In September 2015, the Allianz bedrohter Berliner Atelierhäuser proclaimed the establishment of a center for sociocultural activities on a banner positioned on the façade of the Berlin Haus der Statistik (HdS). Since then, this art intervention has become urban policy. A cooperation between ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik and KW has led to the project STATISTA. Matthias Einhoff, Philip Horst, and Harry Sachs, the artistic directors of ZK/U and the curator Tirdad Zolghadr, associate curator at KW, aim to consolidate, accelerate, support and propagate the processes under way at the HdS. Partners include Economic Space Agency (ECSA), KUNSTrePUBLIK, Bernadette La Hengst, Labor k3000, Moabees, openBerlin, Penny Rafferty, raumlabor, and others.

The HdS was built 1968–70 and served as the headquarters of the GDR’s central bureau of statistics. After the reunification, it housed the Federal Statistical Office of Germany and the Stasi Records Agency. Today, the building near Alexanderplatz is a unique project, in which a broad coalition of urban stakeholders define a pioneering location for urban development: 100.000 sqm in the heart of the city will provide space for culture, social projects, education, affordable housing, a new city hall, and administrative buildings.

STATISTA proposes artistic prototypes for a civil society built in the spirit of the Commons, in ten different playing fields, including a cryptocurrency based on the wellbeing of bee-populations, ecologically inclusive facade designs, interfaces for neighbourhood participation and an international conference in the Fall. Temporary usage, in this case, does not lead to gentrification, but to a form of urban renewal to the benefit of all—a Statecraft of the future.

www.allesandersplatz.berlin

Curator: Tirdad Zolghadr, Associate Curator of KW

Artistic directors: Matthias Einhoff, Philip Horst, Harry Sachs, ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik