(→ deutsche Version) The exhibition Mapping Along is framed by a series of events – metroZones.Saloons and metroZones.Schools including lectures, roundtables, film screenings and workshops – that examines the making and reading of maps from different perspectives while also exploring the boundaries of mapping.
In the first metroZones.School, the collective and collaborative process of mapping will be practically explored and tested in a hybrid, that is online-offline, format. The object of research will be the location of the exhibition itself – the Bethanien in Kreuzberg and its surroundings, which is historically a contested space. We will ask: who owns Bethanien? How is institutional and local knowledge inscribed in the various localities around the Bethanien? How can memories, experiences and potentials be recorded in a map? How can we map traces of use, memory or ownership in order to describe different modes of spatial appropriations?
The school weekend is inaugurated on Friday evening by a public lecture of Nishat Awan talking about approaches of critical and feminist mapping practices. It is continued by a closed workshop on Saturday, with practical exercises and discussions. It ends on Sunday with a public discussion on the outcomes, framed by questions concerning the ownership structure around Kreuzberg’s Oranienstrasse – one of the busy neighbouring streets of Bethanien, and also by discussing the agency of mapping as knowledge production. The lecture and discussion will be held in English.
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Friday, 23 April 2021, 7 pm (via video stream)
“Mapping Otherwise”
Public Lecture by Nishat Awan, followed by a conversation with Dagmar Pelger und Kathrin Wildner
“Maps of course have a long history of narrating power and they have been instrumental tools in the claiming of territory. Yet, as many contemporary mapping practices have shown, maps can also be used in opposition to dominant narratives. Perhaps a key feature of all maps is their ability to visually depict different realities by distilling and privileging some information over others.“ (Nishat Awan)
Nishat Awan is an architect whose work focuses on the intersection of geopolitics and space, including questions related to diaspora, migration, and border regimes. She leads the research project Topological Atlas at the TU Delft. Topological Atlas produces visual counter-geographies that combine digital mapping and storytelling techniques with a participative approach attending to those who are at the margins of traditional geopolitical inquiry.
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Saturday, 24 April 2021, 10 am – 7 pm
“Who owns Bethanien?”
Workshop with Dagmar Pelger, Kathrin Wildner and an input by Nija-Maria Linke. Location: in and around the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin.
For the workshop on Saturday – including (individual) walks around Bethanien as well as guided mapping exercises – places are limited.
Please register under mappingalong@metrozones.info
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Sunday, 25 April 2021, 11 am – 2 pm (via video stream)
“Mapping as knowledge production, Property, Space and Agencies”
Public discussion with workshop participants and Jörg Franzbecker & Dagmar Pelger, members of the group In Dissent?.
With the group „In Dissent?, we will discuss the materials generated in the workshop in relation to questions of property ownership around Oranienstrasse in Kreuzberg and the agency of map-making as knowledge production.
The nGbK project group In Dissent? Neighbourhood, Gentrification and Artistic Engagement in Oranienstraße (Stefan Endewardt, Joerg Franzbecker, Anna Heilgemeir, Naomi Hennig, Ulrike Jordan und Dagmar Pelger) has examined the situation of commercial tenants and creative practitioners in Oranienstraße, including issues of property ownership, the financialisation of the rental market, displacement and resistance against it. During a series of public workshops, the group worked with initiatives and interested people to appropriate digital mapping tools and map the street.
The outcome of this research, as well as guest contributions on the topics are published in a locally distributed gazette titled Eigentum und Alltag (Property and Everyday Life). In Dissent? also participate in the exhibition Mapping Along with its mapping Eigentum und Alltag in der Oranienstraße, 2021 based on their research project.
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More information about the exhibition Mapping Along
More information about the supplementary programme
Digital reservation of a time slot for visiting the exhibition: here.
Click here for the PDF version of the magazine on the exhibition Mapping Along attached to the taz.die tageszeitung print edition of 16 April 2021.
The project is supported by funds from the Senate Administration for Culture and Europe: the Capital City Cultural Fund, the Fund for Municipal Galleries and the Fund for Exhibition remuneration for visual artists.
