Waiting Rooms

In the organizer's words:

Waiting Rooms

Series of events by the Adalbert Neun bleibtinitiative to save the Kreuzberg art and culture location at Adalbertstraße 9

Waiting Room #1 - Under Pressure

27.-29.9.2024

Group exhibition POPTICUM, urban fragment observatory, spätispäti, Alissia Hoffmann, Helena Rafalsky and Jeanne Astrup-Chauvaux

Opening, Friday, September 27, 7 pm, CASINO with spätispäti at 8:30 pm

Screen printing workshop, Saturday, September 28, 3-5 p.m.

Opening hours 28.9., 1-8 p.m.; 29.9., 1-3 p.m.

The studio community at Adalbertstraße 9 is back with a four-part series of events entitled "Waiting Rooms" and will open its doors from September to December 2024. The artists are responding to the transitory state caused by the protracted negotiations about the future of the site by transforming the passive waiting posture into an active space for action.

In an exhibition, several talks, listening sessions and other actions, ideas and food for thought will be exchanged and artistic strategies discussed and tested in order to meet the challenges of the increasingly precarious working situation of artists. The common goal is the long-term preservation of this unique location for art and culture.

Waiting Room #1 - Under Pressure, a group exhibition featuring the artists and architects POPTICUM, urban fragment observatory, spätispäti, Alissia Hoffmann, Jeanne Astrup-Chauvaux and Helena Rafalsky, will kick off on the last weekend of September (27-29 September) . This builds up tension between the exhibited works, which turns the exhibition itself into a question of space: do the artistic works become evidence of the need for space?
From a critical perspective, the exhibitors examine space, architecture and urban policy. The exhibition brings together works on the themes of spatial justice, displacement and rising rents and shows a vision for a collectively organized quarter at Adalbertstraße 9.

Adalbertstraße 9 is an established studio location at Kottbusser Tor that has grown over the past decades and is an integral part of the neighborhood network. At the same time, it is a place with an uncertain future whose continued artistic and cultural use is at risk. Since the protest exhibition "Speculative Properties" (June 2023), the association Adalbert Neun bleibt e.V., supported by the Berufsverband Bildender Künstler*innen/bbk berlin and the cooperative Eine für Alle eG, has been campaigning for the state of Berlin to save and secure this Kreuzberg cultural location in the long term. The initiative has received support at municipal level from the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district and from the senate's assembly of representatives. So far, however, there has been a lack of political commitment to implement a forward-looking solution for the permanent use of the building complex by artists and cultural professionals.

With "Waiting Rooms", we want to reawaken public awareness, provide new impetus and remind people that it is urgent to campaign for the future of Adalbertstraße 9 as an important arts and culture location in Kreuzberg.

Event overview

Waiting Room #1 - Under Pressure

September 27-29: Group exhibition with POPTICUM, urban fragment observatory, spätispäti, Alissia Hoffmann and Helena Rafalsky, Jeanne Astrup-Chauvaux

Opening hours 28.9., 13-20 hrs; 29.9., 13-15 hrs

Waiting Room #2

October 26: Panel discussion with representatives of various studio communities who are fighting to preserve their studios

Waiting Room #3

November 16: Gayhane, Berlin's oldest queer party - listening session, followed by a talk with Rüzgâr Buşki and other protagonists

Waiting Room #4

December 14: Pigeon Notes, talk and screen printing workshop

Location: Atelierhaus, Adalbertstraße 9, 2nd inner courtyard, first floor, 10999 Berlin-Kreuzberg, barrier-free access

With the kind support of the Kulturförderung project fund of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Department of Culture and History