Thus, while the exhibits in the museum’s so-called Specimen Hall focus on individual organs, on closer inspection they reveal much more, including human-animal relationships, as in the case of a specimen that shows the human body as the habitat of another organism – the tapeworm. Rudolf Virchow, for his part, precisely documented in his specimens, his autopsy records and the notes on his desk – a central object in the permanent exhibition – what in the human environment causes disease and how these reciprocal relationships become visible all the way down to the cell level. The central cell model in the museum’s permanent exhibition goes back to cell theory, which Virchow supplemented in 1855 with the principle that every cell arises from a pre-existing cell. The human organism can thus not be understood as an independent unit, but rather as a constellation of cells that exist in multiple relationships with one another and with their environment. At the same time, human beings are embedded in a multitude of social, biotic, visionary, and ideological relationships, as well as relationships that produce hierarchies. The museum’s collections are therefore more ambivalent than they first appear. It is precisely this ambivalence that forms the starting point for the twelve artistic and scientific works presented here.

As a research group of Die Junge Akademie, we understand the posthuman, the more-than-human and the non-human as a question that concerns us from very different disciplinary perspectives, ranging from human genetics and the neurosciences, art history and philosophy, robotics and systems biology, to theology, history and the arts. For us, the posthuman is not merely a diagnosis of the present, but also a historical and aesthetic figure. What unites us is the conviction that many of the most pressing questions of our time – from the climate crisis and artificial intelligence to the possibilities offered by genetic engineering – can no longer be answered if human beings continue to be regarded as the sole measure of the world and reality, without taking diversity and living environments into account. These questions have a long history. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein (1818), for example, responded to a world transformed by the eruption of Mount Tambora while simultaneously raising the question of whether human beings are “playing God”. Our research group therefore examines the posthuman, the more-than-human and the non-human in their temporal density – in the interplay of historical perspectives, urgent issues of the present day, and future thought experiments.

The twelve speculations in this exhibition are less definitive answers than experimental arrangements. They take the collections, spaces and history of this museum seriously, using them as a basis for asking, in a site-specific way and in dialogue with them, what remains when humans are no longer placed at the centre, and what might take their place: animals, plants, machines, microbes, data, things. Artistic and scientific perspectives complement one another and repeatedly merge. For us, this is no coincidence but rather a guiding principle. The question of the posthuman can only be posed across disciplines.

We would like to thank all the artists and researchers who have responded to this particular place with great curiosity and care, as well as the Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité for its hospitality and willingness to make its collection available for reconsideration.

We wish you interesting, thought-provoking and perhaps even disquieting encounters with what lies beyond the human and with what, within the human itself, has always been more and less than only human.

On behalf of Die Junge Akademie research group “Posthuman, More-than-Human and Non-Human”: Maciej Chmara, Radin Dardashti, Anne Hemkendreis, Sarah Kim-Hellmuth and Birgit Nemec.

Yet a focus on the human inevitably leads beyond it. For no body, no life, exists in isolation. The museum’s objects and collections also point to the diverse relationships in which human beings are embedded – with other living beings, with their environment, and with the technologies and material conditions that surround them.

This is precisely where the exhibition We Have Never Been Only Human by Die Junge Akademie takes its starting point. The twelve artistic and scientific works engage with the exhibits and narratives of the permanent exhibition through their own questions, approaches and aesthetic perspectives. They draw attention to connections that can easily remain hidden in the familiar, thereby offering new perspectives on the objects and narrative of the permanent exhibition. What changes when human beings are no longer at the centre?

My heartfelt thanks go to the artists and scientists of Die Junge Akademie for their work and for their willingness to engage in dialogue with the museum and its collections. I would like to thank the curators Adrian Notz and Jenny Wolka for their dedicated work and for the many bridges they have built between different perspectives and disciplines, and, not least, between the contributions and our collection. My special thanks go to Maciej Chmara, Radin Dardashti, Anne Hemkendreis, Sarah Kim-Hellmuth and Birgit Nemec, who conceived the idea for this project. I would also like to thank the funders and the team at the Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité, whose contributions have helped make this exhibition possible.

May the exhibition welcome many curious visitors, offer moments of surprise and shifts in perspective, and spark stimulating conversations – and may this website carry the questions raised here beyond the museum visit.

Moninka Ankele, Director of the Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité

The museum is more than an exhibition venue; it is also an interlocutor: its collections tell the story of how the human body has been studied, measured, and classified and how this exploration has shaped concepts and ideas of health and disease. This medical approach is particularly evident in the museum’s historical collection of pathological-anatomical specimens, which Rudolf Virchow established for the systematic documentation of disease. The artistic and scientific speculations engage with the museum’s systems of knowledge, collections, and histories: they respond to them, contradict them, complement them, or take them further. Human beings thus appear not as self-contained entities, but as beings in constant relationship with technological, biological and ecological systems. We use technology to intervene in our bodies, treat diseases, and replace organs and limbs. At the same time, biological and ecological interconnections affect us: nature, climate, plants, animals, and microorganisms influence our health, can make us ill, or contribute to healing. And just as they transform us, we transform them.

