Mark Dion. Delirious Toys
The Berlin Toy Cabinet of Wonder
A labyrinth of board games; animals climbing a pyramid; vehicles of all kinds engaged in an imaginary race on a circuit: For Art Autumn 2023, the US artist Mark Dion has created a work of art from objects in the toy collection of the Stadtmuseum Berlin.
Location
Museum Nikoalikirche
Nikolaikirchplatz
10178 Berlin
Opening Hours
daily | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Special Opening/Closing Times
see Info & Service
Entry
7 Euro / 4 Euro (reduced) | free admission under 18 years
Combi-Ticket:
10 euros / 6 euros (reduced)
Valid for two consecutive days for the Museum Nikolaikirche and the Museum Ephraim-Palais.
For the exhibition, Mark Dion spent months researching the collection of around 70,000 objects, one of the largest in Germany. The result is a kind of labyrinth of board games; a pyramid of animals, a circuit with an imaginary race between vehicles of all kinds and other installations. Dolls, military toys and a “poison cabinet” with borderline or cross-border toys are also on display in the exhibition, which is accompanied by a 36-page brochure (included in the admission price).
Since the late 1980s, Mark Dion has been intensively concerned with the question of how knowledge is created and passed on in museums, always with an alert eye for systems of exploitation and oppression. After all, toys, which are mostly designed by adults for children, always convey ideas about people and their world. In dealing with toys, children practise certain role models, and toys are used to teach them specific themes or ideologies.
In another installation, also young people from the Berlin Gymnasium Tiergarten deal as Junior Corators creatively with these aspects of toys.
Behind the scenes
Video | 2:52 minutes
Programme
Info & Service
Opening Hours
daily | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. (also on public holidays)
Extra opening hours/closing times
Tue | 24.12. (Christmas Eve) | closed
Wed | 25.12. (Christmas Day) | 12 noon – 6 p.m.
Thu | 26.12. (2nd Christmas Day) | 12 noon – 6 p.m.
Tue | 31.12. (New Year’s Eve) | closed
Wed | 01.01. (New Year) | 12 noon – 6 p.m.
The visitor rules of the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin apply.
Directions
Nikolaikirchplatz
10178 Berlin
Contact
Infoline
+49 30 24 002-162
Mo – Fri | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Write E-Mail