Whenever The Heart Skips a Beat

Whenever the Heart Skips a Beat transcends rituals and cultural practices of hospitality in artistic processes. The work of more than twenty international artists, mainly created for the Mehringplatz, can be experienced as interventions in the public space: in the form of performances, workshops and an exhibition, which can be seen in the square and in the local shops. The shopkeepers * will thus become hosts * of the respective works. Between Friedrichstrasse and Bergmannkiez the Mehringplatz with its present architecture, the social housing construction of the 1970s, designed by the architect Werner Düttmann, calls an interesting tension relationship. With Whenever the Heart Skips a BeatIt is now necessary to open spaces that are mostly overlooked or seem inaccessible by the supposed closeness of the square in order to initiate a change of perspective, to allow controversies before and with the place, to show conflicts and to break them with rituals of hospitality. With reference to the title of the work of the artist * collective collectiveRaqs Media Collective, which can be seen on posters at the Mehringplatz, Whenever the Heart skips a beat plays on the change of the heart beat by a joyful heart jump as well as by a oppressive heart racing Uncertainty. Against this background, individualIdeas and collective action from different artistic perspectives, both politically and sociologically, and develop their own proposals.