Humboldting! [2021-2026]

created/curated by Darren O’Donnell and Alice Flemming
selected artists for October 2024-February 2025: Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim

Project Description:

Inspired by Alexander von Humboldt’s five-year expedition to America, 30 school pupils from Berlin’s Märkisches Viertel are setting off on a five-year voyage of discovery around the Humboldt Forum. Their journey will be completely in the spirit of the Humboldt brothers: courageous, creative and full of the joy of discovery. 10 international artists/groups for 6-months at a time work closely with the students from the age of 13 to the age of 18—all while they engage in large-scale research and creation at Berlin’s Humboldt Forum.

This ambitious project is the most recent advocacy for the kind of work that Darren and Alice have been leading since 2006 wherein the agency and political interests of young people are placed at the core of the conversation. How can we expect adults to be critical and politically-engaged citizens and community members when they’ve been deprived of that which would give them power from an early age?

During the 10 day introductory residency in June 2022, the visiting artists conducted preliminary research into the Humboldts, the museums inside the Forum, spent time with the students, and prototyped ideas: Students sold found-ephemera in the Forum gift shop, modified relief drawings, interviewed the upper management of the institution, and played a massive game of capture the flag through the building while avoiding priceless artefacts (this was our doing).

The Humboldt Forum:

Opened in December 2020, the Humboldt Forum is one of Europe’s most expensive cultural projects. Located in the Berlin Palace in the historic centre of Berlin and named in honour of Prussian scholars, the Humboldt Forum houses four distinct museums dedicated to human history, art and culture, including the non-European collections of the Berlin State Museums, temporary exhibitions, and public events.

For more information about the project, visit The Humboldt Forum