12 September 2008 – 5 January 2009

The Tropics. Views from the Middle of the Globe

Twenty years after the trailblazing show Les Magiciens de la Terre in Paris the “Art from the Tropics” exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau is once again attempting to explore in troubled times the currents of energy and subtle discords between the hemispheres, to show which cultural forces are working in harmony and which in opposition to one another. The exhibition aims to create an incorruptible, crisis-resistant stock of images that permits a non-hierarchical view of the world.

The general idea is to re-aestheticize the subject of the tropics, not to look at them from a political and economic viewpoint for once, but to concentrate on culture as a counterweight. Instead of one-dimensional debates on poverty (or hunger, or violence, or political crises) or crass generalizations we are offered a glimpse of the artistic complexity and aesthetic richness of the tropics in a way that promises to change the terms of the North-South dialogue. This will free the South from the trap of always being seen in a bad light, while the North’s insistence on explaining the world in economic terms can be put into proportion, thus paving the way for a genuinely cosmopolitan and multi-perspective view of the world in the Humboldtian sense. So the exhibition is a way station on the road to the Humboldt Forum, which in future will invite the non-European cultures to a dialogue with the European masterpieces on the Museumsinsel here in the heart of Berlin.

Address

Martin-Gropius-Bau
Niederkirchnerstrasse 7
10963 Berlin Kreuzberg
phone +49 30 25 48 60
http://www.gropiusbau.de

Opening Hours

Wednesday-Monday 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Within 10 days
starting exhibitions
ending exhibitions