Past Pleasure
NOVEMBER 10, 2024 - FEBRUARY 23, 2025
With contributions by Doris and Hinrich Baller, Constructlab, Christiane Eisler, Andrea Pichl, Anselm Reyle und Anne Waak, among others.
Curated by Christian Hiller and Spreepark Art Space
An expansive collage of personal memories, photographic snapshots, and artistic reflections, the exhibition Past Pleasure offers humorous and critical insights into the history of the Kulturpark Plänterwald in GDR days and the subsequent Spreepark Berlin.
Divided into three thematic spaces, the exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the many layers of memory. “Welcome to Happiness” is dedicated to “Kulti” as an advertised “meeting place for happy people”. The chapter “Park as a Stage” examines the area as a controlled place of longing for diversity and freedom, featuring, among other things, the Kulturpark photo series by Christiane Eisler, who followed a group of young punks in the Spreepark with her camera in the 1980s. “Behind the Scenes” shows the construction and redevelopment of the park and presents the original planning drawings of the architectural office of Doris and Hinrich Baller. The chapter also casting a light on the drawbacks of the amusement park as well. In her three-part installation Plänterwald, Andrea Pichl explores inscriptions of transformation, decay and loss using small-scale architecture from the park. In his photo series of the same name, Anselm Reyle shows the Spreepark as a haunted scene following its closure.
The memoirs of former visitors and contributors from the amusement park are presented in the audio play Life under the Ferris Wheel by author Anne Waak, providing a unifying narrative. These stories accompany visitors as a mobile audio installation through the exhibition. Inspired by the colourful booths of the Kulturpark itself, Constructlab designed the exhibition architecture as an amusement park backdrop with participatory elements.
Constructlab is also developing a series of interventions dedicated to the Spreepark rides. The installation Spree Space Act 01 was created in 2023 with two large banners and peepholes on the façade of the Werkhalle next to the Eierhäuschen. Parallel to the Past Pleasures exhibition, Spree Space Act 02 is being created, which can be seen from the western waterfront path of the Spreepark and forms a meeting place for the rides and other species by using the former park railway and a new pavilion architecture.
Presented in a mobile archive, Spreepark Art Space offers visitors and contemporary witnesses the opportunity to contribute to the Past Pleasures exhibition themselves - with changing pieces of memory and stories from the amusement park.
OPENING
On the opening day on 10 November from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., visitors will have the opportunity to gain insights into the exhibition from different perspectives. Tours with the curators and artists of the exhibition, neighbours and contemporary witnesses, will share their memories and will bring the history of the Park back to life. Detailed information on the programme will follow here shortly.