From August 1st to 31st 2022, the Project Space Festival 22 invites you to get to know 31 project spaces and initiatives in Berlin. Each participating space will be given 24 hours to realize an event, so that the program will be as diverse in its respective focuses as the participating project spaces and initiatives themselves.
Image above: courtesy of FORTUNA
Participating spaces
+DEDE, Apartment Project, BETON, CCCCCCOMA, Centrum, Cittipunkt, Das Haus der Tödlichen Doris, diffrakt, FKA SIX, FORTUNA, gr_und, La Datcha, Make-Up, Medium P, mental health arts space, mp43, Neun Kelche, new fears, New Toni, Pansion Projects, Sangt Hipolyt, Scherben, Schneeeule, SCOTTY, SPOILER, stay hungry, super bien!, uqbar, WIRWIR, with the rubbles of old palaces, Xanadu
The festival was launched in 2014 out of the independent Berlin project space scene and this year it is organized by Kreuzberg Pavillon. Project spaces and initiatives from Berlin and beyond were invited to apply with project proposals via an open call. From these proposals, an expert jury consisting of Anna Bromley (artist and author), Amelie Jakubek (organizer/collective-artistic researcher), Imke Kannegießer (artistic director & management Kunstverein Reutlingen), Zoë Claire Miller (artist) and Max Pitegoff (artist) selected the participants. The members of the jury were appointed because of their cultural-political commitment to artists, independent curators and self-organized spaces in Berlin as well as their experience with collective practice and free collaborative art projects.
The festival will thus kick off on August 1 in Neukölln’s Körnerkiez at Xanadu with a mini-festival within the festival with other initiatives specializing in moving images in the visual arts. Xanadu is a newly founded project space specializing in film, organized by Carrick Bell. Many of the participating spaces are newly founded, some of which operate nomadically and respond directly to a current distribution of space in cultural politics. Among the recently founded spaces is new fears in Wedding, a platform at the intersection of choreography and visual arts, between working, experimenting and presenting. In 2015 diffrakt | zentrum für theoretische peripherie was founded in the former headquarters of Merve Verlag in Schöneberg, a collectively organized non-profit space and association with the aim of bringing current positions from art, science, society and philosophy into exchange and offering them to all in an open, accessible and cost-free manner.
The mp43 – projektraum für das peripherhere, directed by Carola Rümper, is a multifunctional space located in the special urban landscape of the district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf: for the Project Space Festival 22, artworks by two artists from Cambodia, Sopheak Sao and Sreymao Sao, will be presented at this venue on August 14, critically addressing issues such as gender justice, environmental destruction, corruption and abuse of power. The curatorial concept of the space stay hungry, which was founded in 2014, had to be adapted in terms of both content and form due to the loss of the previous premises in 2017 after which it has been working without a fixed location. The intervention Hinterland + Mobile Menu #12 is scheduled to take place on August 6 on a former industrial site between Gottlieb-Dunkel-Strasse, Teilestrasse and the Teltowkanal, below the A100 freeway bridges. This high-traffic background frames the multi-layered scenery and underlines the stark contrasting juxtaposition of nature and urbanity, thereby it can be metaphorically seen as a kind of architecture of transition. Despite its seemingly secluded location, the Hermannstraße S-Bahn station is only about a 5-minute bike ride away.
CCCCCOMA, which deals with different communication concepts, works just as nomadically: Under the title CCCCCOMA Commercials. I came in here for a special offer, video works dealing with the visibility of (queer) bodies in public space are to run in high-format advertising displays of Spätis.
BETON Berlin is another site-independent project initiative that in solo exhibitions investigates and thematizes certain situations and areas of public space that have fallen out of view, and creates a brief visibility of them.
The slow demise of shopping centers and the closure of more and more stores is causing consumption to shift to the digital. But what can happen in a shopping center when people no longer just shop there? Through artistic, aesthetic and documentary exhibitions, FKA SIX examines how the spatial potential of a shopping center can be exploited in Ring Center 1. The goal of FKA SIX is to explore a sustainable approach to dying building structures at this particular time.
