The Archive of utopian Change
Period: September 2024 to August 2026
Sarah Wenzinger, Sarah Afua Asante Ntiamoah
Artistic solidarity research with pupils of the Sophie-Brahe-Gemeinschaftsschule in the Spreepark
Research approach
In ordinary construction and planning processes in the city, children and young people and non-human living beings, places that are no longer usable and forgotten objects have a lot in common. They usually have no voice, no place and no say. The redesign of the Spreepark is a utopian speciality in its citizen participation concept and sustainability focus. This is where we want to start with long-term artistic research.
An archive of the utopian transformation of the Spreepark is to be created through regular workshops, scientific investigations of walks, artistic works with sound, zines, wood, clay, photography and collages, comic surveys, collective cooking activities, collections and critical sorting and playful approaches. The archive will be developed and curated with pupils from the Sophie-Brahe-Gemeinschaftsschule - over the course of two project years, we want to accompany how the Spreepark grows and changes.
Unlike a traditional archive, this collection is about focussing in solidarity on everything that otherwise doesn't get a voice and we probably won't be sorting it from A to Z. Instead of just archiving the past, we are archiving the changes and possible futures of the Spreepark. Based on the needs and interests of the pupils, we want to engage with the non-human creatures, animals, plants and fungi in the area, capture disappearing things, map emotions, collect memories, record sounds and search for utopian ideas and desires that would otherwise not find a place.
