The land of Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum is in a state urban transformation. Plans for development are on the horizon. Both municipal authorities and private investors have been drawing up ideas for this wasteland, which was once the boundary between East and West Berlin. At our headquarters, we will host a discussion, which looks at the subversive roles artists can play in urban development, with a focus on site-specific strategies. The talk will be led by 3 experts in their field, Pelin Tan, Andrej Holm, and Matteo Pasquinelli. Stepping beyond a discussion purely on urban theory, the talk is intended to develop strategies for artistic practices in areas of urban renewal which are both critical and self-cognizant. The talk will look at actual approaches to art making as well as the residual affects of being an active artist-participant in this landscape.

Andrej Holm is a social scientist based in Berlin. He works for the Department of Human Geography at the Goethe Universität, Frankfurt/Main, teaches at Humboldt-Universität, Berlin and Leuphana Universität , Lüneburg. His research focuses primarily on urban regeneration, gentrification and international housing policies. Since the 1990s, Holm has been active in diverse grassroots movements and tenants' organizations in Berlin (gentrificationblog.wordpress.org). His recent publications include: Die Restrukturierung des Raumes. Machtverhältnisse in der Stadterneuerung der 90er Jahre in Ostberlin (2006); Urban Renewal and the End of Social Housing. The Roll Out of Neoliberalism in East Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg, in: Social Justice, Vol. 33, No. 3, (2006); Kunst. Produkt. Gentrification, (zusammen mit Matthias Bernt), in: Dillemuth, Stephan; Strau, Josef; Wieder, Axel John (Hg.): Jetzt und 10 Jahre davor. Zu den Verhältnissen von Kulturproduktion und Stadtentwicklung (Katalog Kunstwerke Berlin 2005).

Matteo Pasquinelli is a writer, curator and researcher at Queen Mary University of London. He wrote the book Animal Spirits: A Bestiary of the Commons (2008) and edited the collection Media Activism (2002) and C’Lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader (2007). He frequently writes on French philosophy, culture industries, media culture and Italian operaismo. Since 2000 he has been the moderator of the Rekombinant mailing list. In 2008 he co-organized the series of seminars The Art of Rent at Queen Mary University of London. He lives in Amsterdam.
Contact: www.rekombinant.org/mat

Pelin Tan is a sociologist and art historian based in Istanbul. She is a Phd candidate and research assistant at the Institute of Social Sciences, Architecture faculty, Istanbul Technical University. She is also the co-editor of Muhtelif contemporary art magazine, guest editor of the contemporary art spatial issue of the Journal of Re-Thinking Marxism, co-editor and curator of Public Turn in Contemporary Art, santralistanbul, Bilgi Univ.2007, and a visiting guest professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Nürnberg with a focus on architecture and urban research. Tan has published diverse articles in books and catalogues about spatial politics and their relation to contemporary art practices.

Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum is a project by KUNSTrePUBLIK, e.V. (Matthias Einhoff, Philip Horst, Markus Lohmann, Harry Sachs, Daniel Seiple). The exhibition series, LANDREFORM, has received the generous support from the Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn.