Königsheide: Berlin’s woodland is explored artistically – CLB Berlin | 09.11-20.11.2022

Four artists go on a personal and historical search for clues and discover all kinds of amazing things. Their partly interactive approaches will be presented from 8 November 2022 in the exhibition “Königsheide – an explorative approach” at the CLB Berlin on Moritzplatz. Participatory activities will also invite visitors to experience the urban forest for themselves, to try out their creativity and to become part of the project.

Image above: Fotografie: Dagie Brundert

Under the title Königsheide – an explorative approach, the artists Dagie Brundert, Katrin Emler (katrinem), Birgit Szepanski and Maike Zimmermann dedicate themselves to the 110-hectare mixed forest in the district of Treptow-Köpenick. Their very different approaches give visitors a multi-faceted approach to the history and present of this unique urban forest.

Using pinhole cameras – self-made devices whose mode of operation is as old as photography itself – Dagie Brundert transforms her impressions of the Königsheide into atmospheric black-and-white photographs. She develops these with a home-brewed solution consisting of barks, berries, leaves and mosses that she has collected in the forest. The photographs can be seen in the CLB as well as in the Königsheide. Brundert proceeds in a similar way with Super 8 films. In a workshop on 6 and 8 November, visitors can learn this experimental developing technique for themselves.

Individual perception is the focus of katrinem’s work. She invites the visitors to experience the place Königsheide sensually in a 5 km long sound walk. How does it sound and feel to step out of the urban space into the space of the forest? How do these different spaces affect one’s own body, walking, constitution? Alternating between inside and outside perception, the walkers can experience and reflect on their own senses and their surroundings. The Sound Walks Path of Awareness_Encounter_Encounter will take place on 11 and 13 November.

In her documentary research work Missing Stories, Birgit Szepanski questions Königsheide for empty spaces of memory. Shielded from public view by the forest, there were forced labourer barracks on the site in the 1940s. Among them was a so-called B-barrack – a brothel – where women were forced into prostitution. The artist remembers these women in a symbolic performance: she tries to hang a dress on an imaginary nail, over and over again. But the dress always falls to the floor. Szepanski’s research results and a documentation of the performance can be seen at the CLB. 

Fact and fiction, the real and the digital world intermingle in Maike Zimmermann’s work The Layering of Time and Memory, a preliminary work for a video walk with augmented reality elements planned for 2023 in Königsheide. A mix of nature observations, paired with eyewitness interviews and fictional elements and accompanied by a mysterious forest creature, an avatar figure created from plant textures, the AR video walk invites visitors to an incomparable exploration of the forest. On display at the CLB are preliminary video works as well as photos of the project.

The exhibition was initiated by Maike Zimmermann as part of the [city]Frequency project series, which artistically explores urban spaces and has already made stops in New York and London. Maike Zimmermann discovered Königsheide during the Corona Lockdowns 2020/2021. 

Maike Zimmermann: “For me, the Königsheide developed as a refuge during the Corona Lockdown. I was looking for a place where I could be close to nature and retreat with as few people as possible. Actually a difficult thing to do in a big city, even during the lockdown. The first time I cycled through the forest. I remembered my childhood, when I let myself drift, explored new places, made up stories and adventures. King’s Heath gave me back that carefree, peaceful and inspiring feeling. On further trips I started taking photos, video and audio recordings. I focused on textures e.g. tree bark, leaves, insects, birds. The more I went there, the more the King’s Heath became a significant place for me. The pandemic has changed the perception of natural spaces for many people. One of the goals is to positively sharpen this perception and to upgrade the appreciation of natural spaces in order to deepen public awareness on the issue of climate change.”

The exhibition is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), NeuStartKulur and the BBK.

All dates and events at a glance

Königsheide – an explorative approach. 
By and with Dagie Brundert, katrinem, Birgit Szepanski and Maike Zimmermann.
Art exhibition as part of the project series [city]Frequency.

WHEN?

Opening
Tuesday, 08.11.2022, 6.00-9.00 pm

Opening hours
09.11.2022 – 20.11.2022
daily: 2.00-8.00 pm

Finissage 
Sunday, 20.11.2022, 2.00-6.00 pm

WHERE?

Location
CLB Berlin 
Prinzenstr. 84.2
10969 Berlin
www.clb-berlin.de

MORE DATES

Super 8 Workshop (Dagie Brundert)
A small group of 5 people, a Super-8 camera, black and white film. We go into the forest and let ourselves be guided by mood and chance. We film and collect the ingredients for the development afterwards: What the forest gives us (bark, leaves, mushrooms, ferns, lichens, berries …). We brew a “forest tea” from it: the essence of the forest! Mixed together with washing soda and vitamin C powder, it makes a powerful broth that has the ability to transform silver salts into metallic silver – the magic of photography, the making, the making visible of an image. The resulting film is shown as a digital version in the gallery.

Sunday, 06.11.2022, 11.00 am – 3.00 pm
Workshop part 1 in Königsheide – forest walk, filming and collecting ingredients, meeting point: Schöneweide S-Bahn station (exit downstairs)

Tuesday, 08.11.2022, 6.00-8.00 pm
Workshop Part 2 at the CLB – Cooking bio-developers and developing film as performance during the exhibition opening

Registration: icke@dagiebrundert.de, kontakt@clb-berlin.de 

Urban Sound Walk: Path of Awareness_Encounter_Encounter (katrinem).
A performative sound walk from Baumschulenweg S-Bahn station through Königsheide to Schöneweide S-Bahn station. The sound space that is walked through begins in built-up space and changes to a grown space, a sparse mixed forest of pines and oaks, and ends again in built-up space. Along the way, the respective times of day, week and year can be experienced. Spaces dominated by the moving sounds of our traffic systems and the reflections of various architectures change to green spaces full of atmospheric and locatable sounds. The path is a continual entering and emerging from one sound space into another.

Friday, 11.11.2022, 5.00 pm
Sunday, 13.11.2022, 11.00 am
Duration: 2 hours each
Start: Baumschulenweg S-Bahn station (exit Baumschulenstraße/Glanzstraße)
End: Schöneweide S-Bahn station
Please note: sturdy shoes, possibly rain jacket, drinks. Avoid heavy bags

Registration: walk@katrinem.de, kontakt@clb-berlin.de