Kleiner Wasserspeicher
Diedenhofer Straße, 10405 Berlin
Elske Rosenfeld
Statements for the Future, 2019/22
Statements for the Future is a 15-minute statement assembled from declarations, manifestos, and lists of demands put forward by working groups and individuals, dissidents, artists and cultural workers, labour unions, women’s groups, as well as gay and lesbian organisations in the autumn and winter of 1989/90. It was first performed on November 9, 2019, the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, at Sala Omnia, a former assembly space of the Romanian Communist Party in Bucharest. Performed again in the “Kleiner Wasserspeicher” (small water reservoir) of Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, the work offers insight into a specific historic moment and situates the dissident history of the Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood within an Eastern European post-socialist context. Many of the demands put forward in 1989/90 speak to present-day issues – including environmental issues – bringing forward continuities of collective organising in moments of transformation.
Kat Austen
This Land is Not Mine, 2021
This Land is Not Mine is a multimedia project that includes an audiovisual installation and a music album with seven songs composed by Berlin-based artist Kat Austen. Realised over the course of two years, This Land is Not Mine melds acoustic and electronic sounds with field recordings in homage to Lusatia, a landscape at the German-Polish-Czech borders that has been ravaged by open cast mining. A modern-day protest album, This Land is Not Mine tells stories about villages lost to the past, rivers harbouring secrets and communities that rebuild in the wake of mine closures. During her performance, Kat Austen will play the entire album, overlaying it with sounds generated from local water samples using adapted scientific instruments. Video projections contextualise the soundscapes and create an immersive journey through contemporary Lusatia.
