WE'VE NEVER BEEN MODERN
Museum of Applied Arts and Historical Museum, Frankfurt
Part of the exhibition „Yes, we care. The New Frankfurt and the question of the common good“ from May 10, 2025 to January 11, 2026 at the Museum of Applied Arts
16.05.-15.09.2019 at the Historical Museum Frankfurt
A sound installation about exclusion mechanisms and xenophobia in the New Frankfurt
Eleonora Herder / andpartnersincrime
In Frankfurt, there is an acute shortage of affordable housing and a massive displacement of low-income populations from the urban agglomeration. At the moment, this mainly affects the outskirts of the city, where the settlements of the so-called "new" Frankfurt are located. Ernst May's utopia of using political instruments to create social housing has failed.
While the buildings are listed as historical monuments and upgraded with renovation measures, apparently nobody finds anything worth protecting in social and political practice. The increasing existential pressure to which the inhabitants of these former workers' disctricts are exposed manifests itself in racism and xenophobia and not least in increasing success in elections of right-wing parties.
There is a suspicion that we have never really been modern.
A production of Anpartnersincrime In cooperation with the Historical Museum Frankfurt and the Museum of Applied Arts. Supported by the theatre funding program of the Frankfurt Cultural Office.
Concept, research, interviews and realization: Eleonora Herder
Content advice and research: Sebastian Schipper
Composition: Jan Mech
Download the dossier here.
May 10, 2025 – January 11, 2026 as part of the exhibition „Yes, we care The New Frankfurt and the question of the common good“ at the Museum of Applied Arts Frankfurt
May 16 – October 13, 2019 as part of the exhibition „How do people live?“ at the Historical Museum Frankfurt