Pansion projects, a space initiated by Hamed Dehqan and based in Tehran from 2016 to 2021 and currently in Ghent, is not originally based in Berlin. On August 15, a presentation of the project titled dead ideas is planned, which will be about unfinished projects, i.e. ideas which were never realized. Medium P space, which is based in Berlin Kreuzberg since 2021, is an off-space created in response to the one at Portikus in Frankfurt. The space humorously plays with the question of (self-)institutionalization and will show an exhibition with Maria Cozma, Nik Geene, Andrew Wagner and Sebastian Brank on August 17.
Another space with a storied past is Centrum, founded in 2009 in Neukölln’s Flughafen-Kiez and situated in a former brothel, with lots of red ceramic and gray stone tiles and floor-to-ceiling windows facing the street. Here Ana Pascu (Romania) and Yen Chun Lin (Taiwan) will develop the performative workshop Collecting stones from Hypnagogia, in which visitors will engage in a collective experience of self-reflection and observation on August 6, guided by an installation and a sound piece.
Founded in Wedding in 2007, uqbar. Gesellschaft für Repräsentationsforschung e.V., directed by Antje Weitzel, will show Food and Imagination on August 8 with the artists Arijit Bhattacharyya, Sujatro Ghosh, Rukaiya Karim, Pallavi Paul, Lea Maria Wittich curated by Övül Ö. Durmusoglu.
In Charlottenburg, on Monday August 22, The Bluest Archive: Black Remembrance and Resistance, is on view at the Mental Health Arts Space (MHAS) founded by Kathy-Ann Tan. This special project space focuses on the importance of mental health with the goal of creating a safe space for empowerment, mutual support, and networking for artists, curators, and cultural practitioners, especially from the BIPoC* (Black People, Indigenous People, and People of Color) community. The following Tuesday, August 23, the collective listening event SMASHED: Speaking Histories of Insurrection will take place in a basement in Kreuzberg 61 in the space rubbles of old palaces.
As a contribution to the Project Space Festival, an exhibition by the artist group BAÇOY KOOP titled We Are Not Familiar With a Generation That Has No Understanding of Sadness will be on view. It will take place on Monday, August 29, at the Apartment Project, which was founded back in 1999 as one of the first independent art spaces in Turkey by video artist Selda Asal in Istanbul. The association has been based in Neukölln since 2012.
On August 30, an exciting project by Das Haus der Tödlichen Doris can be experienced at Galerie Eisenbahnstraße, which deals with the long history of artistic project spaces. Dr. An Paenhuysen, director of the space, will give a short performative talk about Galerie Eisenbahnstraße in West Berlin using archival materials: About this project space, which was run for the period of exactly one year, from March 1986 to March 1987, in a West Berlin squat. The closing of the festival will take place in Weissensee at Raum Neun Kelche, a neighborhood initiative founded in 2021 by Kira Dell and Laura Seidel, which offers locally based artists space for their own activities and exchange.
The Project Space Festival 22 is funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds, enables honorariums for 30 project spaces and initiatives and supports all participating artists and curators.
