Project Description
migrantopolis
A Project by raumlaborberlin
(Benjamin Förster-Baldenius and
Florian Stirnemann) with Thomas Quack,
Violeta Burckhardt Razeto, Maria Garcia Perez, Manfred Eccli, Matyas Cigler, Jan Theiler, Neo Müller
In Collaboration with (Exhibitiongraphic)
BonBon (Valeria Bonin, Diego Bontognali)
(Videoinstallation)Gary Hurst
Exhibition Design for the Exhibition
“Migration and Diversity in Germany today”
for “Deutsche Hygiene Museum in Dresden”
This exhibition dissects the concept of immigration. Immigrants are not just needy and job-seeking people, but people, who are moulding our everyday life and contributing to the wealth of our country. Immigrants are therefore people who we need. Spanning 700 square meters, subdivided into three rooms, raumlaborberlin has used the metaphor of the city in general as the main protagonist. The basic architecture of the exhibition consists exclusively of transport crates, some of them were newly built, but most of them with visible traces of their previous usage. Room 1 depicts the arrival, Room 2 narrates the settling down, while Room 3 presents the gains for society. As people, the crates have widely travelled. In Room 1 they create a skyline, mounted with longed-for destinations, that are constructed from local packaging materials.
As an example, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul was build out of Ayran-packaging. Piled-up toy building bricks have been used to illustrate the statistics of worldwide immigration. In the second room, the crates are well-ordered resembling the structures of buildings. Here they can find some of the most recognisable places which define the city. There is a parliament, a school, a museum, a temple, several shops and a market place. Raumlabor also created installations on the market tables elucidating economic anecdotes. Room 3, the last room, again reuses the crates in a different way. All of them are newly assembled, their arrangement based on a more notional approach. Through video projections the spectators are asked questions relating to immigration and future of people living in our society.
