As part of the permanent exhibition "Making History!"
Extended until January 30, 2022
Let's do it ourselves - 40 years of self-organized spaces in Berlin
Self-organization and self-help are not just relics from earlier times, but are still relevant means for residents to maintain and improve their housing situation.
At the height of the Instandbesetzer*innen movement in 1981, activists from various social sectors occupied vacant apartment buildings, factories, and brownfields in Kreuzberg. The Heilehaus (health), the Schokofabrik (women's movement), the Kinderbauernhof Mauerplatz (children/education) and the Regenbogenfabrik (youth, culture and neighborhood), among others, set up self-help projects.
"Let's do it ourselves" features these as well as younger self-organized initiatives, such as Casa Kuá, a trans*, inter*, queer community and health center, among others.
Self-organized spaces are not given away, then or now. They always have to be worked for, fought for, and defended against resistance. Just as various initiatives have networked into a kind of cosmos since the 1980s, active designs of political, lived cities are also emerging today through the interaction of self-organized spaces.
"40 Years of Self-Organized Spaces in Berlin" is an exhibition that wants to pass on concrete strategies of self-management. To this end, the initiatives are compiling photographs, archival materials and interviews as part of the permanent exhibition "Making History!", providing insights into their work.
The exhibition project is funded by the Bezirkskulturfonds Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and the foundation "Stiftung Menschenwürde und Arbeitswelt".