Initiated by the bbk berlin (‘berufsverband bildender künstler*innen berlin’) and the Netzwerk freier Berliner Projekträume und -initiativen (‘network of independent Berlin project spaces and initiatives’), there will be a call for participation in a demonstration on Friday, 29 November 2024 to mark the massive cuts to the Senate’s cultural budget. The funeral march will start at 3 pm from the Neptune Fountain at Rotes Rathaus. The march will pass the city’s museums before reaching the Brandenburg Gate. People are asked to wear black clothing – as a symbol of mourning for art and culture, which are under massive threat from the planned cuts.
With the Berlin Senate’s decision, it has now become known that the cultural budget is to be cut by 130 million euros. With only 2.1%, the culture department already contributes little to the overall budget, but will now be disproportionately burdened with a cut of around 13%. These cuts will hit Berlin’s artistic community in its very foundations. The cuts will permanently destroy the cultural landscape in Berlin. For many artists, their very existence is at stake. The signatories therefore firmly reject the cuts to Berlin’s cultural budget and demand that they be reversed.
What is at stake?
- Loss of studios
- Loss of project spaces and exhibition venues
- Restrictions on municipal galleries: Fewer exhibitions and educational programmes
- Endangerment of artists’ livelihoods: Deprivation of the basis for work and presentation opportunities – this will (once again) push artists into the social systems
- Disappearance of art in the urban space
- Cessation of national and international cultural exchange
- Endangerment of the internationally renowned infrastructure for art production
The association and the network are calling on everyone to stand together and participate in order to protect and defend the diversity and vitality of Berlin’s entire art and cultural scene.
Frauke Boggasch und Birgit Cauer, Speakers of bbk berlin: ‘If the Berlin Senate continues with the massive cuts in the areas of artist funding, artistic research, production and presentation venues, workspaces, projects for art in urban spaces, artistic exchange and cultural education, it will permanently destroy the infrastructures of artistic production and presentation that have been painstakingly built up and constantly supported by artists through unpaid work. The cuts go as far as the discontinuation of funding programmes. This is a disproportionate slashing of the cultural budget. It jeopardises our democracy, which should not only ensure excellence but also diversity, resilience and solidarity.’
Wibke Behrens, Managing Director of kulturwerk des bbk berlin: ‘The historic budget cut of 10% at kulturwerk des bbk berlin primarily affects the production conditions for visual artists: it directly affects the infrastructural substance. We have the largest sculpture, print and media workshops in Europe, where international artists work professionally. The consequences are not yet foreseeable.’
The studio representatives for Berlin at kulturwerk, Lennart Siebert and Julia Brodauf: ‘It is with great dismay that we are taking note of the cuts in the workspace programme (ARP) for the preservation and expansion of artistic workspaces. The studio office at the bbk berlin’s kulturwerk, as the most important partner in the allocation of subsidised studio spaces, will nevertheless continue to fulfil its responsibility and take care of the preservation of production spaces for the visual arts.’
Office for Art in Public Space at the kulturwerk of the bbk berlin, Martin Schönfeld: ‘The Office for Art in Public Space has recorded cuts of 73% for artistic design in urban spaces. This is tantamount to discontinuing the programme. If these cuts remain in place, competition procedures that are already in preparation will have to be cancelled immediately, committed commissions will have to be cancelled and artists will lose opportunities to participate in art projects that address public space and its development prospects. Temporary art projects in public spaces can no longer take place.’
No investment means no future. These cuts are dramatically jeopardising Berlin as an international location.
WHEN?
Friday, 29. November 2024, 3 – 6 pm
WHERE?
Meeting point: Neptune Fountain at the Rotes Rathaus
Route: past museums to the Brandenburg Gate
Desired:
- portable cardboard signs DIN A4 or A3 with black border and slogans on the loss of art and culture in Berlin
- small battery-operated fairy lights – because it’s getting dark in Berlin
- Funeral wreaths made from cardboard, wire and leftover materials from the studio
- ‘grave goods’ made from simple materials for art and culture in Berlin
- Funeral candles, grave candles, flowers
- Posters, cards and information material can be collected either from the bbk berlin (Köthener Str. 44, Mon-Thu 11am-3pm) or from the printing workshop at the bbk berlin’s kulturwerk (Mariannenplatz 2, Mon-Fri 9am-5pm).
