Rostock Maritime Museum: Utopian coastal city opened in 2047!

Rostock Maritime Museum: Utopian coastal city opened in 2047!

Starting today, the special exhibition “TURNTON 2047 – Utopia of a coastal town?” in the Rostock Maritime Museum into the future. The exhibition addresses the pressing issues of pollution and climate change and shows what impact these could have on life in a fictional coastal town in 2047. On deck 3 of the traditional ship MS Dresden, visitors can expect an interactive future scenario that makes them think.

The focus of the exhibition is the Medusa Bar, a cultural meeting place in the imaginary town of Turnton. Here, fictional city dwellers report at listening stations about their everyday lives and the declining crew of the research ship Hydropia. “The exhibition is not a precise outlook, but rather an artistic suggestion for possible future perspectives,” emphasizes the team behind the show.

Collaboration with science and art

The collaboration with the artist collective Time's Up brings together aspects of art, science and future thinking. This cooperation opens up new perspectives on the challenges facing the oceans. The focus is also on the adaptation of coastal cities to climate change, as shown by a study by Professor Matthias Garschagen and his team at the LMU, which took a closer look at the risks for these cities.

The study shows that coastal cities not only represent a crucial economic hub, but are also heavily affected by climate change. The adaptation measures vary considerably between wealthy regions and less developed countries. And while many cities are trying to improve their resilience to flooding and rising sea levels, research highlights gaps in the depth and speed of these measures, as outlined in lmu.de.

Interactive elements and educational offerings

Visitors are invited to familiarize themselves with a free fictional weekly newspaper, the Turnton Gazette. This offers further insights into the imaginary world of the exhibition and stimulates thought. In addition to the creative concept, the show was also supported by various research institutions, including the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, GEOMAR and the Thünen Institute, which work intensively on the sea and its protection.

Particularly noteworthy are projects such as the Ocean Recovery Farm and the Microplastic Reduction Lab, which show what solutions are needed to address the challenges facing our ocean. Reference is also made here to the existing ecological buffers through seagrass fields, which communicate relevant information to visitors.

The exhibition can be seen in the shipping museum until November 5, 2026 and is supported by the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the WG Schifffahrt Hafen Rostock eG. The traditional ship MS Dresden complements the exhibition with multimedia insights into the regional history of shipbuilding and seafaring.

At a time when the threats posed by climate change are becoming increasingly acute, the exhibition invites you not only to think about the challenges, but also to actively work on the solutions. In short, a visit to the exhibition is absolutely worth it!