change | ch ānj| the act, process or result of altering or modifying.
Berlin is the famed capital of unified Germany, a city living in a state of urban transformation. Affordable rent, vast quantities of space and a creative population, who are active participants in Berlin’s regeneration, seed a delightful array of physical and cultural obscurities. This community involvement and empowerment differentiates Berlin from other European capitals. Over the past two decades, Berlin has thrived on relentless change that gives the city an inconsistent and fragmented character. The process of change continues to add to a disordered urban history and is encouraged by antagonistic political, cultural and economic qualities. In 1945, Berlin was carved up by rival political powers asserting diverging political ideologies and until 1989 was a divided city. An urban frontier separated rival political identities and forged a city focused on the unifying potential of tomorrow. This divisive period manifested competing approaches to city development. West Berlin enlisted the help of progressive and experimental architects, the likes of whom ‘reads like an encyclopedia of modern architectural history.’ At the same time, the East concentrated on building the appearance of a powerful and successful state through large urban projects such as Karl Marx Allee or Alexanderplatz. A newly unified Germany, paved the way for a construction boom in Berlin and an array of new projects, profoundly altered the face of the city. During ‘the short period between 1990 and 2000, financial investment in new construction in the city amounted to 250-300 billion DM, equivalent to as much as 150 billion euros’. This period of rapid, large scale construction is obtusely visible across Berlin today. Despite continuing urban infill, a large quantity of open space remains to stimulate and influence the city’s many moods. Currently, the process of urban renewal in Berlin is led by large scale public and private investment, such as the billion dollar project to reconstruct the old Royal Palace in Mitte, in the centre of Berlin. The process is more subtly demonstrated by a transient residential population. Unusual for a european capital, Berlin’s urban fabric is still under construction; In the immediate area around the central railway station, Hauptbahnhoff, there are three large architectural projects in progress. On the other hand, it is critical to assess the symbiotic relationship between the city and small scale projects that influence the city’s unique urban qualities. This leads us to the question, what is contributing to Berlin’s contemporary physical and cultural growth? 48 Stunden Neukölln is a small scale art festival taking place in public and private venues across the district of Neukölln in Berlin. The weekend long festival provides a decentralised platform to unite hundreds of shops, galleries, studios and lounge rooms as locations for the arts. City streets are transformed into urban galleries and act as a kind of connective tissue, bringing together unrelated and spatially distant exhibition spaces. Initiated by the community art organisation, Kulturnetzwerk Neukölln, the festival was established to positively respond to the negative and inaccurate 1997 Der Spiegel article ‘Endstation Neukölln’. In contrast to the article, the festival highlights Neukölln’s cultural diversity and vibrancy. In 1999, twenty-five venues participated in the festival. Each year, the festival has grown and this year organisers expect more than 400 locations to be involved.
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Berlin is Never Berlin. Martin Abbott