SOFT SOIL II/III

In the second of three event clusters, SOFT SOIL takes a longer view on current developments. The situation caused by COVID-19 brings fundamental repercussions for the city. Unequal access to spaces and resources is intensified by the crisis, and re-existing mechanisms for exclusion are exacerbated. Ever-shifting legislation throws new questions into sharp relief—including the possibility for community activism in urban contexts. If commercial activities are prioritised in shared urban spaces, or racist police controls are intensified, how does this affect the scope for action? How, in light of restrictions, is it possible to maintain and build on solidarity structures against gentrification, discrimination, and isolation? Are current levers set into motion by political and economic interests aligned with processes of privatisation, economisation and financialisation already at work in the 1990s or earlier? Could looking towards the end of state socialism and the system change to capitalism help to better understand such processes? Has neoliberalism changed hearts and minds?

Friday, August 14, 2020
Online event
7pm
Welcome and introduction (German*)
7:30pm
Two short lectures & discussion (German*)
“Policing of Black lives and the conditions of abolitionist resistances” by Vanessa E. Thompson
“Function follows form: When the dream of equality is dreamt out” by Orhan Esen

Saturday, August 15, 2020
Please register at: softsoil_ngbk[at]protonmail.com until August 10   
11am–1pm
Workshop “Right to the City – Space for All” (German*) with Initiative Hermannplatz (local grassroots organisation) Topics: Narratives held by civil society, plurality, difference, space
Meeting point: Kartoffelpufferstand, corner Hasenheide & Hermannplatz, 10967 Berlin
2-2:45pm
Input “Racist police controls before and after COVID-19” (French/German*) with Corasol (Initiative against racism and for solidarity with refugees) Topics: Everyday racism, access to public and semi-private spaces
nGbK, Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin
3-3:45pm
Input “Ban Racial Profiling!” (German*/French) with KOP Berlin (Campaign for victims of racist police violence) Topics: Institutional racism, strategies for support and practical forms of solidarity
nGbK, Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin     
4-4:30pm
Concluding discussion (German*/French)
7:30pm
(no registration required)
Video Program “Space Ideologies” with D’EST (Ulrike Gerhardt & Daria Iuriichuk)
Autoscooter, Haus der Statistik, Karl-Marx-Allee 1, 10178 Berlin
Video works and film excerpts by Anna Engelhardt, A.S.S. Collective (Mizu Sugai & Jonathan Jung), Senka Domanović, Ruthia Jenrbekova & Flo Kasearu
Followed by a discussion with A.S.S. Collective (German*)

Sunday, August 16, 2020, 2-5pm
(no registration required)
Kieztour “Oh-Straße! How To Sell Your City: A Guided Tour” (German*) with Anonyme Anwohnende
Meeting point in front of Kisch & Co,  Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin

*Whisper translation available upon request until August 5, please specify language: softsoil_ngbk [​at​] protonmail.com

SOFT SOIL is a discursive format with a mobile platform returning to the nGbK in three blocks of events, which take place in-between exhibitions. SOFT SOIL describes the ambivalence of the sandy ground Berlin is built on: both the attrition of urban structures through privatisation and speculation, and the malleability of urban space through everyday practices and resistance. The format addresses colonial continuities, and questions relating to the neoliberal transformation of the city since 1990. Additionally, it critically examines the relationship between space and gender relations. Initiatives, researchers, artists and all interested are invited to enter into exchange through discussions, screenings and workshops—in the spirit of solidarity in practice. What ideals shape the production of so-called public space, and what might “Stadt für alle” (“city for all”) mean?

The 3rd event block for this series will take place from November 27–29, 2020.

nGbK project group: Jennifer Bennett, Sonja Hornung, Vicky Kiefer, siddhartha lokanandi, Sonya Schönberger