Frei(T)räume / Envisioning Free Space
Since 2016 the Berlin based Frei(T)räume/Envisioning Free Space has managed to unite a vast network of artists, activists, urban changemakers, scientists and political agents. It has rewritten narratives and facilitated the exchange of concepts to catalyse structural solutions for spatial and cultural urgencies in Berlin and beyond.
The “Envisioning Free Space” conference is the culmination of an ongoing collaboration between curators/researchers Liese Kingma and Bogomir Doringer. Formerly, under the name “Frei(T)räume, the conference was a direct partnership with the Stadt Nach Acht Conference, also dubbed as the “biggest culture & nighttime economy conference worldwide”.
Envisioning Free Space seeks to provide an enhancement of the cultural mycelium, devise a contribution to building a common narrative for culture and the arts and develop methods of embedding nightlife and free spaces within the spatial design of the city. Collectively, we’ll propose solutions to the challenges of access that are truly by and for these same communities using nightlife as a bastion of self-expression and creativity.
Project goals
The Frei(T)räume / Envisioning Free Space has managed to unite a vast network of artists, activists, urban changemakers, scientists and political agents since 2016. It has rewritten narratives and facilitated the exchange of concepts to catalyse structural solutions for spatial and cultural urgencies in Berlin and beyond.
Problemfields
The Envisioning Free Space Conference offers the opportunity to address the city’s most pressing subjects, such as the shortage of affordable artist spaces and the need for truly participative urban development and need for community resilience. Overcoming these hurdles can only be done by strengthening the collaboration between social-cultural initiatives, political agents, municipal departments, urban changemakers on a horizontal level, and by leveraging new developments into workable concepts. The conference functions as a framework, uniting the actors through joint curation, creating a new basis for trust and collaboration.
Approach
Space of Urgency uses the conference framework to envisions a future where cultural spaces & their creative ecosystems are self-reliant, having to deal with the growing threats authoritarian governments, neo-liberalism and war pose. Through workshops, debates and presentations we together explore: How can our spaces spark cultural transformation from within, becoming more inclusive and adaptive when it comes to including marginalised groups & fleeing communities? Which models and tools contribute to financially sustainable spaces, bridging resources and knowledge through translocal diffusion and many more to follow. Ideally the conference is held over 2 days, so day 2 strengthens the workable concepts of Day 1 together with similar approaches, strategies and visions from a vast international network of spatial pioneers, Nighttime advocates, city administrations and scientists – building on new alliances to support culture.
Impact
- The conference is proven to enhance political support for culture in Berlin, translating into more available resources for research and experimentation projects.
- Curation towards the conference unites a vast intersectional network of cultural agents, urban changemakers, scientists from different fields & departments, sparking more horizontal collaboration on pressing subjects by cultural actors, spaces and municipal policymakers .
- The documentation of outcomes can help to redefine the action points for local narratives for Arts & Culture, towards a joined future vision for the city it takes place in.
