Exploring atopies (placeless): de-generated spaces in Berlin

This workshop explores Atopies, or placeless, abandoned spaces in the urban territory of Berlin. The participants will grow a self-reflective artistic proposal that display the possible interrelations with these atopies as epistemological domains.

Atopy (absence of place), from the Greek – “placeless”, out of place, special, unusual, extraordinary; It is here understood as spaces that were created in a past moment with specific purposes: producing, inhabiting, marketing; places where specific activities were carried out, but that with the passage of time have been left in oblivion, thus degenerating both their primal function as its material and physical structure. In this way, they occupy a placeless in the territory, an abandoned place.

Two main questions serve as a starting point for the workshop:

What elements towards artistic practice and towards individual and collective perception: light, matter, space, sound, forms, structures, social interaction, natural relation, etc. result from these atopies?

What perceptions, emotions, sensations, knowledge, are derived from these spaces towards artists, taking into account their spatial, formal (physical structure), material and social/cultural characteristics?

Departing from the participants own work, the workshop consists of six block sessions, in which we will work individually or in groups from theoretical and practical conceptual bases, discussing case studies that shed knowledge from praxis, with excerpts presented by both facilitator and participants. Also, field trips, previously defined, to three atopies spaces that serves as epistemological areas in the urban context of Berlin will be made.

Schedule

Session 1

Brief introduction of the teacher and participants

Presentation of the workshop: what and how we are going to work.

Map of personal trajectories and experiences.

Theoretical and practical introduction to the subject Atopy, Non-places and Heterotopy as epistemological fields.

Introduction to exploration as a method

Formation of working groups

Guidelines for the development of the final outputs

Sessions 2, 3 and 4

Fieldwork: exploring three atopies in Berlin urban context, studying the interrelation of materials, space and territory, as epistemological domains in these spaces, and preparing a personal practice-based proposal from a self-reflective approach.

Session 5 and 6

Development of a self-reflective artistic proposal that presents in a creative way the relation with the atopy (placeless) and how these spaces could influence their future work

Participants can use different artistic languages and materials for their preparation as well as for their presentation.

Presentation for the group of these proposals.

Fernando Palacios Mateos is an artist, musicologist and performer. His interests are related to sound practices and audiovisual languages. Nature, materials, space and territory are references for his work. His experience is based on researching, teaching, performing, creating and managing for cultural projects.