It is a wonderful idea that Alex Lehnerer and Savvas Ciriacidis have realized in the German Pavilion: The Bonn Chancellery building, virtually implanted in the much-hated pavilion in the Giardini. In an interview with me, the two made it clear in advance what they are not interested in. They are not interested in a normative celebration of the old Federal Republic. “Our exhibition has nothing to do with nostalgia,” they say. Instead, their installation will above all make it clear that the Bonn Republic was not the end of history for Germany and that today’s Germany is not Bonn-Germany plus a few more federal states. We constantly see this in political discussions. A new responsibility for Germany is constantly being proclaimed or demanded. And even if we don’t see this, we have to deal with these expectations. The expectations themselves are part of our identity. Even a “no” to proactive influence in Ukraine, for example, changes this country – just like the international political stage as a whole.
What kind of country do we actually want to live in? That is the question that can no longer be ignored. It is a question to which we find it difficult to find an answer. But it is important. Only against its background is it possible to take an appropriate stance on many construction projects, such as the new BND headquarters in Berlin or the Stuttgart train station construction mess. Are we, for example, still the land of joyful high technology? Does this image shape our identity? If so, then Stuttgart 21 would have a meaning other than purely practical and logistical. And in the case of the BND building, the question arises as to whether we expect our institutions (such as intelligence services) to perform an act of social sensitivity, which then also means urban sensitivity.
The fact that we have not yet answered these questions has led to a certain confusion in Germany today. This can be felt everywhere. On the internet platform Facebook, the architect Volker Eich is currently posting picture series at irregular intervals (and only visible to his “friends”) that are supposed to provide imaginative answers to gigantic philosophical questions such as “Who are we”. Of course they don’t. But the permanent virtual presence of the questions is not without effect, at least for me.
And the installation in the German Pavilion will certainly not remain without effect. It will be interesting to see whether it at least triggers discussions that lead to a greater degree of clarity about our understanding of this, still quite new, republic as a result of the Biennale. It would be desirable.
Baumeister’s coverage of the Biennale is supported by FSB.
Photo: Federal Government / Lothar Schaack