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

Raum für Kunst e.V. is a non-profit arts association founded in October 2016 by Inga Ivanova and Mathilda Augart, with a sense of urgency to secure spaces dedicated to art and artists.

In 2017 and 2018, they ran the Greenhouse Berlin gallery [ https://greenhouse-berlin.de/] in Berlin-Tempelhof with a polyphonic group of artists and friends from its studio community. The venue, occupying the entire top floor of one of the building's three wings, was then called "Modular+ Space."

In the summer of 2019, Raum für Kunst e.V. moved to the former Royal Firework Laboratories at Insel Campus EISWERDER [https://www.inselcampus.berlin/] in Berlin-Spandau, with the intention of not only creating its own project space but also establishing its own studio community. The collective leveraged the island’s idyllic setting and the eloquent legacy of its history to challenge its surroundings.

The group undertook renovations on half of the top floor of one building, building private units facing existing ones and opening up a shared communal area. "Modular+ Space" then transformed into "Backsteinboot."

Threatened by urban development, gentrification, patriarchy, and surrounding conformity, the association developed a strategy to broaden its local roots while forging lasting relationships with all actors at Insel Campus EISWERDER and its neighborhood. Power dynamics were approached through dialogue, adopting a generous, defensible, understanding, and inclusive attitude. As its work gained recognition both locally and within Berlin’s cultural sphere, Backsteinboot has welcomed an increasing number of artistic and cultural projects. Building on this momentum, since the summer of 2022 the group has occupied the other half of the top floor in the same building, and since summer 2025, it has expanded into half of the top floor of an adjacent building, where new studios, a kitchen, and restrooms have been added.

This journey, demanding both human and financial resources, illustrates artists’ struggle to:
    - resist the privatization of urban spaces and their profit-driven orientation,
    - preserve cultural and common-good spaces to keep Berlin alive,
    - fight urban gentrification and the commercialization of Berlin’s art scene,
    - improve accessibility and inclusivity in culture, both locally and beyond.

The association reinvests and redistributes all resources generated by Backsteinboot’s events program and donations directly back into the project. Much of this funding comes from the regular transformation of the project space into a club on certain weekends, highlighting the relevance of Berlin’s club culture as support for other cultural spheres. The collective also works to secure public funding and to embed itself in an expanded cross-border network by establishing new long-term partnerships while deepening or renegotiating existing alliances—all in a spirit of interdependence.

Having secured its presence and foothold, the group now promises to focus fully on its cultural program, equipping its project and studio spaces, and supporting its members.

Since 2025, Raum für Kunst e.V., supported by numerous friends and artists from its studio community and networks, has been composed of Inga Ivanova, Ehua Kassi, and Chloé Binh-Cirlot, all carrying living traces of cultural disorientation.


MANIFESTO

Claiming art as one of the fundamental aspects of humanity, or even as a universal principle, Raum für Kunst e.V. reflects on the essence of art: its modes of existence, influence, and resilience. Convinced that art is built through work rather than genius, the association strives to provide spaces where a certain creative energy can flow, where ideas and practices are honed and refined.

The group explores the potential of “making room” for art and “giving time” to art. Reclaming and safeguarding spaces for artists and cultural actors lies at the heart of its mission, as it sees this as the essential condition for the emergence of sustainable, vital creative moments. Its very name reflects this existential need for a refuge for the cultural sphere its members identify with and seek to protect—a place conducive to cultural flourishing and development, where artistic expression, both their own and that of their wider circle, can feel at home.

Raum für Kunst e.V. is concerned with the growth and future of a community through art, and with art’s power to unite its participants, instilling in them an engaged and engaging attitude toward others, the community, and society at large. Membership in the organization or investment in Backsteinboot is founded on initiative and commitment. In pursuit of authenticity, the collective embraces informality and letting go. It simply brings diverse entities under one roof and allows culture to unfold on its own. Passionate about encounter and connection, the group contributes to the expansion of open, alternative networks that empower and enable through art.

Backsteinboot is conceived as a space for artistic self- and co-management: a place where people learn to manage it by managing it together. Guided by artists and other cultural enthusiasts from their own creative perspectives and approaches, it demonstrates art’s potential to shape culture. The space radiates a DIY and community-oriented aura, filled with warmth and human energy.

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