Mosa-Icke is a show about the visual worlds surrounding Fritz Eisel’s monumental mosaic Der Mensch bezwingt des Kosmos (Man Conquers the Cosmos), which has graced the ground-floor exterior of the Rechenzentrum Potsdam since 1972. The word Mosa-Icke is a pun on mosaic and Icke (‘me’); the show’s contents range from layman photography to Instagram Reels, from private images to pop-cultural reimaginings.

The exhibition contains multiple parts: the work Zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit (Between Dream and Reality, 2023–2024) is a collective mural by 10th-grade students of Berlin’s Sophie-Brahe-Gemeinschaftsschule created with the guidance of Simon Brunel (Atelier Limo) and Nadine Wünsche. The collage on paper, combined with filmed interviews and projections, is the striking result of an art education workshop and has been exhibited in Berlin before in the Echoes of the Brother Countries exhibition at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. The work interweaves the official way of representing East Germany’s faith in progress in the Social Realist style with informal photos and remembrances of former so-called contract workers. 

In another room, photographs and video clips create a diverse tableau depicting how the mosaic has been perceived and used across more than five decades, shaped by changes in political systems and media technology. For the exhibition, Potsdam citizens alongside tourists, newcomers, and people who’ve moved away were invited to share photos of themselves, their families, or their pets in front of the mosaic. Exhibited beside these private snapshots are photographs and video material from the city archives. 

In an interactive section of the exhibition, guests can project themselves into the figures and landscapes depicted on the mosaic and trace how conceptions of progress and the future have changed from the past to today.

The event is part of the jahRZehnt-Festival – 10 Years of Raum Rechenzentrum. More information about the programme can be found here.