realities:united

Fazit
Berlinische Galerie

Künstlerisches Programm zur Energiewende

The architecture studio realities:united (Jan Edler, b. Cologne, 1970, and Tim Edler, b. Cologne, 1965; both live and work in Berlin) operates on the interfaces between art and architecture, urbanism and ecology. The two brothers’ works have long been included in renowned art collections including that of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In their experimental construction projects, realities:united unite smart visions with technically simple and ecologically valuable solutions. Their plans for the project Flussbad Berlin, an enormous swimming pool carved out of the Spree River before the backdrop of the new City Palace, exemplify their participatory understanding of urban planning. And as Fazit demonstrates, there is no reason a cooling tower should not become a sculpture. With the shift to clean energy, the monumental structure, an emblem of monstrous environmental devastation, loses its function. realities:united are already thinking about new connotations that might come to be bound up with these giants: as outsize communication devices, they send ring-shaped smoke signals into the atmosphere—in an age in which digital smart cities have become a pervasive yet unseen part of the fabric of our lives. The duo’s subversive and humorous gestures herald the dawn of a green future.
Published own the occasion of the same name exhibition at Berlinische Galerie the catalogue Fazit presents realities:united’s ideas rounded up with an essay by Antje Stahl and a preface by Thomas Köhler.