HANSAHOOD
Photo: David Brandstätter
Inspired by the RIM that shifts had begun three years earlier in Le Havre, HansaHood took place in Berlin in August 2021. For two weeks, Hansaplatz became a field of research for a team of dancers, architects, visual artists, utopians and story collectors.
The Hansaviertel was built for the Interbau of 1957 as a model of the "city of tomorrow", and that aspiration accompanied us throughout. Today the district brings together very different lives: new owners drawn by its architecture, older residents who have lived there since it was built, and people without a home – with whom we also worked, and for whom we spoke up in a neighbourhood not free of conflict.
Even before the Covid crisis, we had been looking for the forces that hold a society together. What role does public space play, and how can it be shaped to bring people closer? We wanted to give the body back to a place that needs it as a point of reference, measure and centre, and to reopen public space as a place of encounter: together with the neighbourhood, a social sculpture for another "city of tomorrow".
Over two weeks, HansaHood built, toasted, dined, danced, looked around, had visions, sparkled, fell and rose again, went on parade, performed and exhibited – as the programme below unfolds day by day. The neighbourhood was invited to tell its stories, come along, shape things, and become part of it.
What stayed was the sculpture on the square in front of the Hansa Library. It remained for another three months, holding the memories, interviews and photos collected during the project.
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Programme, 16–29 August 2021
Unless otherwise stated, events began at the Kaiser Friedrich Gedächtniskirche, Händelallee 20, Berlin-Tiergarten.
HANSAHOOD builds. Mon 16 – Fri 20
Mon 16 – Fri 20 Daily from 12:00 – 18:00
The interactive sculpture "Slats and Mats: a Basmesepiton" was created on the square in front of the Hansa Library. By and with Marc Vatinel and Dorian Guérin.
The sculpture forms a scaffold to which found objects, documents, research collected or created in the course of HANSAHOOD were attached and exhibited. Everyone was invited to add their own finds. It remained in place until 31 October.
HANSAHOOD toasts. Fri 20
Fri 20 20:00 Handover and inauguration of the sculpture at the Hansa Library.
With landscape architect Marc Vatinel, choreographer David Brandstätter, dramaturg Uwe Gössel.
The neighbourhood was invited to welcome the HansaHood sculpture and to meet us in a festive atmosphere.
HANSAHOOD dines. Tue 24
Tue 24 17:00 – 20:00 Collecting wild herbs and eating together with Inés Lauber.
Bringing people together, that has always been one of the most important functions of food – and the search for it. It was amazing what this urban environment of the Hansa district has to offer as a food source. Inés Lauber, one of the protagonists of the "New Food Culture" and a "Slow Food" activist, has long been studying the wild plant world and eating habits of the most diverse cultures. Together with her, we walked through the Hansa Quarter and got to know what tastes good and is healthy; afterwards, she shared some of her recipes and led the preparation of a festive menu using the delicacies of the local plant world.
Kaiser Friedrich Memorial Church. With the kind support of Domberger Brot-Werk and Dieter Kosslick.
HANSAHOOD dances. Tue 24 – Thu 26
Tue 24 – Thu 26 16:00 – 18:00 "CONCRETE MOVES FOR TOMORROW".
Movement workshop with David Brandstätter (open to all).
We can use the body as a filter and lens to feel ourselves as inhabitants in our neighbourhood. The body finds answers to questions we have often not yet asked.
HANSAHOOD takes a look around. Wed 18, Fri 20, Thu 26
Wed 18 14:00 – 15:30 & 18:00 – 19:30 "Living Neighbourhoods – Amazing Nature in the Hansa Viertel".
Excursion with ecologist Hans Christian Offer.
Unknown Neighbourhoods: How does urban nature influence our coexistence? Which creatures are part of the garden design, which have established themselves naturally? We followed the ecologist on unusual paths and got to know what else lives in the Hansa district – with us, by us, from us.
Fri 20 18:00 – 19:00 "Magical Mystery Tour" with Marc Vatinel. The landscape planner and architect led a tour through the neighbourhood and gave fascinating insights into the mysterious world of plants.
Thu 26 16:00 – 17:30 "Hostile architecture – a tour." With Andreas Abel, Gangway e.V. Street social work.
Many people look with suspicion at their neighbours without shelter. If they find a temporary home in the Hansa Quarter, survival is hard. For many things here are designed to make it difficult for them to stay in the place. On the tour with the Gangway e.V. initiative, we found out what obstacles there are and how homeless people manage in spite of them.
HANSAHOOD has visions. Thu 19 & 26, Sat 21 – Sun 29
Thu 19 & 26 18:00 – 20:00 "Quo vadis, KFG? – A future workshop"
We collected ideas for the future of the Kaiser Friedrich Gedächtniskirche – HansaHood in cooperation with the creative team of the KFG. Workshop with Uwe Gössel and Henrik Adler.
