About — Backsteinboot

Backsteinboot is like a body, with Raum für Kunst e.V. as its spirit.

Background
Under construction, coming soon!

credit: https://www.inselcampus.berlin/historie

Foreground
Situated at the heart of the complex and ever-evolving landscape of contemporary art and urban development, Backsteinboot now spans [number] m². Since the summer of 2019, it has served as a meeting point for (re)imagining the relevance of a non-institutional, non-profit artistic home beyond conventional agendas, while continually pushing its own boundaries.

Driven by the association’s members, its program also comes alive through resident artists, artists-in-residency, and other external collaborators from the independent, local, and international cultural scene. Calls for participation, combined with leaflet distributions in the neighborhood, also open doors to new voices. The pooling of human, spatial, and material resources lies at the heart of the project, grounded in intuition, resonance, and the feel of an exchange. Artists and other curious and passionate individuals, from diverse cultural backgrounds and aesthetic orientations, whether working individually or collectively, are welcome regardless of scale. This is a place open to all who resonate with it, and it seeks to cultivate that resonance. It reveals itself to the world largely through word of mouth and the serendipity of chance.

As both a studio community and a cultural event space, Backsteinboot intertwines expression and aesthetic experience. Environments of creation and sharing coexist. Its programming offers opportunities to connect and engage with artists, their work, and their creative and presentation spaces. It is a setting where the production of art and its transmission go hand in hand, celebrating the manifestation and presence of art in all its forms.

Time and space take on a distinctive dimension here. Believing that continuum fosters momentum, Backsteinboot prioritizes long-format experiences, allowing each participant to engage at their own pace. Some activities unfold within the studios, while others extend outward, notably across Eiswerder Island. These interventions, whether on the Insel Campus EISWERDER site or in public spaces, aim to engage neighbors and locals.
Between parties, electroacoustic concerts, exhibitions, festivals, readings, screenings, performances, debates, and workshops, its programming embraces a wide variety of formats. By addressing the full sensory spectrum and tackling a growing range of subjects, themes, and movements, it aims to expand and diversify its audience and experiences until participants actively take part in creative and cultural processes for and with everyone, collectively (re)inventing the space for contemporary art. This versatility reflects a generous commitment to accessibility and inclusivity within its program.

Like a studio it continually (re)invents, Backsteinboot embodies a dynamic and courageous attitude toward aesthetic exploration. Operating on the principle that art is a quest, the project serves as a field of possibilities for critical co-reflection, questioning, and (un)/(re)learning, where a wide spectrum of practices can break free from predetermined or conditioned constraints and purposes to ultimately flourish and refine. It is, in essence, an intuitive, discursive, and relational environment that sensitively fosters awareness and allows participants to deepen their relationship with art and its horizons within a free yet protected setting.

Its approach is resolutely transdisciplinary and transcultural. By (re)uniting different cultural traditions and disciplinary forms in dialogue and harmony, divisions dissolve. Through the intersection of pluralism and cooperation, it seeks to generate new forms of aesthetic expression beyond existing ones and their distinctions. This endeavor is approached as a conversation about openness, pushing boundaries where tradition and innovation meet.

Backsteinboot moves toward a landscape of infinite, equivalent perspectives, working particularly to learn from and amplify marginalized voices. It acts as a mediator, articulating local contexts with global perspectives.

Dissonances can and should coexist, intersect, and generate friction. The beauty of difference, or the aesthetics of diversity, is regarded here as a source of mutual enrichment to counter cultural impoverishment. This project encourages us to question our own viewpoints and experiment with new positions and perspectives.

Timeless and contemporary controversial issues that concern us all in one way or another find their place here, where we confront them together, artistically and speculatively, from a disparate shore.
Backsteinboot aspires to be a space for collective action through, with, and around art, capable of (re)imagining alternative possibilities for reality and empowering us to resist—or even resiliate—the challenges, complexities, and surprises of life.

Its program highlights the unique and original role art can play in processes of awakening, stirring, and uprising. It calls on people to gather, reconcile, and join movements for the sustainable transformation of our societies.

credit: https://www.inselcampus.berlin/

Context

Backsteinboot is the name given to the space occupied by Raum für Kunst e.V. on Insel Campus EISWERDER [ https://www.inselcampus.berlin/]. The choice of name echoes the red-brick Prussian architecture rising from the waters of the Havel, upon which the association has embarked.

This art space is located on Eiswerder, an island in the Havel connected to the Hakenfelde district in the Spandau borough of Berlin, the capital and federal state of Germany. The island is linked to the eastern bank by the Kleine Eiswerderbrücke and to the western bank by the Große Eiswerderbrücke.

The island and its surroundings, ripe for urban development, have been undergoing intensified change since the closure of Tegel Airport at the end of 2020—just over a year after the collective brought Backsteinboot to life, the only studio community in Spandau. Welcoming over 6,000 visitors annually, its shared project space plays an active role in the borough’s cultural vibrancy, alongside the Citadel, the Spandau House of Culture, and the Lutherplatz Open Studio, despite mounting residential pressures.