Daniel Libeskind Exhibition at Goethe Institut in DC

Exhibition “Architecture for the Angel of History” showcases architect’s buildings in Germany and New York.

World-renowned American architect Daniel Libeskind designs buildings of great significance and innovative thought. Some of his most well-known works are in Germany, where Libeskind designed, among others, the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Military History Museum in Dresden. An exhibition of photographs of these and other buildings, accompanied by texts describing the symbolic import of the design elements, is on display at the Goethe-Institut in Washington DC from June 1 through August 31, 2012.

Even before its opening in September 2001, the Jewish Museum was overwhelmed with its success. With over 8 million visitors from 40 countries, it has become the most visited cultural attraction in Berlin. What the architecture attempts to express externally is also the content of the museum: the broken history of the Jews in Germany, the horrors of the Holocaust, and what can be learned from this.

Libeskind’s extension to Dresden’s Military History Museum dramatically interrupts the building’s symmetry, its massive, five-story wedge of concrete and steel slicing through the center of the 135-year-old original structure. The new façade’s openness and transparency pushes through the opacity and rigidity of the existing building just as German democracy pushed aside the country’s authoritarian past. The museum’s redesign creates the setting for a reconsideration of that past in a city annihilated by allied bombing at the end of WWII. Inside the wedge, a viewing platform provides breathtaking views of the city as it is today, while the wedge itself points towards the area where the firebombing of Dresden began, creating a dramatic space for reflection.

Each of Daniel Libeskind’s iconic buildings in Germany gives tangible shape to German and Jewish history. Each of these nationally significant buildings renews the basis for coming together, exchanging reflections, and living together. Through his work, Daniel Libeskind has crafted the Culture of Memory into stone. Thanks to his work, sorrow, memory, and hope have been given form and expression.

The exhibition opened on May 9, Europe Day, which recalls the victory over the Nazi regime and the beginnings of a new, peaceful Europe, and was organized in conjunction with a visit by Daniel Libeskind to Washington to be recognized by the American Institute of Architects for his work in orchestrating rebuilding initiatives and designing the memorials following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Made possible with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America.

More: www.goethe.de/washington

Gallery hours: Monday to Thursday 9 to 5; Friday 9 to 3.

Address:
812 Seventh St. NW
Washington, DC 20001
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
202-289-1200

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