You get in for free with a secret code. The day I visit, this tacit agreement between curators and activists is redeemed for the first time; two young men in worn-out shoes and cargo pants inspect “Protest Architecture” at the DAM.

In a first room, an original bridge from a protest camp simulates the dizzying sensation of traversing wooden planks high above the ground. Adjacent, a 1000-square-meter gallery chronicles camps around the world through hand-drawn diagrams, photos, captions, texts. Model-railwayesque miniatures beckon with the saccharine coziness of a candy cane world—one of the show’s challenges: how to pick objects without glamorizing or exploiting but also without falling flat inside the massive gallery. 

It is a text-heavy show that is, at the same time, driven by images. Strong visuals dominate, some heartbreaking, others whimsical, many infuriating. 

Exhibitions usually abide by tight deadlines and deliveries. An install plan is part of the elaborate orchestration of trades—soothing certainties the curators abandoned in favor of last minute trial-and-error-tactics. In a DIY spirit, the DAM’s rough temporary quarters are cluttered with leftover wall systems, chipboards, table legs; some are held together by straps to create A-frames; others topple over, vaguely resembling anti-tank obstacles. A one-fits-all poster format serves photo murals, texts, drawings. The chronology of protests is wallpapered onto walls and windows; sheets partly peel off or slowly sag toward the floor; creases and crinkles are the marks of aging. 

The show partakes in the absurd (anti-)authoritarian theater of modern-day protests. In a conscious disregard of one of the more hallowed rules of journalism and curating its makers entered the story to solicit assistance from police in executing a loan agreement for a protest dwelling in the mining town of Lützerath, threatened by demolition. A letter requesting administrative assistance exposes the purported innocence of bureaucracy vis-a-vis the police brutality on show nearby. 

This show elicits strong emotions. But maybe that’s a lesson to be learned here: sometimes it’s impossible to stay neutral or on the sidelines.

tf.