Der Unbekannte Politische Gefangene

The exhibition “Competition for a Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner at Kunsthaus Dahlem, Berlin” is dedicated to the history and artistic results of what was probably the most important competition for a public monument in Europe after 1945. Launched in 1952 by the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, it received an immense international response with 1500 works submitted. The artists not only reacted to the fact that the competition took place in the area of tension of the East-West conflict. Rather, in its context, abstract art also appeared prominently for the first time in the Western hemisphere as a symbol of a political agenda of freedom and democracy. For a large part of the public, however, the designs represented a barely tolerable test of endurance. According to a widespread opinion, the suffering fate of the prisoners could not be captured by the means of art and even less by those of an abstract art. Although Berlin was intended as the site for the installation of the victorious monument, the plan was not realized.
The exhibition at Kunsthaus Dahlem shows for the first time the winning design together with some of the designs that were awarded prizes in the final selection, and in addition all the works of the German preselection that still exist today. They were shown publicly for the first and so far last time in 1953.