The logo The Gift
Exhibition room 1
Exhibition room
Photo: Ulrike Myrzik
Exhibition room 1
Exhibition room
Photo: Ulrike Myrzik
Exhibition room 2
Exhibition room
Photo: Ulrike Myrzik
Ausstellungsraum 3
Exhibition room
Photo: Ulrike Myrzik

The GiftDuration: February 29, 2024 – September 8, 2024| Opening: February 28, 2024 at 7 pm

Stories of Generosity and Violence in Architecture

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

Achitectural gifts are everywhere: libraries funded by wealthy philanthropists, shelters donated by humanitarian organizations, farms paid for with development grants, mosques financed by Islamic foundations, and stadiums handed over as part of diplomatic charm offensives. Embedded in religious and imperial traditions of gift-giving, architectural gifts shape the urbanization process across the world. Humanitarian, developmentalist, and diplomatic building-gifts have become ubiquitous in rapidly expanding African, Asian, and South American metropolises and their hinterlands. In North American and European cities, philanthrocapitalists invest in cultural, social, and educational facilities passed down by the dwindling welfare state.

This exhibition features gifted buildings—from spectacular to mundane, from extravagant to genuinely useful—that show how the unequal relationship between the giver and the receiver results in both generosity and violence exerted by and through architecture. What are the benefits of an architectural gift and how may it cause harm? We document how the giving and receiving of architecture impacts the production of these buildings, including their program, design, and materiality, as well as labor relations on the construction site. We consider the economic gains and political influence of the donors. We explore whether architectural gifts require reciprocity, and if so, what constitutes a counter-gift. We wonder if the obligations of the receiver and the giver persist after a building’s completion. What is the afterlife of a gifted building, and how is it perceived, maintained, and used by local communities?

Working with local researchers and communities, and using storytelling as a method, we present case studies on four continents to explore the generosity and violence of the gift-giving dynamic. These include stories of humanitarian gifts for Skopje, North Macedonia; the gift of land in Kumasi, Ghana; diplomatic gifts for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; and philanthropic gifts in East Palo Alto, California, USA. At the end of the exhibition, we turn to Germany, showing how philanthropy continues to shape 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, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University. In Kumasi, Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh is a curator, critic, and lecturer at the Department of Painting and Sculpture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. In Ulaanbaatar, Uurtsaikh Sangi and Temuulen Enkhbat are researchers at Ger Hub, a nonprofit social innovation firm addressing the most pressing issues in ger districts, informal urban areas in Mongolian cities. In East Palo Alto, Michael Levin is a documentarian engaged with the community for over twenty years, and Leigh House is a preservationist and Ph.D. researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA.

Curators: Damjan Kokalevski, Łukasz Stanek

Exhibition Design and Research on German Case Studies: Andjelka Badnjar Gojnić

Graphic Design: Wiegand von Hartmann (WVH), Munich

Publication

Online-Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by an online publication series on e-flux Architecture, which will be released to coincide with the opening of the exhibition. Over the course of the show, eight texts will be published including essays by GerHub on Ulaanbaatar; Ana Ivanovska and Damjan Kokalevski on Skopje; Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh and Łukasz Stanek on Kumasi; Leigh House on East Palo Alto; a conversation between museum director Andres Lepik, Co-Curator Łukasz Stanek and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, director and chief curator at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin, and more.

Click here for the online publication: www.e-flux.com/architecture/the-gift/

Introductory film

Short teaser ...

Exhibition Tour

Virtual tour through the exhibtion ...

Brochure

Brochure

You can download the brochure containing more information about the exhibition concept, here: Brochure

Guided tours accompanying the exhibition:

Orientation walk with the PdM app

QR-Code

In the Pinakothek der Moderne app you will find an orientation walk through the exhibition. You only have to download the app from the AppStore or Google Play Store!

Events accompanying the Exhibition: