KOSMOS @ taz

Interview

Felix Hofmann
In 2015, together with Uta Belkius and Notker Schweikhardt, you suggested that the Humboldt Forum façade for which no donors could yet be acquired for the baroque design should be overgrown with a jungle. How did this debate come about? What possibilities – in terms of content and design – were still open?

Elizabeth Sikiaridi & Frans Vogelaar
We developed Humboldt Jungle when the funding for the Humboldt Forum’s baroque façade, which was actually supposed to be funded by the Berliner Schloss Förderverein, had not yet been secured.

As an alternative to the planned stone façade, we proposed a jungle-like planting of the façade and roof. It was already clear at the time that an urban heat island with little greenery would be created at this location. It is very important to us to think culture and nature together. A Humboldt Jungle with plants from all over the world would also be a visible reference to the non-European collections inside the building. After all, we also wondered whether the explorer, naturalist and sustainability pioneer Alexander von Humboldt would feel at home in a castle mock-up…

We sought contact with the Humboldt Forum right from the start. In 2015, we presented our project together with Berlin MP Notker Schweikhardt and his collaborator Uta Belkius at an event with representatives of the Forum. Mr. von Boddien, who was present at this meeting, said that the image of the Humboldt Jungle was too appealing “not to feel compelled to immediately argue against it”.

In 2019, the Humboldt Jungle was discussed in the Bundestag. In response to the BÜNDNIS 90 / DIE GRÜNEN parliamentary group asking “what the current status of plans to install greenery on the façade, a so-called Humboldt Jungle” was, the Federal Government replied that “all façades of the Humboldt Forum have been completed as planned and that no further measures are planned for the façades”.

Felix Hofmann
What was the debate about the palace at that time?

Elizabeth Sikiaridi & Frans Vogelaar
Ten years ago, there was already great unease in Berlin’s civil society and among cultural professionals about the demolition of the Palace of the Republic, the looming dummy palace and the missed opportunities to construct a contemporary cultural building. At the same time, however, there was a Bundestag resolution.

With our project, we wanted to reinterpret the site and thus contribute to its appropriation. The press also responded very positively to our counter-proposal as a “wake-up call” (taz) to “save the Humboldt Forum” (Die Zeit).

Felix Hofmann
Since Humboldt Jungle, you continued to engage with the site and its programming.

Elizabeth Sikiaridi & Frans Vogelaar
When it became clear that the baroque façade would be built – even if it meant using taxpayers’ money – we developed in 2016 a new proposal: the Humboldt Volcano, a greenhouse pavilion with a botanical garden and vertical water element. Native trees and shrubs are to grow on the outside of the Humboldt Volcano and plants from all over the world on the inside. The Volcano marks the entrance to the Forum and a path leads from the subway to the roof, which is currently barely accessible. Our proposal would give the palace a more extravert contemporary face, radiating into the city. The Humboldt Volcano is an elaborate architectural design proposal that we believe could solve many of the problems of the Humboldt Forum and could be realized in the near future.

Felix Hofmann
And how do you deal with the Humboldt Forum as a result?

Elizabeth Sikiaridi & Frans Vogelaar
Next to our Humboldt Forum projects, we work internationally on interventions that open up and reinterpret controversial places, such as the reinterpretation and transformation of the cenotaph of the dictator Franco in the “Valle de los Caídos” (Valley of the Fallen) near Madrid or the Korean Demilitarized Zone. We use the potential of the outsiders’ position to develop new perspectives on seemingly unresolvable conflict situations, which has also proved helpful in other historical cases.

This outsiders’perspective – we are both migrants – also characterizes the approach in our Humboldt Forum projects. It gives us the freedom to refer to other German traditions that oppose the palace and its power structures. Rather, our references are elements of German culture that are imbued with an anarchist and independent spirit, ecological concerns and a sense of adventure, such as Alexander von Humboldt’s discoveries and ideas or the glass buildings of architect Bruno Taut.

For us, the Humboldt Forum is much more than just a place where the conflicts of German history come together. It is a forum in which culture is negotiated and developed further. The Dutch journalist and art historian Merlijn Schoonenboom wrote in his book “Ein Palast für die Republik: Eine kleine Geschichte der großen deutschen Suche nach Identität“ (“A Palace for the Republic – A Brief History of the Great German Search for Identity”), that our Humboldt Forum projects provide an answer to the most pressing question of contemporary cultural identity: the search for a balance between tradition and innovation.

Felix Hofmann
What should a Humboldt Forum achieve from your perspective? What is your vision for the site today?

Elizabeth Sikiaridi & Frans Vogelaar
The mission of the Humboldt Forum is to create an agora for global cultural dialog. We find that very promising. But why should this ambition be limited to just one central location in Berlin? It would make more sense to pursue a forward-looking approach that focuses on decentralized interaction in order to take account of the diversity of global society.

We should make use of the current and emerging possibilities of mobility and digitalization. We are therefore currently developing the Humboldt KOSMOS project on the basis of a digital twin of the Humboldt Forum, a hybrid gaming environment with small internationally traveling stations. Humboldt KOSMOS could facilitat transcultural exchange and help negotiate the diverse conflict situations surrounding today’s Forum and its practices. We launched the project together with the Gamelab of the Berlin Humboldt University with an international workshop at the beginning of this year.

While Humboldt Jungle formulated a vision for the rewilding of the Forum and Humboldt Volcano developed an elaborate architectural design solution, Humboldt COSMOS is the third part of our triptych. A fictional universe based on the Humboldt Forum that opens up a multitude of possible futures. Humboldt KOSMOS is also a prototype for innovative cultural spaces dedicated to global interaction, an experimentation field for the future of museums and cultural institutions, and an exchange platform to promote desirable shared natural-cultural futures. The aim is to foster an innovative ecosystem of international cooperation that could be relevant in dealing with the complexities of today’s globalized world and tackling the planetary environmental crisis.

Felix Hofmann
Were you surprised by far-right donors?

Elizabeth Sikiaridi & Frans Vogelaar
We are not surprised by far-right donors. We are in a time of perma-crisis. We therefore find it important – also with our Humboldt Forum projects – to contribute to opening up spaces of possibility. We believe that creatives have the imagination and skills to develop visions and design new narratives in order to open up potential for positive change. And we see this as our responsibility. This is also the driving force behind Humboldt KOSMOS, a hybrid co-creative gaming platform where people and communities around the world can work together to tackle challenges and create desirable futures.