Panels: Claiming Common Spaces

Cities are our homes, our stages, our works. They provide a rhythm and determine how we move through time and space. As early as 50 years ago, the French sociologist Henri Lefebvre wrote his essay “The Right to the City,” in which he describes a city’s structure, architecture and urban life as a mirror image of its society’s challenges. His vision and critical assessment of the future city, where a “space of consumption” will coincide with a “consumption of space,” have long become our common reality. 

Based on these themes, each member of the Bündnis internationaler Produktionshäuser (International Production Houses Alliance) – FFT Düsseldorf, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, HELLERAU - Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Dresden, Kampnagel Hamburg, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt/Main, PACT Zollverein Essen, and tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf – develops a wide-ranging programme that will take place in a shared presentation in the spaces of HAU Hebbel am Ufer and in various outdoor locations in Berlin. “Claiming Common Spaces” brings together artists, urbanologists and activists in order to engage with the most crucial aspects of the diverse, global urban society in the 21st century and observe the current socio-political development of urban centres. 

The programme will open with a lecture by and talk with the urban sociologist Sharon Zukin from New York City who analyses the global transformation of cities through the lens of migration, deindustrialization and gentrification. 

Further panels (with Nicoleta Esinencu, Andrej Holm, Nazan Maksudyan, Renzo Martens, Klaus Ronneberger, AbdouMaliq Simone, Christoph Twickel, among others) and four public laboratories (with Chim↑Pom, Lenio Kaklea, Lukas Matthaei, Erin McElroy, metroZones, Nina Scholz, Jeremy Wade, among others) will discuss and elaborate on specific positions, approaches and strategies that could help us to handle the urban realm. Which role does art play in public spaces? How can cultural centres strengthen their international work in nervous times, and how can international cultural policy interfere? Why does the tech-industry try to invade our inner cities? – in short: Who owns the city?

Last but not least, international artistic works will be presented – concerts, installations and performances – that were developed in and for urban spaces: among them are “Corbeaux,” a piece by the French-Moroccan choreographer Bouchra Ouizguen, and “McDonald’s Radio University” by the Japanese artist Akira Takayama, a lecture series that was developed at McDonald’s restaurants in collaboration with refugee teachers. Further works include the question project “Proyecto Pregunta,” which the artist collective MIL M2 from Santiago de Chile brings to life. Close to HAU2, the inflatable “Bubble Palace” will invite the audience into a space that offers temporary connectivity and exhilaration while also bringing together concerts (Shkoon, One Mother, Boy Division) and various performative interventions.

21.06. / 19:00 / HAU1

Panel: Zur Lage unserer Städte - Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme

With Katalin Gennburg, Ingrid Krau, Christoph Schäfer, Michael Schindhelm
Moderation: Christoph Twickel / German with English translation / Admission 3,00 €

Right after: Sharon Zukins City as Homeland: Building a Culture of Radical Resiliency (Keynote)

22.06. / 11:00 / HAU1

Panel: Solidarity Institutions - Strategien internationaler Kulturpolitik in nervösen Zeiten

With Johannes Ebert, Nicoleta Esinencu, Andreas Görgen, Renzo Martens, Bouchra Ouizguen, Alya Sebti, Annemie Vanackere
Moderation: Priya Basil / German and English with German and English translation / Admission free

22.06. / 16:00 / HAU1

Panel: Kunst. Demokratie. Öffentlicher Raum.

With Amelie Deuflhard, Stefan Hilterhaus, Rüdiger Kruse, Akira Takayama amongst others

German and English with German and English translation / Admission free

22.06. / 20:00 / HAU2

Panel: Stadt als Fabrik - Wie Logistik und Masterpläne das Leben in der Stadt verändern

With Jochen Becker, Klaus Ronneberger, Kathrin Tiedemann, Michael Zinganel
Moderation: Elisa Bertuzzo / Performance: Hauke Heumann / Visuals: Jan Lemitz

German with English translation / Admission free

23.06. / 17:00 / HAU2

Panel: Räume, Praktiken und Perspektiven - Produktionshäuser und Freie Szene
With Verena Billinger, Monika Gintersdorfer, Cindy Hammer, Alexander Karschnia, Sebastian Matthias / Moderation: Janina Benduski and Bettina Masuch / German / Admission free

23.06. / 20:00 / HAU2

Panel: Das Recht auf Stadt - Wie sich städtische Widerstandsformen im Zeitalter der Bewegung neu konfigurieren

With AbdouMaliq Simone (Keynote), Andrej Holm, Sandy Kaltenborn, Nazan Maksudyan
Moderation: Elisa Bertuzzo / German and English with German and English translation / Admission free
A project by the Alliance of International Production Houses, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.