Projekt Weißensee – a floating white surface with an outboard motor and a boat permit for Berlin’s waterways – transforms the idea of an urban free space into a concrete space. An area and a vehicle in one, it offers in several senses an opportunity for situational-artistic spatial research. In its aesthetics, the surface of the raft establishes a direct link to a white surface, similar to that of a white sheet of paper, a white canvas, a projection surface in a double sense of the term.

The tableaus and scenes that emerge here will develop from experiences and things found in Berlin urban space. To encounter the endemic threat of the Berlin landscape with its disappearing diversity of available spaces and empty lots, the sculptural shape of the raft realizes the non-conformist idea of an urban free space beyond all profit-based use of public space.

In an idiosyncratic and thematically complex way, the Weißensee generates an urban spatial experiment in which the Berlin city space is expanded with new plots and possibilities. It is an attempt to withdraw from the controlled use of public space and to define an independent, intentionally autonomous territory that is accessible to all and self-administered.

As a performative Intervention in city space, the Weißensee is moved and used on Berlin waterways. Here, the raft serves not just as a projection surface for the dreams, wishes, and perhaps the fears of those remaining on land. It is also a place of communication combined with a transmitter and invites passersby and those sitting on the shore to observe, participate, and join in. Projekt Weißensee is a counter model to the socio-economic control of urban space and the adventure of making it accessible in a playful and egalitarian sense.

The Projekt Weißensee will be realised in collaboration with Steef van Lent, Ruben Mühlenbruch, Tine Neumann, Stefan Rechsteiner, Andrea Rinaldi, Adam Slowik, Felix J. H. Stumpf and Herfried Waha.