PROGRAM
Monday, 1. August: Xanadu
Xanadu x Berlin
with: Xanadu, 6×6 Project, Anorak, (ao)
Venue: Xanadu, Altenbraker Straße 18, 12053 Berlin-Neukölln
Tuesday, 2. August: new fears
Crush
with: New Fears family and friends
Venue: New Fears, Schererstraße 5, 13347 Berlin-Wedding
Wednesday, 3. August: Sangt Hipolyt
Paradise Sweat Licking Lungs
with: Mahsa Saloor
curated by: Anne Fellner & Burkhard Beschow
Venue: Sangt Hipolyt, Bellermannstr. 79/80, 13357 Berlin-Wedding
Thursday, 4. August: New Toni
Mystery Box
with: Georgina Hill, Maximilian Schmoetzer
curated by: Antonia Breme & Christian Lübbers
Venue: New Toni, Immanuelkirchstraße 15, 10405 Berlin – Prenzlauer Berg
Friday, 5. August: gr_und
Schnittmenge
with: ZEBU + Spad (live) + Cesar Palace (live) + guest DJ
curated by: gr_und
Venue: gr_und, Seestrasse 49, 13347 Berlin-Wedding
Saturday, 6. August: stay hungry
Hinterland + Mobile Menu #12
with: Jérôme Chazeix, Gabriella Hirst, Theresa Rothe, Markus Zimmermann+collaboration with Mario
Margani for Mobile Menu #12
curated by: stay hungry (Michel Aniol + Meike Kuhnert)
Venue: Parkanlage Teilestraße (below the highway bridges), 12099 Berlin-Tempelhof
Sunday, 7. August: Centrum
Collecting stones from Hypnagogia
with: Ana Pascu, Yen Chun Lin
curated by: Rachel Monosov & CTG collective
Venue: Centrum, Reuterstraße 7, 12053 Berlin-Neukölln
Monday, 8. August: uqbar
Food and Imagination
with: Arijit Bhattacharyya, Sujatro Ghosh, Rukaiya Karim, Pallavi Paul, Lea Maria Wittich
curated by: Övül O. Durmusoglu
Venue: uqbar, Schwedenstr. 16, 13357 Berlin-Wedding
Tuesday, 9. August: SCOTTY
Projektlogiken
with: Fritz Laszlo Weber
curated by: Bettina Weiß
Venue: SCOTTY, Oranienstrasse 46, 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg
Wednesday, 10. August: diffrakt
Each Body a Voice
with: Esmeralda Conde-Ruiz, Diana Alina Serbanescu
curated by: Sara Morais dos Santos Bruss
Venue: diffrakt, Crellestraße 22, 10827 Berlin-Schöneberg
Thursday, 11. August: CCCCCOMA
CCCCCOMA Commercials. I came in here for a special offer
with: Heiner Franzen, Kerstin Honeit, Artor Jesus Inkerö, Francis Kussatz, Bjørn Melhus, Vitalii
Shupliak
curated by: Linda Peitz
Venue: Spätis und Ladenfenster (genaue Standorte tba)
Friday, 12. August: SPOILER
OFFFENCE
with: Jakob Francisco, Julia Grybos & Barbora Zentková, Eduardo José Rubio Parra, Sara Kramer,
Roman Liška, Eglė Ruibytė
curated by: Katharina Wendler & Sophia Scherer
Venue: SPOILER, Quitzowstraße 108, 10551 Berlin-Moabit
Saturday, 13. August: FKA SIX
Position 04: Olga Hohmann und Antonia Nannt
The Bling Ring Center
with: Olga Hohmann, Antonia Nannt
curated by: Pola van den Hövel, Marlene A. Schenk, Laura Helena Wurth
Venue: FKA SIX, Ring Center 1, Frankfurter Allee 111, 10247 Berlin-Friedrichshain
Sunday, 14. August: mp43
Let’s follow the trail!
with: Sreymao Sao, Sopheak Sao
curated by: Carola Rümper
Venue: mp43, Stollberger Straße 73, 12627 Berlin-Marzahn
Monday, 15. August: Pansion Projects
Unrealized project
with: Hannaeh Heydari, Hadi Sadeghi Pour, Rouzbeh Gholami, Hamed Dehqan, Verena Gotthardt
curated by: Rouzbeh Gholami & Verena Gotthardt
Venue: (tba)
Tuesday, 16. August: BETON
Waxed City
with: Anaïs Edely
curated by: BETON Berlin
Venue: (tba)
Wednesday, 17. August: Medium P
with: Maria Cozma & Nik Geene/Andrew Wagner & Sebastian Brank
Venue: Medium P, Oranienstraße 173, 10999 Berlin-Kreuzberg
Thursday, 18. August: WIRWIR
Falling, fleeing, flailing, soaring, succeeding, failing
