Berlin is fighting for the city, for social housing and democratic urban cooperation. Defensive anti-gentrification struggles have turned into community-building practices – city initiatives get involved and propose concrete visions for urban politics oriented to the common good. This creates hope, since the housing question is one of the most important social questions of our time. In this context HAU Hebbel am Ufer is continuing its engagement with Berlin, opening the new season with an interdisciplinary programme, foregrounding local movements.
The starting point is a work HAU commissioned from Christiane Rösinger, “City under Influence – The Musical on the Housing Question”. Along with other artistic works, discussions and concerts, the festival will open up a space where cultural workers and local city initiatives can thematise de-privatisation, (post-)migrant urban life and the preservation of everyday and cultural spaces. As part of the ten-day festival Hans-Werner Kroesinger & Regine Dura will present the reading “MIETSACHEN” and She She Pop will bring back their prize-winning production “Oratorium”. There’s also the panel “Wunschkonzert: City and Quality of Life”, an event on “20 Years of amSTARt: Music Culture in Berlin“, concerts by Special-K, Egill Sæbjörnsson and Chris Imler / Soft Grid / Pastor Leumund & Mittekill and parties.
The former post office across from HAU2, which today stands empty, will be transformed during the festival into a project space for urban action, featuring artistic positions and discussions by and with Michael Annoff & Nuray Demir, ARCH+, Julia Brunner & Stefan Endewardt (Kotti-Shop, SuperFuture), Berliner Hefte zu Geschichte und Gegenwart der Stadt, Ebba Fransén Waldhör, Familie Qadri, GuerillaArchitects, Sandy Kaltenborn (image-shift, Kotti & Co, Kotti-Coop), L.A.MÜLLER/Houseclub, Angelika Levi, Mpower Girls FilmclubMpower, OraNostra, Peng! Collective, Derya Yıldırım & Tellavision & Raoul Doré, Gertrud Schulte Westenberg, Ina Wudtke, Zur Transformation des Alternativen
On the last day of the festival (Oct. 5) the former post office will be turned into a big neighbourhood party with Baked Beans, BÄM!, Dabke Community Dancing, Panna Streetsoccer, KMA Antenne, Sisterqueens / Ongoing project, Kulturklasse der Fritz-Karsten-Schule, K A N T I N E Kreuzberg, Fri-X BERG and others.
That evening the “Workshop on Expropriation and Public Housing Ownership” will discuss visions for de-privatisation. Taking part are: AG Starthilfe (Kampagne Deutsche Wohnen &Co. enteignen + Mieter*innenprotest Deutsche Wohnen), AG Starthilfe, Bündnis Otto-Suhr-Siedlung & Umgebung BOSS&U, Kampagne Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen, Kotti & Co, Mieterbeirat Karl-Marx-Allee, Mieterrat Nneues Kreuzberger Zentrum, Mieterprotest Kosmosviertel, Netzwerk kommunal & selbstverwaltet Wohnen (kusWo)Kommunal und selbstverwaltet Wohnen, Kotti & Co, Stadt von unten Unten
