This exhibition features a dialog between two artistic positions that are dedicated to cross-disciplinary research and thinking and creative experimentation at the interface between architecture, design, art, biology, and natural and cultural history.

In his unpublished book project Magic Architecture, the artist-architect Frederick Kiesler (1890-1965) traced a history of human habitation through the ages, from prehistory to the nuclear era. In doing so, he also established a connection between the building techniques of humans and animals, on the basis of which he developed his understanding of “magic architecture [as] an architecture for everyone” that mediates between dream and reality and addresses the pressing problems of human existence after a period of global destruction.

In her artistic and research work, Berlin-based Kerstin Stoll investigates the construction and the materials of structures built by animals as well as the use of natural materials in traditional forms built by humans. Stoll’s series of works Habitat updates Kiesler’s historical book project. By taking the mud nests of the potter wasp, the woven nests of the weaverbird, and mounds constructed by termites, and by transforming these with the help of 3D-scanners and porcelain printers, she questions the potential political meanings of such structures in today’s world against the background of its evolving ecosystem, stagnating biodiversity, and disappearing species.