Satisfyingly self-evident and sufficiently surprising: a museum that was recently forced to relocate organizes an exhibition on displacement and land speculation. “Profitopolis or the Condition of the City” at Berlin’s Werkbundarchiv is designed as a stroll. On a tour between Kottbusser Tor (old museum location) and Spittelmarkt (current interim site), urban policy issues such as environmental protection, new traffic policies, affordable housing and citizen participation are negotiated.

The end points are marked by artist Tracey Snelling’s sculptures—colorful, flickering architectural models with small videos and sound. Along the way, visitors pass the self-organized “Open Garden Moritzplatz,” the Otto Suhr housing estate sold to the “Deutsche Wohnen” group, the luxury “Fellini Residences,” the Ahornblatt restaurant demolished 25 years ago, and the long-planned Spree river pool. In addition to photos, videos and brochures, there are everyday and art objects: a submersible pump to test the Spree’s water quality, the board game “Anti-Monopoly,” an original carpenter’s hammer from 1980s squatters, the “Puddle Archive” by artist Mirja Busch—each topic has its exhibit, in line with the spirit of a “museum of things.”

The rich mix of activist works and explanatory texts, historical events and current initiatives sits on a modernist landscape of stacked storage shelves, reminiscent of the apartment blocks outside. Through the large shop windows of the Kreuzberg prefab, the demands for a socio-ecological city radiate out into the public space. On the way to the special exhibition, one passes the partly empty shelves of the open storage, moving boxes are piled up between designer chairs—the archive’s displacement following the lease cancellation by a Luxembourg real estate fund is omnipresent.

The activist walk is flanked by two wall exhibitions on the history of the Werkbund as well as the original 1970s Profitopolis exhibitions. The juxtaposition of these topics raises the question of the role institutions such as the Werkbund can play in political urban discourses. The exhibition understands to draw attention to this and motivates visitors to take a closer look. 

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