We throw everything new here till it turns old
We watch as the construction workers build scaffolding around us, gradually reducing our horizons and coming dangerously close to our living space. I have my doubts, as when one senses a scam. Our comfort zone becomes uncomfortable, noisy, dusty, perforated, pierced, dismantled, traversed in length and breadth. We are made to accept that our scope for action is diminishing, but there is more than meets the eye. We have influence over what happens around us because it has never been separated from us. We are rambling like bees with scrambled sensors. Then the noise gradually fades, as do the comings and goings. We are reassembling, reclaiming common places and mental territories through the entangled practices of what it means to be a collective species.
In the context of Experimentdays Relaunch
In cooperation with Zusammenstelle and Rathausblock
more info on www.experimentdays.de
The exhibition explores the implications of collective utilization and reclamation of space, seeking to question or stretch what we consider solo and collective practice. Exploring the problems/solutions that arise from the presence of activities and objects in places, as well as the boundaries/opportunities that emerge from the act of building or reclaiming spaces. The exhibition aims to translate ideas and abstract concepts of collectiveness into a physical, aesthetic experience within a real space. With the intention of fostering reflection on the increasing issues in our urban environment.
Free Berlin #10 – launch event | Saturday, June 17, 2023 / 16:00-19:00
Mayer Pavilion collaboration for an article for the newspaper “Free Berlin” #10.
On June 17 2023 the foyer of the Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz, is hosting an afternoon of conversation, declarations, hidden performance, and pop-up presentation with Adam Kraft, Organisms Democracy, Andrea Mineo (Mayer Pavilion) & The Radicals, Kailin Badal Thomas, Berlin School of Sound, Gabu Heindl and Brandon LaBelle
Following questions posed in the exhibition Power Space Violence at the Akademie der Künste, the event is organized around a performative presentation of the new issue of Free Berlin, a free cultural newspaper addressing the politics of urban space. For the current edition, artists, researchers, organizers and activists map out current forms of urban commoning within Berlin and elsewhere. This includes a critical and creative engagement with the politics of neoliberalism and illiberalism today, and in what ways movements of redemocratization and mutual aid act as countermeasures to systems of violence and domination. Alongside such overtly political aims, the event supports the free coming together of publics within the foyer of the AdK at the Pariser Platz, a gesture aimed at fostering joyful forms of radical hospitality and the poetic prefiguring of a democracy to come.
FREE BERLIN #10 / developed in dialogue with the exhibition Power Space Violence: Planning and Building under National Socialism, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and launched as part of the exhibition Event program, June 2023. Contributions by: Elena Loizidou, Isabelle Fremeaux & Jay Jordan, Adam Kraft, Anaïs Florin, Kari Anne Drangsland, Jesko Fezer, Andrea Mineo (Mayer Pavilion), Organisms Democracy, with additional contribution by Mijo Miquel. Published by: Errant Bodies Press.
PREMIERE "The Radicals: Commons and the Housing Crisis in Berlin" and Talk
May 12th 2023 at 6.30PM at the housing project Spreefeld in Berlin.
"Commons and the Housing Crisis in Berlin" is a short doc by The Radicals by Balolas Carvalho, Teresa Lorena Machado and Rita Couto.
In 2021 The Radicals kick-started a short documentary that unpacks the crisis the city of Berlin has been undergoing for more than a decade. Commodification of life, privatisation of land and rent speculation are some of the characteristics that mark Berlin today, after years of progressive leftist culture where it was relatively easy to explore alternative forms of living and do public space takeovers that enquired into collectivity. The solidarity fabric that vividly echoed all over Berlin was shadowed as market pressures came to replace it, and the political wrongdoings after reunification led the city to be engulfed in the hands of a few real estate giants that today drive the prices of the housing market.
The juggernaut of capitalism has made it seem though that there’s no alternative, but as Berlin’s strong self-organising culture still lingers, we discover its dissenting facette by the voices of some inspiring and hopeful projects that reclaim the commons of the city and fight for affordable space, community and solidarity: an alternative living cooperative called the Spreefeld, an expropriation campaign rallying for housing socialisation called the Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen, and a network of (oftentimes vulnerable) cultural projects called Space of Urgency. We also followed the story of Andrea Mineo who shared first-hand experience around the troubles of finding affordable space to live when intersecting systems of oppression affect you. While the story of Mineo appears to be one of difficulty, it also emblematically showcases the morale of this piece: what was initially a private apartment acquired in the fringes of a rigged system became a collective arts space that problematises political and social challenges while celebrating collectivity - the Mayer Pavillion. "Property is theft and housing is a human right. Let us be done with both." - Bertolt Brecht. This short doc is a gift to Berlin so that we can continue to fertilise our resistance. It is an imprint of a city that is critical and ready to fight back the logics of a system that continuously ensures victories for the same groups in society. It aims to pay tribute to the rad, dissenting, and vitally important culture that make cities diverse, exciting, accessible and free spirited.