The annual theme of the art festival 48 Stunden Neukölln for 2019 is “Futur III”. Thus it looks far ahead into a future that will already have been the past at this point in time. For the complete programme of the art festival click here.
Image above: Laboratory of wishes, Intervention at Polymedialer Ponyhof, 48 Stunden Neukölln 2015, Photo: Dirk Schamuhn
48 STUNDEN NEUKÖLLN is a forum for artistic projects from all areas of the Berlin art scene. It will take place – this year for the 21st time – on three days in June in these districts of Neukölln: Donau-Nord-Kiez, Flughafenkiez, Körnerkiez, Passagekiez, Reuterkiez, Richardplatz, Schillerpromenade and Wildenbruchkiez. Galleries, cultural institutions, project spaces, artists in the studios and at numerous other art locations open their doors – many of them on their own initiative and without additional funding or substantial income. Last year, 2018, around 2,000 artists took part in the festival at around 250 locations. With the help of a map, visitors can move through the neighbourhood and make many artistic and unusual discoveries. The festival presents and promotes art that contributes to the discussion of current social issues and reflects them.
The theme of the year “Futur III” describes the paradox of a retrospectively foreseeable future, a future one looks back on in anticipation (e.g.: “I will have been there”). This also expresses something about the hopes, expectations and demands of the present.
Festival director Dr. Martin Steffens and Thorsten Schlenger explain: “In the present we are entangled in complex relationships and are working on a seemingly alternative status quo. We recognize developments and changes only in retrospect: The successfully constructed causal chains of progress have a calming effect. A look into the future, on the other hand, is often marked by forecasts that tell of threats and decline. With the help of the bulky grammatical time form Futur III, which is not accepted in standard language, the 48 HOURS OF NEW COLOGNE become a laboratory for the future that constructively breaks through this paralysis with artistic means. What awaits us is a festival that anticipates the consequences of future artistic and societal actions and that “that makes it possible for everyone to experience.”
The discussion focused on around 90 Suggested topics, which were developed in response to an Open Call from the environment of the Festivals were sent in. The proposed theme “Futur III” comes from the artist Claudia Simon from Neukölln, who has included many aspects of the submitted has taken suggestions into account.
Since its foundation in 1999, 48 STUNDEN NEUKÖLLN has established itself as Berlin’s largest free art festival with its exemplary character. The artistic works created here act as impulses far beyond Berlin-Neukölln, take a stand on questions of society as a whole and promote a sustainable exchange with the international art scene. The Berlin The Senate Department for Culture and Europe has included the 2018 Festival in the circle of events relevant to urban policy and is supporting it within the framework of the Festival Fund. In 2017, 48 STUNDEN NEUKÖLLN was awarded the EFFE label (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe) for the second time as one of “Europe’s finest festivals”.
48 STUNDEN NEUKÖLLN is organized and coordinated by Kulturnetzwerk Neukölln e.V.
Contact: Karl-Marx-Straße 131, 12043 Berlin-Neukölln, kulturnetzwerk.de
