TheHaus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW[1]), in EnglishHouse of World Cultures, inBerlin is Germany'snational center for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, with a special focus on non-European cultures and societies. It presentsart exhibitions,theater anddance performances,concerts, authorreadings,films andacademic conferences onvisual art and culture. It is one of the institutions which, due to their national and international standing and the quality of their work, receive funding from the federal government as so-called "lighthouses of culture", from the Federal Minister of State for Culture and the Media as well as from the Federal Foreign Office. As a venue and collaboration partner, HKW has hosted festivals such as thetransmediale, curatorial platforms, biennials such as theBerlin Documentary Forum, and mentorship programs such as Forecast. Since 2013, its interdisciplinary elaboration on theAnthropocene discourse has included conferences, exhibitions, and other artistic formats performed together with philosophers, scientists, and arstists, such asBruno Latour andHans Joachim Schellnhuber.[2]
TheHaus der Kulturen der Welt is located in theTiergarten park, and directly neighbors theCarillon and the newGerman Chancellery.
TheInstitut für Sexualwissenschaft ofMagnus Hirschfeld occupied the grounds beforeWorld War II. In remembrance of the institut a bar inside Hause der Kulturen der Welt is named Magnus Hirschfeld Bar and a garden is named afterLili Elbe.[3]
It was formerly known as theKongresshalleconference hall, a gift from theUnited States, designed in 1957 by the American architectHugh Stubbins as a part of theInterbau, anInternational Building Exhibition. U.S. PresidentJohn F. Kennedy spoke here at a trade union meeting during his June 1963 visit toWest Berlin.[4][5] On 21 May 1980, the roof collapsed, killing aSender Freies Berlin radio station journalist and injuring numerous people.[6] The hall was rebuilt in its original style and reopened in 1987 in time for the 750-year anniversary of the founding of Berlin.
Outside the entrance,Henry Moore's heaviest bronze sculpture,Large Divided Oval: Butterfly (1985–86), stands in the middle of a water basin. Weighing nearly nine tons, it was his final major work, completed just before he died.[7] One of three public Moore sculptures in Berlin (the others beingThree Way Piece No.2: The Archer (1964–65) at theNeue Nationalgalerie andReclining Figure (1956) at theAkademie der Künste),Butterfly was initially a loan to (then West) Berlin in 1986, but the city council wanted the sculpture permanently, and asked Moore if he would donate it. The letter arrived just before his death and went unanswered. In 1988 it was sold by theHenry Moore Foundation to Berlin for 4.5 millionDeutsche Mark (around $2.58 million at the exchange rate of the day), then a huge sum for a public sculpture. The sculpture was eventually badly damaged by a combination of environmental pollution and vandalism, and restored in 2010.[8]
On 2 September 1970, the Kongresshalle was the setting for the West German heat of TV'sJeux Sans Frontières.
Typical ofBerlin's popular humor, Berliners have nicknamed the buildingDie schwangere Auster ("The pregnant Oyster")[9] or "Jimmy Carter's smile".
In 2005 the building served as an outdoor set for the science fiction action filmÆon Flux.
52°31′08″N13°21′55″E / 52.51889°N 13.36528°E /52.51889; 13.36528
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