Meeting point Mehringplatz
With the “Berlin bleibt!” festival launched in 2019, HAU Hebbel am Ufer has been focussing on the campaigns for affordable housing, urban policy orientated towards the common good and social solidarity. Last year, “Berlin bleibt! #3 – Werkstatt Mehringplatz” launched the opening of a workshop where HAU staff, artists, neighbours and actors from the surroundings can get to know each other, find out common interests, collaborate artistically and also critically engage with each other. This space is a conglomerate of all kinds of places and people who meet in the urban landscape of Mehringplatz, where, for eleven years now, a construction site has made neighbourly life on the square difficult. Now, finally, the construction vehicles are supposed to disappear and Mehringplatz will belong to the people again. A good reason for everyone to meet up and celebrate. At the festival “Berlin bleibt! #4 – Meeting point Mehringplatz”, artists, neighbours, passers-by and audiences meet in site-specific, participatory processes and performances: Guerilla Architects will explore the histories of the square and perform on it. She She Pop will write scripts about Mehringplatz along with local residents, which will be recited together on site. Gob Squad is planning an alternative version of the monument of the two soldiers at Checkpoint Charlie in the form of video portraits as a “Monu-Moment” of the people of Mehringplatz. The musician Derya Yıldırım and the writer Duygu Ağal will write lyrics and set them to music with local residents, and the writer Manja Präkels will collect stories from people who have something to tell and transcribe them. The artist collective Şipşak Druck will encounter neighbours and passers-by with a mobile screen-printing workshop. Poems by Semra Ertan will be recited at the square, combined with films by Cana Bilir-Meier. The Houseclub will be celebrating its eleventh anniversary. SISTERQUEENS, the award-winning rap platform for girls from Berlin, is back with a concert. For more than half a year, they have been exploring rap as an emancipatory practice with the rappers Alice Dee, Haszcara, Leila A., MC Josh and Yetundey. In addition, rapper Alyona Alyona, one of Ukraine’s biggest pop stars, will be on stage. The feminist theorist Rita Segato will reflect on “Sorgende Städte” (“Caring Cities”), while stage works by Christiane Rösinger, Bouchra Ouizguen, Sven Kacirek and Wangari Grace will be presented. And on 18th June we throw a neighbourhood party at Mehringplatz with concerts, interventions and games – and everyone is invited.