This ‘Z’ won’t fit in any book. It is more than three metres high and points the way to an exhibition of a different kind – one that showcases the future in the present. ‘Building the future!’ tells stories about people – the only thing is that these stories haven’t actually happened yet, but the course they will take has been set here and now. This exhibition is one of several unusual instruments designed by AgenZ for the ‘50 Years of BMZ. Building the future. Let's join forces.’ campaign. Its first viewing was on BMZ Open Day in Berlin.

Samira Aboutreika was born in Cairo on 29 February 2000. Exactly 44 years later her first novel, ‘Desert without Sand’ was published, in which the Egyptian journalist describes her country’s long journey to freedom of expression. A journey that is directly linked with her own fate. In 2025, the politically committed writer attends a BMZ course for online journalism and 14 years later becomes the editor-in-chief of a large Egyptian online newspaper.

Is that just pure fiction? Yes. But it’s being written today. And that is precisely the message that BMZ wants to get across with its ‘Building the future. Let's join forces.’ campaign marking its 50th anniversary. GIZ AgenZ has written many different scripts for BMZ which, if played out properly, could make this fiction reality.

Visitors to the exhibition find the story about Samira Aboutreika on an ‘F’. Together with the six other letters – each one of which has its own personal story relating to the topics of education, climate protection or economic development – this spells the key word around which everything in the exhibition revolves: ZUKUNFT (FUTURE).

The ‘photo wall of the future’ reminds visitors that all of this thrives on the dedication and commitment of ordinary people. Very slowly this wall begins to fill up with snapshots of Open Day visitors, until a point is reached where the images form the German word ‘Zukunft’ (future). Visitors also write down their ideas and hopes for future development cooperation. For Magdalena Kofron, for example, ‘education is the key to mutual understanding and understanding the key to cooperation.’

The statements are also reproduced on the ‘giant Z’ that portrays development policy as a policy for the future. This symbol does not just communicate a message, but an image, a free association – albeit one that is not free of contradictions. The exhibition ‘Building the future’, a ‘photo wall of the future’ and a ‘Z’ as an associative world of images – these are three ingredients that GIZ AgenZ successfully blends to enrich the BMZ’s 50th anniversary campaign.