The City Never Sleeps

Together with the participants, we want to explore the urban space and develop our own tools for the artistic realisation of what we perceive.

Berlin offers many territories and thematic starting points for artistic field research in the sense of the theme called for the Summer University 2024: Territories in which architecture functions as a political statement are just as present in Berlin as the demarcation lines of the formerly divided city. The control of the respective opposite sphere of influence has also left territorial traces with surveillance areas. Brownfields or areas whose use is once again up for discussion today lead from contemporary historical to current urban development discourses. At the same time, there are also brownfields whose reconceptualisation and conversion have already been completed. In addition to areas associated with historical and political issues, topographical territories also come into question for the workshop: rivers, canals and railway lines separate urban areas from one another. Numerous bridges and tunnels create connections that in turn already represent interspaces and can be starting points for artistic fieldworks.

On the basis of concrete site-related questions, the participants will develop their own artistic response. This will take place in individual, pair or group work lasting several hours. What kind of structures mark territorial borders? What colour are they, what material and what size? How are they built? It is about perceiving what surrounds us: about demonstrations of power and insignia of territorial borders in urban space, but above all about the potential of interspaces and transitions, which are to be discovered playfully by means of artistic techniques.

Schedule:

Day 1: Meeting at UdK, lectures and small exercises in space; visit to the memorial of Günter Litfin

Day 2: Bernauer Straße, Jahn Sportpark, Gleimtunnel; field research

Day 3: Teufelsberg: exploration, free working and subsequent presentation

Day 4: Tempelhofer Feld und  Ausstellung “Ein weites Feld”; free working and group consultation

Day 5: Tränenpalast und Ausstellung “GrenzErfahrungen. Alltag der deutschen Teilung”; group working and concluding presentation

(the order of the days may change depending on the opening hours of the places to be visited)

Knowledge requirements

No special requirements. Rather an interest in artistic experimentation and exploration of the city.

Equipment requirements
individual drawing material
 

Ina Bierstedt: artist

*1965 in Salzwedel, former GDR, lives and works in Berlin; 1995 to 2001 studied Fine Arts at University of Arts Berlin (UdK), MFA with Katharina Sieverding;1999 Chelsea College of Art and Design, London; countless exhibitions at German and international institutions and galleries, numerous scholarships and grants, several international curatorial projects; since 2010 lecturer for Fine Arts at UdK Berlin and Kunsthochschule Kassel; 2020 to 2023 Management of the International Artists Forum IKG

https://ikg-art.org/

https://www.inabierstedt.de/

Claudia Beelitz art historian; * 1960 in Magdeburg, former GDR, lives and works in Berlin; studied art history and Slavic studies in Tübingen, Berlin and Bochum; Since 1990 working as curator, project manager, art mediator, lecturer, translator and editor; 2003 doctorate on non-conformist Moscow art of the 1950s to 1980s; 2008 - 2019 Chairwoman of the Kunstverein Tiergarten e.V., Berlin