The exhibition brings together twelve artistic and scientific speculations by Die Junge Akademie’s research group “Posthuman, More-than-Human and Non-Human” with the museum’s permanent exhibition. Speculation in this case is less a prediction than a method for thinking through current developments and exploring other perspectives on the future. The research group follows the concept of the “Convergence of the Posthuman”, meaning the interplay of the climate crisis, biotechnological transformation, and forms of digital intelligence.

We Have Never Been Only Human is not an exhibition about the posthuman, nor does it offer a common definition of it. The works are shaped and inspired both by different conceptions of the posthuman and by the museum’s permanent exhibition. The interventions therefore focus on the diversity of approaches and the forms of exchange that emerge from them.

Some of the works engage with the systems of knowledge through which human beings and bodies are described and understood. In Bju:tiful? artistic and art-historical perspectives meet images of the body and bodily norms, drawing attention to the colonial legacies that shape contemporary ideas of beauty and normality. The porcelain objects of Between Downfall and Departure draw on familiar everyday objects and shift their meaning against the backdrop of technological and social change. The fragile material points to the fragility of existence and raises questions about human values and the conditions of being human. In Let’s Talk, the relationship between technological capability and moral obligation comes into focus in light of advances in human genetics. This raises questions of responsibility, freedom, and the value of human life. Heart Vessel connects theological research with the medical heart specimens in the collection and offers perspectives on different conceptions of what makes us human and what remains of us after death. In A Living Artwork, the relationship between art and life itself becomes the subject. The focus is on what brings a work of art to life and how this vitality can be represented and experienced in a museum context.

Other projects broaden the perspective on the body and show how technological systems can transform perception, abilities, and self-understanding. Flexible Body Models in the Brain explores how the brain forms and changes our body model. Through virtual bodily experiences, it becomes apparent how flexible our embodied sense of self is and how the perception of our own body can change. Neuro-Cooking brings together artistic, design, and neuroscientific approaches with the embodied knowledge of kneading dough. A wearable translates bodily and neural signals into an intuitive haptic language. The Skeletal Arm with an Artificial Muscle draws on approaches from materials research, robotics, and biology to explore how technological actuation systems can be modelled on the human musculoskeletal system. The Assistive Entanglements of the sensor-equipped care bed examine the interplay of technology, care practice, and social relationships and show how technological assistance systems intervene in social dynamics and, in doing so, reinforce existing contradictions within the care system.

In Posthuman Sauna, the perspective shifts beyond the human body towards ecological and more-than-human relationships. Architecture is understood here not as a static shell, but as a dynamic system itself embedded in climatic, biological, and technological processes. Vocal fold tension mismatch shifts the boundaries between body, material, and technology. Latex membranes move according to principles of soft robotics, allowing movement and sound to be experienced bodily. Finally, in VOID, a human-centred perspective on landscape, the environment, and other living beings is called into question. Lingering, listening, and perceiving become an artistic practice that explores other forms of relationship between humans, animals, and the environment.

Despite their differences, the twelve projects share a common dynamic: they bring different fields of knowledge and practice together and engage with technological, ecological, and more-than-human relationships. Here, transdisciplinarity unfolds through diverse forms of exchange, translation, and collaboration.

The exhibition’s design and scenography likewise engage with the diversity of approaches to the posthuman. Each of the twelve projects is visually marked by its own symbol. These symbols’ forms are inspired by objects from the museum’s medical history collection and the ways in which they are presented. The scenographic elements made of grilles and corrugated metal sheets are permeable in different ways, ranging from transparent to partially opaque surfaces. They structure the route through the exhibition without obscuring the collection, creating an ephemeral layer within the existing museum architecture that places the projects in relation to the objects on display. The works can thus be traced through the museum, with individual motifs reappearing along the route and lingering like an echo or a memory.

The twelve speculations can be experienced through objects and installations on site, in this newspaper, and in the audio guide. In dialogue with the museum, We Have Never Been Only Human opens up new perspectives on how we can live, conduct research, feel, and take responsibility beyond anthropocentric assumptions in an era shaped by multiple crises. Perhaps this is precisely where the exhibition’s search leads: not to a new definition of the human, but to continually questioning its boundaries.

Text by Adrian Notz and Jenny Wolka
Adrian Notz is a curator and Jenny Wolka is a visual artist.