Haus der Kulturen der Welt

The Haus der Kulturen der Welt by the Tiergarten is Berlin's forum for non-European contemporary arts, founded in 1989. It occupies the former Congress Hall built by US architect Hugh Stubbins from 1956 to 1957 as a gift from the United States to the Interbau exhibition, a symbol of the Free World right on the sector border. The bold doubly curved concrete roof shell earned it the Berlin nickname Pregnant Oyster; in 1980 the roof partially collapsed and was reconstructed. Today it hosts Berlinale Forum Expanded, postcolonial conferences, transmediale media art and exhibitions from Africa, Asia and Latin America. In front of the entrance the reflecting pool holds Henry Moore's Large Divided Oval.