with: Shira Wachsmann, Michelle Lai, Nina Katchadourian, Estelle Hoy
coordinated by: April Gertler & Adrian Schiesser
Venue: WIRWIR, Stuttgarter Str. 56, 12059 Berlin-Neukölln
Friday, 19. August: Scherben
Tischgruppe wandert
with: Georg Thanner, Natalia Gurova, Anastasiya Levchuk, Felix Krapp
curated by: Scherben
Venue: Billard Café, Leipziger Str. 58, 10117 Berlin-Mitte
Saturday, 20. August: La Datcha
The Future is Dark…I Think
with: Maggie Groat, Ella Dawn McGough, Jessica Groome
coordinated by: Jessica Groome
Venue: Quartier Napoleon, Eichenweg 37, 13405 Berlin-Wedding
Sunday, 21. August: Make-Up
Ruderal Practices
with: Jérémie Le Hénaff, Tom Mayer, Paula Löffler, Frida Zack
Workshops by: Marina Resende Santos & Jakob Wirth
curated by: Maria Paula Maldonado & Sarah Godfrey
Venue: Make-Up, Papierstraße. 11, 13409 Berlin-Reinickendorf
Monday, 22. August: Mental Health Arts Space
The Bluest Archive: Black Rememory and Resistance
with: Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Anike Joyce Sadiq, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Rosie Olang’ Odhiambo
curated by: Kathy-Ann Tan
Venue: Mental Health Arts Space gUG, Kaiserdamm 109, 14057 Berlin-Charlottenburg
Tuesday, 23. August: with the rubbles of old palaces
SMASHED: Speaking Histories of Insurrection
with: Pablo Giménez Arteaga, Hannah O’Flynn, Niall O’Flynn, Ian Nolan, Michelle Turley
curated by: Hannah O’Flynn & Vita Buivid
Venue: with the rubbles of old palaces, Grossbeerenstraße 14, 10963 Berlin-Kreuzberg
Wednesday, 24. August: FORTUNA
Postindependent
with: Julia*n Meding, Nathan Powless-Lynes (ao)
curated by: Anna Zett & Johanna Ackva
Venue: FORTUNA, Karl-Marx-Str. 127, 12043 Berlin-Neukölln
Thursday, 25. August: SCHNEEEULE
Haus und Hof
with: Deniz Dogan, Till Kalischer, Nicole Messenlehner, Rainer Neumeier, Suzy van Zehlendorf
Venue: Cafe Finovo, Alter St. Matthäus Kirchhof, Großgörschenstraße 12-14, 10829
Berlin-Schöneberg
& Blumenladen nebenan
Friday, 26. August: super bien!
Abluft
with: Max Brück
curated by: Elisabeth Sonneck
Venue: super bien!, Schwedter Str. 232, 10435 Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg
Saturday, 27. August: Cittipunkt
Welches Wissen von wem oder was für wen oder was?
by and with: Alexis Hyman Wolff, Max Stocklosa, Asta Lynge, Frieder Haller, Jakob Ohrt, Elif Saydam
Venue: Cittipunkt, Brüssler Straße 36A, 13353 Berlin-Wedding
Sunday, 28. August: +DEDE
images moving inside a surface
with: Yon Natalie Mik, Anne Gathmann, Alizée Lenox
Venue: Modellpark Berlin-Brandenburg – An d. Wuhlheide 81, 12459 Berlin-Köpenick
Monday, 29. August: Apartment Project
We Are Not Familiar With a Generation That Has No Understanding of Sadness
with: BAÇOY KOOP
Venue: Apartment Project, Hertzbergstraße 13, 12055 Berlin-Neukölln
Tuesday, 30. August: Das Haus der Tödlichen Doris
An Paenhuysen presents: “Die Galerie Eisenbahnstraße befindet sich in der Manteuffelstraße”
with Multiples by: Lucius Burckhardt, Chris Dreier, Ueli Etter, Karl-Heinz Eckert, Heinz Emigholz,
Hannes Hauser, Birgit Knop, Sabine Maria van der Linden, Michael Morris, Wolfgang Müller, Max
Müller, Eva-Maria Ocherbauer, Moritz Reichelt, Martin Schmitz, Christian Stock
Venue: Dreiwerkraum, Prinzenstrasse 96, 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg (tbc)
Wednesday, 31. August: Neun Kelche
Management: Kira Dell & Laura Seidel
Teabags on Eyelids
by: Barbora Zentková & Julia Gryboś
Venue: Neun Kelche, Pasedagplatz 3-4, 13088 Berlin-Weißensee