Metaxy: Between Destruction and Reconstruction

Wars, conflicts and the consequences of the climate crisis are destroying houses, cities and landscapes around the globe. Millions of people are losing their homes.

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  Feda Wardak, "Avant la Nuit", in Arbeit

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  – Lebbeus Woods War and Architecture: Transformational City Plan with SCAR Construction, 1993

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  – Ruine des Shaykh-Ya’qūb-Schreins vor seiner Rekonstruktion durch Salma Samar Damluji, Mukallā, Jemen, 2015

Rebuilding these living environments is therefore an urgent task. However, if reconstruction is reduced to a technical undertaking – as a return to normality, a supposed “zero hour” or an opportunity for capital-driven investment – we lose sight of the fact that it is not only buildings and cities that are destroyed but also social relationships, ecological structures, shared ways of life and historical contexts. The crucial questions regarding reconstruction therefore arise before any building work begins.

The project “Metaxy : Between Destruction and Reconstruction” begins precisely at this point, with an exhibition and a four-part programme of events. Metaxy, an ancient Greek word meaning “between”, refers to a space in which the past and the future, memory and new beginnings, as well as loss and hope, coexist. Reconstruction does not mean a return to a previous state but rather the uncovering of connections that have been torn apart.

Taking the Akademie building on Hanseatenweg as a prime example of post-1945 reconstruction, the exhibition presents an exploration of the colonial and Nazi history of Berlin’s Hansaviertel district and perspectives from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Israel, Palestine, Poland, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen and the USA. The exhibition architecture itself is the project’s largest exhibit: It superimposes the site’s former buildings on today’s exhibition halls. This 1:1-scale palimpsest makes the history of the site tangible through the in-between space.

An event space forming part of the exhibition provides a venue for discussions, talks and artistic and musical performances. An educational programme featuring guided tours and lecture-performance walks, as well as a special issue of the magazine ARCH+, explores the exhibition’s themes in greater depth.

Participating artists and spatial practitioners

Hala Alnaji, Archigrest, Marina Tabassum Architects, Maja Bajević, Karim Bingöl, Centre for Documentary Architecture, Kees Christiaanse, Tiffany Chung, Co-Haty, Salma Samar Damluji, Nir Evron, Ola Hassanain, Paul Hübner, Anton Kolomyeytsev, Omer Krieger, V. Mitch McEwen, megouem, Kioomars Musayyebi, Marina Naprushkina/Neue Nachbarschaft Moabit, Open Group, Ute Richter, Sasha Marianna Salzmann, Immanuel Schumacher, Arinjoy Sen, Nurit Stark, Syrbanism, topoScape, Feda Wardak, Eyal Weizman, Ines Weizman, Julita Wójcik, Lebbeus Woods, Ina Wudtke

“Metaxy: Between Destruction and Reconstruction” is a project by the Academy of Arts in collaboration with ARCH+. As part of Berlin Art Week 2026

Runtime: Thu, 10/09/2026 to Sun, 06/12/2026

Takes place here:

• Akademie der Künste - Hanseatenweg