Playing is a constant process. Society is a constant process. Art is a constant process. The city is a constant process. Research is a constant process. So the idea of combining all of this seems both obvious and ingenious. Radical Playgrounds is the name of the participatory summer program of the Berliner Festspiele, whose name has been taken quite literally here for a change. “From Competition to Collaboration” is the motto of the multi-week art trail that has been open in the parking lot of the Gropius Bau for several weeks. Curated by Joanna Warsza and Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius, it features artistic positions by Florentina Holzinger, Raul Walch, Tomás Saraceno, Joar Nango, The Playground Project and many others. The focus is always on the questions of “game” and “play”, competition and free play, playful research and exploratory play, cooperation and collaboration, learning and unlearning. Céline Condorelli’s large-format playing field “Play for Today”, for example, deals with gender equality in sport, while Massimo Furlan’s re-enactment of the historic 1974 World Cup soccer match between East Germany and West Germany, which ended with a score of 1:0, will be shown. For the first time, it will not be re-enacted in a stadium, but on Niederkirchnerstraße between the House of Representatives and the Gropius Bau, where the Berlin Wall once stood.
For all its opulence, this artistic amusement park is open and in constant motion as a public meeting space that will be continuously added to until 14.07.2024. Every museum deserves a playground, architect Lina Bo Bardi once said. Berliner Festspiele now started – let’s hope that other museums/institutions will follow suit.
Text: Hilka Dirks / Photos: Camille Blake
Radical Playgrounds on the parking area in front of Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstr.7, 10963 Berlin–Kreuzberg; map
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