ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the first major exhibition of the Anthropocene shown at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany from December 2014 until September 2016. Covering 1,450 square metres, the exhibition was realized in partnership with the Rachel Carson Center for the Environment and Society. Through selected topics such as urbanization, mobility, nature, evolution, food and human–machine interaction, the exhibition explores the past, present and future of humanity. Historical artefacts trace the technology that put us on the path to the Anthropocene, while current research presents the challenges we are facing today, as well as possible solutions. Artistic interpretations provide visions for the future and ask us to look at the world in new ways.
Taking the idea of the garden – visualized in the exhibition with a large flower landscape housing a participatory element – as a starting point, the chapter discusses the potential of exhibitions not only in staging and displaying, but in formulating and theorizing the Anthropocene as an analytical category. Following a brief description of the concept, layout, content and design of the exhibition, the authors focus on a few selected exhibition elements – an original object, an installation, a video, and the architecture itself – to discuss the potential of the Anthropocene for an interdisciplinary and transformative approach.
