Durch das Archiv [Through the Archive]

About

Since 2014 and its origins in the "Art in the Underground" competition, the station urbaner kulturen has established itself as nGbK’s second location. Hellersdorf was the youngest housing estate built in the GDR. Its post-1989 history and recent transformation are inscribed with questions of social urban development, common welfare and city-wide contexts. The station’s programme continually adresses these issues from various perspectives, using participatory artistic practice as a central tool. Art seeks to have an impact on the neighborhood and create new public spaces. Like the green land named by the station as "Place Internationale", spaces are created where artists work with residents on questions of how we want to live together in the city.

In the next legislative period in Hellersdorf the council is planning three major urban development projects. Parts of the "Helle Mitte" area will be redesigned in an attempt to make it the district's cultural and economic center. A school campus will be planned for the "Place Internationale" green space and an outdoor swimming pool attraction is to be built on the Jelena Šantić Peace Park.

"Through the Archive" looks at seven years of participatory art projects in and around these three locations. In doing so, it shows the contributions that residents and artists have already made to these spaces, with their own demands and ideas. The exhibition is an appeal to the urban development office to embrace and strengthen these informal contributions by setting up comprehensive participatory planning processes.