: Posters made political

Opening: Sven Johne, Mio Okido
September 27, 7–9pm, 7pm
Alexanderplatz, U5 / 20h station urbaner kulturen* 
Discourse days: “Posters made political”
November 10–17 
Opening: Stephan Kurr, mark, Felix Pestemer/GloReiche Nachbarschaft
November 16, 7–9pm, Alexanderplatz, U5 
Opening: Lars Preisser, Katharina Sieverding
November 29, 7–9pm, 19h Alexanderplatz, U5 / 20h station urbaner kulturen* 

The focus of this year’s competition “Posters made political” is the connection between the outlying district of Berlin-Hellersdorf and the Alexanderplatz—the latter being an emblem of the urban downtown hub as well as the original competition venue. Under the motto “Right to the City” artistic projects examine the relationship between urban policy and civic participation, and ask: Who is the city? Who does it belong to?

2018: Sven Johne, Stephan Kurr, mark, Mio Okido, Felix Pestemer and GloReiche Nachbarschaft, Lars Preisser, Katharina Sieverding
 

Sven Johne
Schöne sonnige Neubauwohnungen
Underground station Alexanderplatz, platform U5
until September 4
and station urbaner kulturen, Berlin Hellersdorf*
until September 6

The poster series uses four original press photos from the German National Archive and the the “Berliner Zeitung” newspaper’s archive which were published shortly after the construction of East Berlin’s Hellersdorf district. The artist reproduces them with their original titles and captions – and thereby includes the intended political contextualisation of that time. Image and text are presented without comment in the knowledge that republishing them today is a comment in itself. Beyond GDR nostalgia and despite these images’ obvious agitatory function, as black and white posters today they reference property developers’ advertising boards and their Photoshop middle-class families. The paradigm shift from then to today is made painfully clear: neo-liberal capitalism makes increasingly profitable business from an existential human need—that of housing. Sven Johne asks what is more absurd: a photo caption published in 1987 in the SED’s mouthpiece “Neues Deutschland” which claims that the “Müller Family,” stood in front of their Plattenbau flat, spend just »three percent of their monthly income on rent« or the fact that in today’s Berlin it is 45% a month.

Parallel to his posters at Alexanderplatz, Sven Johne will present a contextualisation of his work in the station urbaner kulturen in Hellersdorf. Opposite the station urbaner kulturen, a block of 150 new flats is about to be built.

Mio Okido
Fotografiert von einem Menschen ohne Wohnung
Underground station Alexanderplatz, platform U5
until September 4

Mio Okido asked homeless people about their perspective on society and invited them to capture this in a photograph. The poster series developed from the photos appropriates the design of the “Photographed with an iPhone” advertising campaign frequently hung at stations, including Alexanderplatz. In contrast to the phone company’s focus on its photos’ high technical quality and on images of a lifestyle aloof of reality, the artist’s posters show Berlin through the eyes of homeless people. The materiality of the photos shot on analog black and white film also contrasts to the advertising campaign’s rich colours and perfectionism.

The artist’s participatory approach focuses on sharing her resources with a group of homeless people. Together they appropriate the right which corporate advertising has to shape the cityscape with its images and stake thereby their claim for a right to the city. The artwork asks questions about participation in society and about who is allowed to represent the city and how.

*station urbaner kulturen
Auerbacher Ring 41, 12619 Berlin
(Entrance: Kastanienboulevard, next to Lebenshilfe e.V.)
Open daily 3–8pm

nGbK project group Kunst im Untergrund 2018: Feben Amara, Jochen Becker, Eva Hertzsch, Constanze Musterer, Adam Page

Financed by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa – Kunst im Stadtraum and supported by BVG and LOTTO-Stiftung Berlin