Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and Frank-Peter Arndt, Member of the Board of Management, BMW AG, have announced that the BMW Guggenheim Lab will operate in Berlin from May 24 to July 29, 2012. The four-person Lab Team for Berlin—an international group of experts and innovators—also was announced. Berlin is the second stop in the Lab’s nine-city tour, which premiered in New York earlier this year.
Berlin Lab Team. Photo: Maria Nicanor © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2011
The BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin, a combination think tank, public forum, and community center, will be located in the Pfefferberg complex in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood. Like the BMW Guggenheim Lab New York, the Berlin Lab will be housed in an innovative mobile structure designed by Tokyo-based architects Atelier Bow-Wow. The Lab is presented in collaboration with ANCB–Metropolitan Laboratory and will offer a range of free programs exploring issues confronting urban life. Programming for the Lab will be created by the newly appointed Berlin Lab Team, together with Guggenheim curator Maria Nicanor.
During its six-year run, which will conclude in late 2016, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will travel to nine cities in three successive cycles, each with its own distinct theme and architectural structure, to help raise awareness of important urban challenges and yield sustainable benefits for cities around the world. After Berlin, the Lab will travel to Mumbai, in 2012-13. – www.guggenheim.org