For a short period of time and with great vehemence, the dream of freedom and justice flared up in Memmingen in the spring of 1525, even though the peasants who had risen up at that time were bloodily subdued again a short time later. There have been many such dreams in history and over the centuries people have fought to change their society because they hoped it would lead to a better life or even a future.
Many such struggles have changed our society for the better, and the achievements have a lasting impact. It was a long way from the Twelve Articles (1525) to the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (1949), but what has been achieved is only a milestone. The problems are increasing and seem to be getting out of hand: the foundations of democratic coexistence are being threatened, social consensus is crumbling and community cohesion is disintegrating.
The exhibition 'to be free and to want to be' asks the question: what goals are we pursuing as a society today? What changes are we striving for in order to preserve the best of all possible worlds in the long term and make it a place worth living in for all people?
An agora in the center of the exhibition provides space for discussion and reflection, it is available for discussions and debates and offers visitors the opportunity to relax and find out more. A monthly talk on Tuesday → deals with various freedoms and rights - including the right to equality, the right to participation and the freedom of self-determination. In this agora, the monologue "The Reich Citizen" by Annalena & Konstantin Küspert is also regularly performed in a production by the Landestheater Schwaben (director: Klaus Philipp, actor: Felix Bronkalla).
With works by Yael Bartana (*1970, IL / Berlin/Amsterdam), Libia Castro (*1970, ES / Reykjavík/Rotterdam) & Ólafur Ólafsson (*1973, IS / Reykjavík/Rotterdam), Hannes Egger (*1981, IT / Lana), Prosper Legault (*1994, FR / Saint-Ouen), Magdalena Mitterhofer (*1994, IT / Berlin), Jens Pecho (*1978, DE / Berlin) and Superflux (founded in 2009 by Anab Jain and Jon Ardern, UK / London).
