Preview 2024
8 June - 4 August 2024
A MATTER OF MATERIAL
On Urban Ruins and Natural Resources
With Lara Almarcegui, Stefan Shankland, Robert Smithson, in cooperation with Anna Saint-Pierre und raumlaborberlin
The exhibition A Matter of Material explores the significance of rock, demolition materials, and rubble. It brings together three artists dedicated to found materials and substances from the natural and built environment: While land art pioneer Robert Smithson built a gigantic spiral of basalt rocks in 1970 and documented it on film, Lara Almarcegui’s focus is on making raw and built materials visible. Stefan Shankland has documented the park’s natural and human mineral heritage and collected the materials left behind from the demolition of former Spreepark buildings. Shankland transforms this material into art by granting this so-called “waste” a new purpose and value.
Shankland’s artistic practice is characterized by working with material originating from the park, which can also be observed by visitors on-site at RE.USE.UM, an open-air atelier built in cooperation with raumlaborberlin. Stefan Shankland will develop two new works of art for the exhibition, including one in cooperation with scientist and designer Anna Saint-Pierre.
25 August - 20 October 2024
The Gray Voice Ensemble
A Wonderful World
Presented by Kinderhook & Caracas
A Wonderful World conjures the afterlife of a broken-down amusement park ride, leading visitors through scenes and soundtracks inhabited by ghosts of the past, present and future. The Gray Voice Ensemble has been invited by Kinderhook & Caracas – a Berlin project space run by artists Sol Calero and Christopher Kline – to collaborate on developing an installation and performance that incorporates various relics of the Spreepark, drawing on the magic of ruins and discarded objects. The interdisciplinary ensemble works under the direction of composer Elisabeth Wood, using intergenerational dialogue and collective authorship to create a site-specific musical piece that can be experienced both live and as an immersive installation with audiovisual elements.
9 November 2024 - 5 January 2025
Past Pleasure
Exhibition · Oral History · Installations
In collaboration with Constructlab (Alexander Römer und Peter Zuiderwijk), Christian Hiller, Anne Waak u.a.
The exhibition Past Pleasure is dedicated to the park as a place where generations of visitors have enjoyed themselves. Through objects, photographs, and contemporary documents, it brings the history of the park (back) to life, from the Kulturpark Plänterwald of the GDR era to the Spreepark Berlin, which closed shortly after the turn of the millennium. Individual chapters from the park’s history are examined, invariably looking at the flipside and the question: pleasure by whom, for whom? The many stories and the history of the park are made tangible in an exhibition design that displays archival material and objects of various origins, and the scenic nature of the amusement park becomes a key design principle. Through scenographic rooms and audio installations, accounts of the protagonists are interwoven with historical documents and found objects from the Spreepark. The installation Spree Space Act by Constructlab (Alexander Römer and Peter Zuiderwijk) extends the exhibition into the park itself.