Zahiri and Batini

The history of the Hansaviertel fits into the narrative of upheaval and new beginnings, and is also emblematic of a chapter in 20th-century German history: between 1933 and 1945, a large proportion of the population living here were stripped of their rights, robbed and driven into exile. Their homes were taken over by others. Destroyed during the war, the Hansaviertel, rebuilt in 1957, was praised not only for its formal design: the estate stood as a symbol of the ‘free world’ and served as an ambassador for the ideals of liberalism and the social structure of the Western world.

Esra Ersen and Boris Borowski take this setting as the starting point for their work Zahiri and Batini. In Arabic, one speaks of zahiri, the visible, and batini, the invisible – the duality of external, visible meaning and internal, invisible meaning. To this end, the two have placed four wooden objects representing archetypal architectures – a house, a boat, a pulpit and a tower – at four locations on Hansaplatz. The objects are called Makam: a term borrowed from Arabic meaning a ‘place upon which something is erected’. It is a designation for a place of spiritual presence, or for the stages of a pilgrimage, or even for an official residence. The archetypal forms of the four architectural structures allow for different interpretations and defy clear categorisation.