“It is sad to think that places like this represent the beginning of the end” this is what a friend of mine told me during the performative lecture carried out on July 26, 2014, at the project space uqbar by Eva Kietzmann and Petra Kuebert, Berlin.
Again and again the paradox of gentrification that takes place at a relatively slow pace in supposed-to-be unattractive districts where to live (like Wedding or Kreuzberg before it became gentrified), which through a dwelling process by mostly young and creative people become new fancy neighborhoods with plenty of bars and alternative culture. In more central parts of the city urban planning assumes another form, mostly where there are empty spots “hunted” by private investors whose aim is to create a new exclusive concept of living: luxurious apartments and urban villages. Contemporary architecture and money create parallel worlds, cutting out middle-class city dwellers who cannot afford the soaring prices, and are therefore excluded from enjoying the “Garden of Eden”. A plant is the protagonist of the project living resorts, the goldenrod (solidago gigantea), and its presence represents a statement against this development. Visible in the dying wasteland of Berlin’s inner city, the goldenrod thank to the artists enters a project space and eventually takes possession of an already existing urban environment by being planted in a flowerbed in front of the entrance. The concept of social sculpture forged by Beuys meets a sort of guerrilla gardening action. What is it all about? To consider wasteland, not heavily urbanized areas as completing and necessary part of the city. This resistant, two meters high, star-shaped flowering plant stands for public, common grounds instead of privatization for the few.
* Refrain verse from “Breed” by Nirvana
Ipazia 