with contributions by: Dennis Fuchs, Georg Scherlin, Stefanie Rübensaal & Anna Firmberger
4 pm: performative introduction and activation of the work by and with Georg Scherlin
6 pm: performance by Rübensaal & Firmberger

Location: Upper most pool at the beginning of the waterfall (the one with the mini island)
Click here for exact location on maps

The intervention will be culinary accompanied by Mobile Menu #17- Kreuzberger Brotzeit

stay hungry presents the new intervention series Zur Verkieselung des Stadtraumes which will take place in three parts in Berlin's public space in 2023 and 2024, starting with the first intervention on the historical perspective of urban modifications with site-specific works and contributions by Dennis Fuchs, Georg Scherlin, Stefanie Rübensaal and Anna Firmberger on 02.09.23 from 2-8 pm at the upper most pool of the waterfall in Viktoriapark/ Kreuzberg.

Zur Verkieselung des Stadtraumes examines on the basis of three selected sites in Berlin, each symbolizing a temporal perspective of change - the past, the present and the future - those significant but also silent modifications of urban architecture by city planning measures and their influence on the people who inhabit or use them. For this purpose places are selected that offer potential for reflection on the achievements and failures of transformation processes through their specific histories of origin. The linking and merging of local historical, cultural and urban political parameters from different temporal perspectives found in such processes play a central role for the project and form the basis of the artistic contributions and investigations. The transformation of urban landscape and architecture is an essential part of the formation and formulation of urban space and the basis for the continuation of cultural as well as social development of an urban society, which in its process of emergence and the nature of its intentions, however, also holds potential for conflict.

The title of the intervention series plays with the concept of silicification, which can be found in connection with geological-chemical processes, as well as in the construction sector, in which, generally speaking, stone changes in its structure through external influence or is even formed in the first place. A connection can be made here to social processes within the constant change of urban environment with all their layerings, overlappings and concentrations, which take place in cities. A silicification in urban space also causes a compression of the common living space and accompanying positive as well as negative changes.
 

Zur Verkieselung des Stadtraumes
1- Die Vergangenheit

The first part of the series is dedicated to the artificial park and waterfall in Viktoriapark on the slopes of the Kreuzberg and its history and changes over time.
The Kreuzberg, then called Tempelhofer Berg, was an idyllic place where wine was grown on its slopes before the Nationaldenkmal für die Befreiungskriege, designed by Schinkel, was opened in 1821 on what was then the highest mountain on the outskirts of Berlin. The construction of the tower-shaped national monument, however, was to fundamentally change the place and shortly thereafter the so-called Tivoli was built, an amusement place in the green, which attracted more and more Berliners to the countryside. Thus, over the next decades, a settlement of houses was built until finally, in 1888, work began on transforming the sandy hill,which then already was called Kreuzberg, named after the iron cross by Schinkel on top of the monument, into a romantic-looking park with a mountain-like character, the so-called Viktoriapark.
At that time, the city of Berlin had already grown up to the Kreuzberg and so it was decided that the national monument, which was threatening to disappear in the thicket of trees and surrounding houses, should be hydraulically lifted with elaborate technology onto a new 8-meter-high plateau, where it still stands today. The park, with its wild and romantic gorges, river passages, authentic mountain flora and waterfalls, was enthusiastically received by Berliners, and further amusement and recreational facilities were built in the park, such as the Victoria Terrassen tavern and a dairy spa with milk fountains.
During the Nazi dictatorship, parts of the underground vaults of the Schultheiss Brewery, located directly on Kreuzberg, were used as secret production facilities for the armament industry, where forced laborers from Eastern Europe had to work under inhumane conditions. The national monument and the park were severely damaged during World War II and rebuilt after the war in a modified form. The currently visible forestation took place in the 1950s. In 1980, Viktoriapark was the first park in West-Berlin to be listed as a historical monument. To this day, the Viktoriapark is freely accessible and is available to a heterogeneous group of users as a performable, urban activity and encounter area.

What was intended over 200 years ago with the construction on the Kreuzberg and the buildings  around it, namely the development of the area and subsequent connection to the urban periphery of Berlin,which was accompanied by major interventions in a formerly natural environment, has today turned into the exact opposite: the Viktoriapark, with its extensive and winding parkland and the still attractive character of the waterfall area, serves as one of Berlin's numerous green lungs and largely unsealed areas, providing a refuge of tranquility and proximity to nature in an increasingly crowded built environment.

In the three artistic contributions by Dennis Fuchs, Georg Scherlin, Stefanie Rübensaal & Anna Firmberger, aspects of the historical changes and contexts, as well as current strategies of use of the Viktoriapark are examined more closely. For this purpose, the artists have developed site-specific works in which questions are asked about the place and its history: What changes does a place need and tolerate? What were and are the strategies of use ? Which new paths can be taken in the culture of remembrance and monumentation? Preserve or destroy? Urbanity vs. or with nature?
The focus is on activating the site through the site-specific works of the invited artists in order to enable visitors and chance passers-by to gain new perspectives and experiences of a place that is perhaps perceived as familiar.