The Gift - Großzügigkeit und Gewalt in der Architektur

In the organizer's words:

Architecture Museum of the TUM

Architectural gifts are everywhere: wealthy philanthropists finance libraries, humanitarian organizations donate emergency shelters, agricultural enterprises are supported by development aid funds, Islamic foundations finance mosques and stadiums are handed over as part of diplomatic charity campaigns. Embedded in this way in religious and imperialist traditions of giving, architectural gifts influence urbanization processes all over the world. Humanitarian, developmental and diplomatic gifts of buildings are now ubiquitous in rapidly expanding African, Asian and South American metropolises and their hinterlands. In North American and European cities, too, so-called philanthrocapitalists are investing in cultural, social and educational institutions left behind by the dwindling welfare state.

This exhibition highlights donated buildings - from the spectacular to the ordinary, from the extravagant to the genuinely useful - that reveal how the unequal relationships between giver and receiver can result in both beneficence and violence. What are the benefits of an architectural gift and how might it cause harm? We document how the giving and receiving of architecture affects the production of these buildings and how the program, design, materiality, and labor conditions of construction are affected. We consider the economic gain and political influence of the donors. We examine whether architectural gifts require quid pro quo and, if so, what constitutes such a quid pro quo gift. We explore the question of whether the respective obligations of the recipients and donors continue after the building is completed. What is the future life of a donated building and how is it accepted, maintained and used by local communities?

In collaboration with local researchers and communities, we present case studies from four continents that tell stories about the charitable and violent dynamics of gifting. These include accounts of humanitarian gifts to Skopje, North Macedonia, land gifting in Kumasi, Ghana, diplomatic gifts to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and philanthropic gifts in East Palo Alto, California, USA. At the end of the exhibition, we turn to Germany and show how philanthropy still characterizes Munich and other German cities today.

In Skopje, Ana Ivanovska Deskova is an architectural historian specializing in modern architecture, curator and associate professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Ss. Kiril i Metódij. In Kumasi, Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh works as a curator, critic and lecturer at the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. In Ulaanbaatar, Uurtsaikh Sangi and Temuulen Enkhbat are researchers at GerHub, a non-profit social innovation enterprise that addresses the most pressing issues in the so-called ger districts, informal urban areas in Mongolian cities. In East Palo Alto, documentary filmmaker Michael Levin has been working in the community for over twenty years, and Leigh House is a historic preservationist and doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA.

Curators:
Damjan Kokalevski, Dr. sc. ETH, Research Associate at the Chair of Architectural History and Curatorial Practice, Technical University of Munich
Lukasz Stanek, Ph.D., Professor of Architecture, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA

Exhibition design and research on German case studies:
Andjelka Badnjar Gojnić, Ph.D., Research Associate at the Chair of Architectural History and Curatorial Practice, Technical University of Munich

Graphic design: Wiegand von Hartmann (WVH), Munich

Exhibition of the TUM Architecture Museum in the Pinakothek der Moderne
Partner: University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA

Price information:

Free admission for children and young people under the age of 18. Free admission for members of the Freundeskreis des Architekturmuseums TUM.

Price information:

Free admission for children and young people under the age of 18. Free admission for members of the Freundeskreis des Architekturmuseums TUM.