The Protestant church in Berlin Tiergarten is not immune to the loss of churchgoers and members. What should happen to the listed building of the Kaiser Friedrich Memorial Church in the future? The ideas grew out of the personal memories, experiences and hopes that connect us with religion.
In cooperation with the creative team of the Protestant parish.
Sat 21 – Sun 29 15:00 – 19:00 "Drawing Utopias" at the Platz der Morgenröte – with Martin Kaltwasser "The City of Tomorrow".
The architect and re-use artist Martin Kaltwasser invited the neighbours to draw the future of the Hansaviertel with him. The result was an expansive "building board of utopia". How the utopian can become real today was tested in a workshop on building solar ovens.
In memory of Martin Kaltwasser (1965–2022). Martin, architect, artist and activist, drew the city of tomorrow here with the neighbours of the Hansaviertel. He died unexpectedly on 30 October 2022, at 57. For him, art, architecture and activism were never separate. He was a great artist and a wonderful person, and we miss him.
HANSAHOOD sparkles. Thu 19 & 26
Thu 19 & 26 20:30 Cinema in the KFG church garden: in cooperation with Filmkultur in Moabit e.V. and with the kind support of the ev. parish Moabit. Each film was followed by a discussion.
Thu 19 – MON ONCLE, F 1958, Director: Jacques Tati, 117 min, OmU
With Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati created an icon, an anti-hero in the tradition of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, who with his awkward, gentle, melancholy nature represents the antithesis of everything that is modern in Tati's work: functionality, a lack of history, economy, geometry. Hulot does not fit into modern seating and houses, nor into the thoroughly rationalised world of work. His greatest enemy is technology, his best friends are children, dogs, a singing canary, a convoluted apartment building, the crumbling face of old Paris.
MON ONCLE was made against the background of the economic and social upheaval in France during the so-called Trente Glorieuses (1945-1975). The film won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Followed by a film discussion with architect and urban thinker Carina Kitzenmaier and others.
Thu 26 – DIE SONNENINSEL, Director: Thomas Elsaesser, D 2017, doc, 89 min
Frankfurt's city architect Ernst May and architect Martin Elsaesser became pioneers of New Building in the 1920s. May fled from the Nazis to the Soviet Union, Elsaesser to a secluded island in eastern Berlin. Elsaesser's grandson uses previously unknown amateur footage to tell the story of his famous grandfather's forced dropout existence and a tragic ménage à trois.
For a long time, amateur film had a shadowy existence, especially in film studies. This has been changing for some years and these private films are also becoming increasingly important for contemporary history programmes. For Elsaesser, the exciting thing about these private films is that they often try to show an ideal that does not correspond to reality. For him, they reveal power relations as well as tensions and conflicts. It is a very personal film that reveals some family secrets, namely that grandmother Liesel Elsaesser fell in love with progressive landscape architect Leberecht Migge, with whom she explored possibilities of an alternative life and self-sufficient supply on Sun Island.
HANSAHOOD falls [and rises again]. Sat 21
Sat 21 20:00 Movement workshop "Push Pull" with David Brandstätter (open to all).
In a simple but not easy bodily experiment we discovered our interconnected relationships through our kinesthetics. The sensing of gravity, the sharing of risk and the giving and receiving of support in a cluster of entangled bodies.
HANSAHOOD goes on parade. Fri 27
Fri 27 19:30 Together with the visitors of Ortstermin, we paraded through the neighbourhood.
From and with David Brandstätter, Malgven Gerbes, Thiago Granato, Katell Hartereau, Léonard Rainis.
HANSAHOOD performs. Sat 28, Sun 29
Sat 28 17:30 "concrete moves for tomorrow" at the Kaiser Friedrich Gedächtniskirche
Sun 29 11:30 Performance in the garden of the Hansa Library followed by an artist talk, in cooperation with Offen für Kultur/Hansabibliothek.
HANSAHOOD exhibits. Sun 29
Sun 29 17:30 Final presentation at the sculpture in front of the Hansa Library with exchange and discussion.
Team & credits
With Henrik Adler, David Brandstätter and Malgven Gerbes (shifts), Adrienne Goehler, Uwe Gössel, Dorian Guérin, Katell Hartereau and Léonard Rainis (le pôle), Thiago Granato, Martin Kaltwasser, Oscar Loeser, Frauke Niemann, Marc Vatinel + guests
Production shifts – art in movement
With the support of Fonds Darstellende Künste, with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media within the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR; DRAC Normandie; Région Normandie
