Tieranatomisches Theater at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

The TA T – Tieranatomisches Theater serves as an exhibition space, stage, and laboratory for curatorial practices. As a research institution within Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, TA T is dedicated to addressing the challenges museums will face in the future. By connecting practitioners from international communities across science, the arts, and civil society, TA T makes diverse knowledge visible and explores new formats and perspectives for exhibition-making.

Built in 1790, TA T is Berlin’s oldest surviving academic building, once offering unique conditions for veterinary education and research. The central structure, a domed and tiered lecture hall, is a masterpiece of Prussian early classicism. Architect Carl Gotthard Langhans (1732-1808) merged the ancient forms of the round temple and amphitheater, creating an innovative “architecture of knowledge” where aesthetics, symbolism, and function are seamlessly integrated. At the heart of the building was a lift connecting the preparation room to the anatomy theater, facilitating the dramatic staging of anatomy lectures. This historically significant method of presenting anatomy, both scientifically and aesthetically, inspires our current mission: to develop exhibitions as a unique form of knowledge transfer, bridging scientific, aesthetic, and social practices.

Today, TA T features galleries for both permanent and temporary exhibitions. The permanent exhibition, Meshwork of Things, offers a critical and transdisciplinary view of the provenance, diversity, and present-day uses of Humboldt-Universität’s 30+ collections. The temporary exhibition spaces include a large gallery and rotunda on the ground floor, as well as four rooms, the historic library, and the anatomy theater on the upper floor. Altogether, the exhibition and performance spaces span 740 square meters.

Since 2012, TA T has been operated by the Centre for Cultural Techniques (ZfK), a central institute at Humboldt-Universität. The ZfK consolidates research on material culture, heritage, and collections. It links disciplinary knowledge of material objects with transdisciplinary methodologies to address historic, current, and future research questions. In 2020, ZfK established the Object Laboratory, a unique facility designed to study material culture through applied, multidisciplinary approaches.

Partners
Projects at Tieranatomisches Theater are realized through a vast network of institutional, transcultural, and transdisciplinary collaborations. While many projects are initiated by TA T, proposals from partner institutions, independent curators, artists, activists, and designers are also welcome and, after evaluation by the program committee, are collectively realized.
Since 2013, TA T has developed more than 30 exhibitions and performance series in collaboration with Humboldt-Universität’s collections and institutes, other universities, museums, NGOs, foundations, and cultural practitioners from various fields.