A Culture of Appropriation: Strategiesof TemporaryReuse in EastGermany by MichaelaHeinemann Diplom-IngenieurArchitektur TechnicalUniversity of Berlin

2002 CA'HUSEINS OFT ECHNOLOI~V Submittedto the Departmentof Architecture in PartialFulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degreeof Masterof Sciencein ArchitectureStudies LIBRARIES at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology June,2005 ROTCH)

Signatureof Author MichaelaHeinemann, Department of Architecture,May 19, 2005

Certified by ProfessorMark JartornbekWs,6ciate Professor of Historyand Architecture, Thesis Supervisor

Accepted by - ProfessorJulia< inart,Professor &FAkhitecture, Chair, Committee on GraduateStudents

Copyright 2005 MichaelaHeinemann. All RightsReserved. The author herebygrants to MITpermission to reproduceand to distribute publicly paper and electroniccopies of this thesis document in whole or in part. S,0jlMML Reader

CarolineJones AssociateProfessor of the Historyof Art

History,Theory and Criticism Departmentof Architecture 3

A Cultureof Appropriation: Strategiesof TemporaryReuse in EastGermany byMichaela Heinemann

Submittedto the Departmentof Architecture in PartialFulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degreeof Masterof Sciencein ArchitectureStudies

Abstract

This thesis examinesthe possibilities of creative appropriationof existing spaces. It defines interstitial practicesas both critical and imaginativeforces that actively participate in the productionof social space.Temporary interventions assert their topicality byinserting themselves into specific urbandiscourses in which they havethe potentialto act as cultural catalysts.Two recent festivals, Volkspalast (2004) in Berlinand HotelNeustadt (2003) in Halle (Saxony-Anhalt),serve as case studiesthat exemplifydifferent strategiesof the temporary.Staged in buildings that were scheduledfor demolition, both festivals addressthe gradual disappearanceof "socialist" architecture and urbanismin the realmof the former EastGermany.

ThesisSupervisor: Mark Jarzombek Title:Associate Professor of Historyand Architecture

A Culture of Appropriation: Strategiesof TemporaryReuse in EastGermany

7 a - - -- - Dedicated to my mother, Tatana Heinemannovs

9 10 Contents

Abstract5

Introduction12

PartOne: Eviscerated Emptiness 15 Thetime is now. The place is here. 18 From Palaisto Palastand Back21 Inside-out25 Mockingthe mock 30

PartTwo: Halle-Neustadt Plays 35 Invadingthe 'modernist' ghost-town38 Toolkit 41

O Hotel Tuning41 o Balcony Tuning43 o Syntosil mol 44

O EspressoBar Furniture47 o Clubgolf48 Theatricalcity as model 50

Conclusion55 Notes60 Bibliography74 Sourcesof Illustrations78 Introduction

Permanenceis commonly interpreted as a primaryvalue of architecture.More than any other form createdby human beings, architectural forms in theirpersistence seem to guaranteethe continuityof humanactivity and to possesssome kind of absolutemeaning. However, there is no builtstructure that hasnot beentransformed over time. More importantly, buildings are not destroyedonly when a societyrecognizes them as worthy of preservation.It can therefore be concludedthat not onlyare production and maintenance of the builtenvironment socially determinedbut its destructionis as well. Nevertheless,these cyclesof productionand destructionof spacecreate openings that allowinterstitial practices to emerge.Does this

"appropriatory"activity produce a meaningfulspace in its ownright, or arepractices centered on the reuseof theseresidual spaces too ephemeralto generateany architectural content?

Fig.1Berlin-Tiergarten 1947 I will arguethat temporaryspaces are indeedimportant sites of production,not only of opportunitybut alsoof the provocationof dialogueabout the very meaningof suchspace.

Becauseof their transitorynatures, interstitial practices are ableto absorbthe instability of socialspace more easily. In addition,these practices are oftensites ofnegotiations over useand possession of space."Appropriative" activity is theorizedusefully by Henri Lefebvre,

Frenchtheorist of urbanspace. For Lefebvre, appropriation is a functionof livedspace, that is, "dominated,hence passively experienced space, which imaginationseeks to change andappropriate." Lived space is a placeof passionwhere the user/inhabitantencounters resistance,which inevitably involves conscious action and struggle. Entailing time, lived space can be qualifiedas "directional,situational, or relationalbecause it is qualitative,fluid, and dynamic."' 12 Currently,Eastern Germany, including Berlin, seems to have becomea laboratoryfor temporaryappropriation and creative reuse as a resultof bothan extraordinaryproliferation of newly"useless" spaces and a conspicuousabsence of realeconomic pressure to develop them.I examinetwo recentfestivals that exemplify this widefield of spatialexperimentation.

