Program on the Site - Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany

The Edge of the Milieu

The milieu – anything in the air – spirit world part of milieu

“The milieu becomes a universal instrument of the dissolution of individualized organic synthesis in the anonymity of elements and universal movements.”

The Milieu The Courtyard - dissolution of the Public/Private Realm, obscuring of the domains of public and private – hidden and demand/require to be discovered

The Edge The Wall – cuts an edge – no man’s land, everyman’s land, Living on the edge, nothing is secure, nothing is constant – developed its own culture in the east end of West Berlin on the border of the Soviet controlled area

Counter-culture tradition challenging social behavior: the edge of norms and rules and borders - annual riots - formality/informality - attracted the marginalized - the edge of society - Jews, 70s & 80s squatters scene, artists, immigrants

Temporal Cycles: Intervention based on cycles/patterns of activity, situations/occurrences tucked behind buildings demanding/inviting discovery/exploration.

History of Change: Kruezberg’s population has completely changed twice in the last two decades. Society seems to live in a state of acceptance of constant change and upheaval, and they live in this state flux and change. (WWI, WWII, Quartered city 1945, Berlin Wall 1961, Collapse of Berlin Wall 1989) Each major event takes place around every twenty years. Twenty years are up when’s the next shoe going to fall?

Pressure Compression/Expansion of Space

Fragmentation searching for an identity: Watergate Electronic Club, Magnet Bar, Café Endlange, Berlin Yoga Raum

Relationship to the city/world in the center and at the edge: connection to the Spree, U1 Ubahn Schesisches Tor, Oberbaumstrasse Brueck, the former Wall, down the street from Siza’s ‘Bonjour Tristess,’ rock culture, US hip hop culture, Bollywood film German/Indian Production reach to India