Katharina Rohde has been commissioned to conceptualize and curate Experimental Urban Landscapes, a series of public interventions in collaboration with artists, architects and city planners for the celebration´s of the 50th anniversary of Gropiusstadt in August 2012!

Berlin’s´ oldest Satellite town by Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2012. Built to quickly respond to the lack of housing in Post- war Berlin, the Gropiusstadt has been an architecture icon of modernity until today. An urban experiment not without controversies but also potentials. On the one side the inhabitants of Gropiusstadt suffer from the anonymity and isolation of the provoking uniformity of the giant housing blocks and urban junctions are still missing, but many of the people living there have become convinced inhabitants that can relate to their living environment particularly because of its many green. This urban experiment receives ongoing impulses from the outside, e.g. the continuous influx of people from all over the world and is not yet completed!

On the occasion of its 50th anniversary the inhabitants and activists, the housing associations, city planners, architects, artists, historians and researchers want to reflect and devise, celebrate and plan the past, the present but particularly the future of Gropiusstadt.

Commissioned by Kulturnetzerk Neukölln.
 Funded by Foundation Lotto.

teilen | share

Working with Urban Management students from the Planning Laboratory of the Technical University of Berlin, Katharina Rohde investigates urban strategies for culturally diverse neighborhoods. Using the example of Karl- Marx- Straße in Berlin Neukölln, participatory approaches are developed to device ideas and wishes of people of different cultural backgrounds in the area for the urban redevelopment of the street. In collaboration with local actors and students various urban interventions are developed that propose ways of re- using space or simply create moments of conceivable future scenarios.

Contributions to Paradise has been selected as Highlights for the 48 hours Arts and Culture festival happening from 15th to 17th June 2012. Four of the developed urban interventions will be realized for the festival. To find out more please visit: www.48-stunden-neukoelln.de

Contributions to Paradise is funded by the Cultural Office Neukölln.

teilen | share

In cooperation with young women originating from Lebanon, Palestine and Turkey, Katharina Rohde develops guided city tours for Berlin Neukölln. Focussing on the aspects of the Village and the Metropole that co- exist in the area, the tours explore the impact of the ethnic village in the neighborhood. Which cultures and communities are presented? How far do those remain isolated and within their own communities? Are local ethnic villages connected to the villages in their home countries? Where do ethnic villages overlap, meet each other and start creating new common identities?

The tours will walk through the village (Böhmisches Dorf) and the Metropole (Karl- Marx- Straße) and stop at interesting activities and sites that can be an integration course, a turkish supermarket or typical german corner pub. First tours will start as part of the 48 hours arts and culture festival from June 15th to June 17th 2012 and can be booked  here

The project is part of the Workshop Series Participation of youth in City Planning initiated by the Cultural Office of Berlin Neukölln in 2009.

The project is a collaboration with Route 44, a city tour company that focusses on working with female immigrants living in Berlin Neukölln.

teilen | share

An Exhibition curated by Katharina Rohde

Featuring works by artists:
Buhlebezwe Siwani
Keabetswe Mokwena & Reatile Mokwena
Claire Rousell, Sipho Charles Gwala

The exhibition Just do it! Creative strategies of Survival shows site-specific interventions that deal with the phenomena of local small scale enterprises like Spaza shops, highlighting the challenges, struggles & opportunities that come with informal entrepreneurship. Five emerging South African Artists have been engaging with Spaza Shops in Alexandra in order to learn more about this small scale entrepreneurship. Investigating daily activities, marketing strategies, social interaction & alternative business models the artists in collaboration with shop owners, customers & the greater community have developed creative outcomes for the show.Art works will be presented in & around the participating Spaza Shops!

exhibition website: http://apexart.org/exhibitions/rohde.php

photos of the opening: apexart, Vusi Khosa

review on JHB live! Art on Alex Street

Summit TV Business and Arts South Africa

artists_curator info

teilen | share

teilen | share

Das Projekt SlangWorX_Sprache in Bewegung beschäftigt sich mit Sprache und Kommunikation von Jugendliche im interkulturellen Kontext. Mimik, Gestik, Körpersprache, Slang wurden erforscht, untersucht und in Bewegung übersetzt.

Ein Projekt von Katharina Rohde in Zusammenarbeit mit Diane Busuttil & Jan Burkhardt.

Doku: http://vimeo.com/34406450

Projektblog http://slangworx.tumblr.com/

teilen | share

Die inhaltliche Neu- Strukturierung des Festes erfolgt durch die Erweiterung des Angebots: Das Bühnenprogramm wird am Sonnabend, dem 18.6. durch zahlreiche Tanz- und Bewegungsgruppen gestaltet, die das ganze internationale – nicht nur Neuköllner – Spektrum von Capoeira bis Rap präsentieren, immer wieder aufgelockert durch bzw. mündend in Mitmach – Workshops; abends wird der ganze Platz ein großer Tanzboden.

Am Sonntag, dem 19.6. wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Chorverband Berlin ein interkontinentales Chorprogramm entwickelt, in dem alle möglichen Varianten von Chorgesang – von Kindern bis Senioren, von Afrika bis Buckow – zu hören sein werden, auch hier immer wieder mündend in gemeinsames Singen.

Auch bei den Ständen wird es Überraschungen geben. Neben der sehr beliebten multikulturellen kulinarischen Vielfalt sind neue Vereine, Initiativen, Projekte und kreative Menschen eingeladen, sich und ihre Kultur auch in anderen Formen zu präsentieren. Hierzu zählen z.B. die jungen Kreativen Neuköllns, wie Modemacher und Designer, aber auch thailändische Massage- Studios und interkulturelle Gärten. Des Weiteren wird es einen Basar geben, wo Produkte angeboten werden können und getrödelt werden soll.

Eine weitere Bereicherung des Festes in diesem Jahr sind verschiedene Initiativen, die von Jugendlichen und Kindern organisiert sind. Junge Menschen aus Gruppen wie den 44 Kings & Queens oder der Kieztankstelle, zeigen auf kreative und interaktive Weise, was sie interessiert, womit sie sich beschäftigen und wie sie ihren Kiez erleben und mitgestalten. Außerdem werden Illustratoren aus dem Kiez als Marktzeichner unterwegs sein und das bunte Geschehen an dem Wochenende künstlerisch darstellen.

Die Festarchitektur wird mit unterschiedlichen gestalterischen Elementen entwickelt. Zum einen gibt es wieder die typischen Feststände, darüber hinaus werden leere Getränkekisten als Bausteine eingesetzt. Hieraus entstehen Infosäulen, Sitzgelegenheiten, Mitmachbühnen. Als „aktiver Schutz“ der neuen Bepflanzung am Platz wurden in Kunstprojekten mit Kindern der Richard-Grundschule und Künstlerinnen ein phantastischer „Botanischer Garten“ entwickelt.

In 2011 the oldest intercultural festival of Berlin is happening for its 29th time. The street festival is an important symbol for the successful integration of associations, institutions and migrant as well as indigenous inhabitants not only for Neukölln but for Berlin in general- as the intercultural capital of the republic.

Kiez International Relaunch: a re- thinking of the concept in the context of current migration- as well as cultural- political challenges is needed. In order to develop a new future a re- structuring of content has to happen, participatory modes of presentation need to be tested and the infrastructure has to be developed further.

New conceptualization of Kiez International: assigned by The Cultural Office of Neukölln and the Cultural Network Neukölln.

teilen | share

As part of ohrenstrand.net Berlins Netwerk for curious listening. Funded by the New Music Network, a sponsoring program of the German Cultural Foundation and the Cultural Administration of Berlin.

teilen | share

teilen | share

As part of the Workshop series aiming for participation of local youth into the urban upgrading program “Karl- Marx- Straße” (KMS) in Berlin Neukölln, a student magazine was developed.

Given the task to approach a shop along KMS, 21 students of Sankt Marien School went out as reporters in order to search for stories, telling backgrounds and circumstances of business owners but further more pointing out existing potentials and visions of the mostly ethnic economies for the local urban development.

Read more www.katharina-rohde.com/lang/de/kms
The realization was made possible with the support of [Aktion! Karl-Marx-Straße], the Cultural Office Neukölln and Sankt Marien School Neukölln.

teilen | share

Borriolah Gha Magazine African Artzine
Concept & Publisher: Spunk Seipel
with contributions about and from:

/+=X, Yinka Akingbade, Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, Grace Atuhaire, Nicaise Balou, Angelika Böck, Johannes Buss, Dan Halter, Falko Henning, Mooimark Show, Gabi Ncobo, Orokie Okoth, Samuel Olow, Oliver Ressler, Katharina Rohde, Sylvie Rodriguez, Royalafrican.org, Anna Schneider, Birgit Anna Schumacher, Spunk Seipel, Robert Sloon, Gudrun F. Widlok.

teilen | share

A film about the design and appropriation of public space in Soweto, Johannesburg. This film developed as a competition entry for the Moving Spaces Competition and was awarded for its realization. “Touching benches” was screened as part of the Architect Africa Film Festival in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Link to Video: http://www.vimeo.com/15355273

Special thanks to Thiresh Govender from urban works, architecture & urbanism.

teilen | share

teilen | share