung
Der Traum vom Fliegen – The Art of Flying is supported by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Federal Culture Foundation)
and kindly sponsored by
Rolls-Royce Deutschland I Deutsche Lufthansa AG I Global Sunshine Livecommunication GmbH I
B + P Gerüstbau I Potsdamer Feuerwerk Vertriebs GmbH I Berlin-Brandenburg Aerospace Allianz
(BBAA e.V.) Recaro I airliners.de I Berlin Airports
The Haus der Kulturen der Welt is supported by the State Minister at the Federal Chancellery for Culture and Media on the basis of a resolution adopted by the Deutscher Bundestag and by the Federal Foreign Office.
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin, Germany
www.hkw.de