Press Release, 04/22/2010

Exhibited: The Reconquering of a Landscape

Central exhibition on the IBA Terraces set to open on 24 April and to showcase the IBA process and the structural change and transformation of the landscape in Lusatia

Großräschen (Brandenburg). For ten years the IBA has been grappling with the profound changes taking place in the landscape in the wake of the open-cast mining of lignite in Lusatia. Its achievements over the years will be presented in an exhibition entitled „The Reconquering of a Landscape“ which will extend for 270 metres on the IBA Terraces right on the edge of the open-cast mine.

The exhibition puts this ambivalent process in its historical and cultural context. For decades the people in the region have made their living from the lignite, therefore the massive decline in lignite mining after the political reforms of 1989/90 led to far-reaching social shifts. From another perspective the open-cast mines bring large-scale destruction to the countryside, and their closure presents a major opportunity to reconstruct entire landscapes. The urban development in the south of Großräschen had provided the inspiration at the time for an IBA. The first planning sessions by the future Lake Ilse birthed the idea of coming alongside the transformation process in Lusatia in Brandenburg with professional insight and planning input. Ten milestones in the work of the IBA as a whole over the past ten years are used in the exhibition to illustrate how this tiny acorn of an idea grew into a mighty tree of an institution, the working methods it adopted, and the results it was able to achieve. It is the first IBA in the 100-year tradition of building exhibitions to take the landscape as its central focus. The multimedia exhibition showcases all 30 IBA projects and the overall process.

The first attraction on Terrace 1 is a model which provides a miniature reproduction of the ten lakes at the heart of the Lusatian Lakeland linked by navigable canals. Taking its cue from the theme title „It’s ready!“, there will be a board on display in the visitor centre with information about the seven „Paradise 2“ art projects. Terrace 2 will give a taster of the ten IBA milestones, forming an introduction to the presentation of the 30 IBA projects in the exhibition building. A deckchair awaits in the café or at the beach bar for a relaxing end to the tour of the exhibition.

IBA Terraces Visitor Centre
Seestr. 100
01983 Großräschen
Phone: +49 (0)35753 - 261 10
email: kontakt@iba-see.de