Space for Networks and Solidarity

In October, anorak was invited to take part in Raum für Netzwerke und Solidarität (Space for networks and solidarity), a project initiated by Sarie Nijboer and Vincent Schier at Haus der Statistik in Berlin:

“Raum für Netzwerke und Solidarität arises from our need for more solidarity, exchange and cooperation in the arts. Based on our experience in collective contexts and our interest in alternative formats of cooperation, we want to develop a space in which we invite networks to reflect on their organisational structures through meetings, workshops and discussions.

“We believe that such an explicit discourse of networks on a theoretical and practical level is an urgent discussion in the context of “art production” now that current global issues require finding alternative forms of working and being together. The space thus gives the opportunity to discuss and create new foundations in which the concept of usage, knowledge exchange and inclusivity is in the foreground, without having to pursue commercial goals.”

Anorak used the space for weekly gatherings to reflect on the functional structures and limitations of the Kunstverein. In the first meeting we came up with ideas for the coming weeks over dinner. In the following weeks, a working group started looking for an anorak studio which was set up two months later in Berlin Wedding as a shared work space and meeting point. We screened the film Terror 2000 (1992) from Christoph Schlingensief’s infamous Germany trilogy, and started a reading group engaging with The Weird and the Eerie (2000) by cultural theorist and music journalist Mark Fisher.