In their works, Marthe Howitz and Wenke Seemann examine the phenomenon of prefabricated slab construction; the two artists address its origins and characteristic features in very different ways. Both view the East German prefabricated districts as utilitarian architecture in the tradition of modernism and as the urban planning heritage of a vanished country; they also inquire into the role of these buildings as a projection surface for narratives of social growth and decline and as spheres of biographical experience. 

The exhibition, curated by Bernhard Draz, juxtaposes photomontages, collages and video works from Seemann’s series ARCHIVDIALOGE #1 – Bauplan Zukunft (Archive Dialogues #1 – Floorplan Future) with Howitz’s ceramic work Aufbau Ost, a 200-piece modular sculpture of a typical WBS70 apartment block. Together, the works create a space that offers a new perspective on the transformation of the East German model city and negotiates the existing continuities, ambivalences and contradictions in aesthetic ways.