24 September 2021, Treptow Ateliers
Co-curator Lennart Siebert | Support Stefka Ammons & Sebastian Körbs | Guests Andreas Foidl & Martin Schwegmann
A cooperation with the Network of Studio Communities Treptow Köpenick and the Round Table for Real Estate Policy
Berlin's asset is its cultural diversity, which has become a successful economic factor. This is not just a cleverly placed promise of sustainable city marketing, but a real situation created by real people in real neighbourhoods through real investment of their labour.
Rising rents and the closure of established, non-commercial cultural institutions, studio houses and communities mean that Berlin is now losing more than 350 studios a year and half of the visual artists in Berlin are looking for new locations.
Treptow-Köpenick is a district that has become a central settlement point for artists of interdisciplinary origin over the past decade, mainly due to its vacant industrial buildings, and is now home to well over 500 studios. However, current developments threaten to make it a prime example of the next chapter in the history of studio death.
Das künstlerische Austauschformat “Salon Raumverstehen” hat gemeinsam mit Stellvertreter:innen aller Seiten in dieser Entwicklung untersuchen, welche Möglichkeiten für Künstler:innen und überhaupt Betreiber:innen von Kulturräumen eröffnet werden können, um langfristig unabhängig zu existieren und diese Arbeitsorte zu sichern.
Artists, district and state politicians, administrative staff, investors and urban planners were invited to a practical workshop-like exchange that focused on solution-oriented knowledge exchange and the collection and bundling of resources.
Short guest contributions first gave the participants a brief insight into the status quo of Berlin's cultural landscape from a political perspective. Afterwards, we took a collective expert look at the extent to which clever and at the same time economically viable strategies can be developed to preserve affordable, private, cultural production spaces for urban growth. In short, it's about understanding space together.
Co-curator Lennart Siebert
Lennart Siebert studied International Cultural Management and Communication & PR. Since 2006 he has been working interdisciplinarily (in the fields of literature, events, music, photography and art) around Europe as an artist and cultural manager with a focus on communication, cultural and real estate policy. He specialises in identifying, mediating and promoting cross-sector synergies. Since 2015, Lennart Siebert has been applying his knowledge to Belius GmbH / Foundation, where he has also been a partner since 2020. He also heads the coordination office of the Real Estate Policy Round Table and founded the online magazine STADT NEUDENKEN in 2020.
Network Studio Communities
The Netzwerk Ateliergemeinschaften Treptow-Köpenick is a loose association of well over 300 artists who work in studio communities in the district, most of whom are threatened in the coming years.
Runder Tisch für Liegenschaftspolitik
The Round Table for Real Estate Policy of the State of Berlin had a mediating function in this salon: Involved persons from politics, administration and civil society were brought together at eye level in a carefully curated context. Through (moderated) dialogue and interaction, the respective perspectives are revealed, interests clarified and the importance of the sensitive resource of space made comprehensible. Through the exchange of perspectives and the joint discussion, the cityscape can be improved in the long run.
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