Picture: Annabelle Handke
The presentation for the 100th anniversary of the Märkisches Museum explored Berlin’s cultural history over the last hundred years from the perspective of one technical innovation: the invention of artificial light. Artificial light brought changes, illumination and a fresh dramaturgy to the city – its influence remains decisive even today. Making reference to the pre-history of lighting systems and undertaking excursions into the contemporary urban lighting scene, the exhibition offered a diverse cultural and historical panorama of Berlin and a wide spectrum of technological development. In addition, it included artistic light installations and interventions inside and outside the Märkisches Museum.
For the exhibition in the listed historical building of the Märkisches Museum, which architect Ludwig Hoffmann (1862-1933) originally intended as a museum for daylight displays only, more than 1,000 exhibits from all categories were arranged partly within the museum’s historical scenography and partly in newly staged spaces (of light). The demands made on the scenography included the wide variety of objects and themes on the one hand, and the design of a cautiously modern exhibition world within the old walls of the Märkisches Museum on the other. Light artists Christina Kubisch, Günter Ries, Susanne Rottenbacher, Ulrike Helms and Jan Köchermann provided works for the great hall, the foyers, various interim spaces, and the “Rittersaal”.