The Berlin Project

Curated by Colet Castano, Fanny Diehl, Stina Gustafsson, Nora Heidorn & Filippa Forsberg. The group also worked under the name Curate Projects.
Former women’s prison at Kantstrasse 79, Berlin
September 2012

With site-specific installations by:
Malin Holmberg, Kite & Laslett, Franz Reimer, Sebastian Schmieg, Margo Trushina and Julia Vogl.

With works by:
AES+F, Marcus Harrling and Moa Geistrand, MARCK, Post-it Cities, Antonio Riello and Steve Rosenthal.

The Berlin Project was a weeklong exhibition in a former women’s prison in Berlin. The exhibition presented eight site-specific works, which the artists developed for the architecturally and historically significant site, as well as existing pieces. The Berlin Project acted as an extended platform through a programme of talks, tours and events, as well as a publication.

The self-published catalogue Platform79 - The Publication communicates the curatorial and artistic research leading up to the opening of the former women's prison to the public. It contains contributions from the artists, as well as features, historical texts, interviews and essays from contributing writers and the curators.

The weeklong exhibition welcomed around 2000 local and international visitors. The Berlin Project was well received by German and international media and has been featured in the book OFF SPACES & SITES, Außergewöhnliche Ausstellungsorte abseits des etablierten Kunstmarkts.

The building on Kantstraße, in the heart of former West Berlin, was designed in 1896 by Adolf Bürckner and Eduard Fürstenau. A hundred cells of just six square metres are aligned along corridors on the four stories of the prison building. During the Third Reich, women engaged in political resistance were imprisoned here, some during their last days before execution. The prison has been derelict since 1985 and awareness of the building's former use and history remains low in the local area. There is no memorial plaque on the building and it is not visible from the street.

The Berlin Project was kindly supported by Grüntuch Ernst Architekten, Absolut Vodka, Bittes Idé & Dekoration AB, Design Akademie Berlin, Diehl Berlin, Planet Modulor, Sprintout.

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