Oneis Volkspa/ast,the temporaryre-opening of Palastder Republik in Berlin(2004), and the otheris HotelNeustadt, an internationaltheatre festival that appropriateda vacanthi-rise in Halle-Neustadt(2003). With my two casestudies, which are writtenas independentyet interrelatedessays, I hope to showthat new avant-guardepractices evolve from these "appropriative"strategies. Focusing on exemplaryappropriations of existingstructures that haveoutlived their originalpurposes, I will demonstratethat this field allowsfor practices that cannotbe meaningfullydistinguished by a divisioninto social,on the one hand,and artistic,on the other.In additionto communityparticipation, appropriative strategies enable interdisciplinarycollaborations that mightinform, as Lefebvrenoted, the "productionof new spaces."2 S

14 Part One:Eviscerated Emptiness

15 FromAugust 24th to November9 th 2004, a festival withthe title Vo/kspalast('People's Palace') wasstaged in the old Palastder Repub/ik in Berlin.For the festival,a groupheaded by Philipp

Oswaltand Amelie Deuflhard,director of SophiensaeleTheatre Berlin, was permittedto temporarilyreopen the majormonument of formerEast Germany, which originallyhoused the Parliamentand a culturalcenter. 3 Invitinga greatvariety ofperformances from different culturalinstitutions of the city,the programof the festivalentailed concerts, theatrical and danceperformances, sports events, and installations. Furthermore, the presentcontroversy surroundingthe proposeddemolition of the buildingand alternative perspective for its future werediscussed during a conference,"Fun Palace Berlin 200X."

Thefestival's reuse project was premised on the ideaof the palaceas a voidin the city,which could be temporarilycolonized with a multitudeof activities.This interpretationnoticeably conflictswith the commonlyadvanced reading of the socialistpalace as an ideologically burdenedbuilding - onewith a built-inpolitical content. Built by a repressiveregime to satisfy its displaypurposes, the monumentalstructure is chargedwith meaningsthat areseemingly impossibleto integratewith the new imageof a unifiedGermany. This perceptionof the buildingas a disgracedmonument is reflectedin the persistentdesire to eraseit becauseit doesnot fit into the newlyre-constructed history. 4 Theongoing discourse situates the Palast as the majortarget of city developmentagencies. The building is attackedfor prominently occupyingwhat is definedas the city's very center:the site of theformer palaceof the

Prussianmonarchs and the Germanemperors. In this quarrelabout the developmentof the innercore, the city is oftenreduced to its purelyvisual aspects, and architectural production to the challengeof definingthe city'scoherent visual identity (Leitbild - guidingimage). What possibilitiesare raisedby temporaryinterventions such as the Vo/kspalastto contrastthe prevailingpolitics of disappearanceand image production in post-WendeBerlin? 5 16 In this study, I beginby examiningthe politics of squattingas an influentialexample of appropriationsince the late 1960sand early 1970s.The strategy of the festivalappealed in

spiritto the practiceof illegallyoccupying spaces for various purposes. In post-WendelBerlin,

the abundanceof neglectedspaces and the politicsof its subsequentreuse provided the

environmentfor a burgeoningcultural scene of which,in fact,many of the contributorsto the

festivalwere active participants.! Second, I will arguethat the Pa/astder Republik occupies a

discursivefield that cannotbe dismissedby any kind of intervention.How is the temporary

operatingin this contestedspace? In the thirdand fourth chapters, a discussionensues about

howthe buildingis appropriatedby alternative cultures. I will discusstwo performancesfrom

thefestival's program, which are of specialinterest for thematizingthe site'shistory as well as

its currentstate. The first is SashaWaltz's dance piece Dialoge04, which addresses the Palast's

monumentalaspects and questions its representationas an ideologicallyburdened building.

The secondis Fassadenrepublik,a polemical piece attackingurban spatial development

politicspresently at workin the city'scentral districts.

Fig.2Volkspalast logo

17 Thetime is now.The placeis here.

Squatting,the most radicalform of temporaryappropriation, emerged as a politicaland sub- culturalmovement in the late 1960sand early 1970s. Spontaneous or plannedsquatting is basedon the premisethat spacematters as a meansof self-determinationand collective actioneven if it is takenover only for a limitedperiod of time.The generation of 1968declared their "Rightto the City" andsquatted in universities,schools, and other publicspaces to pushtheir agenda;these were events that helpedto popularizethe idea of squattingand elevatedit to the statusof a movement.In the aftermathof 1968the spreadof the practice was sustainedby a renunciationfrom the grandutopian schemes. The failureof the big revolutionaryprojects led to a more pragmaticunderstanding of changethat was to be carriedout moreeffectively if brokendown into smaller units and produced through concrete projectspromising immediate implementation.

Activistsimagined squatting as an actionin space,or, in otherwords, as an event.!The act of takingover involved real risk and the struggleof defendingthe spaceagainst its legitimate ownersand the statethat enforcesconstitutionally guaranteed property ownership. For the transgressionsinvolved in the wholeenterprise, squatting satisfied the searchfor authentic experience;an authenticitywhich was both temporal and spatial. The axiom that a buildingis 9 "squattedfor immediateuse" legitimizedthe movementsocially and politically and sustained its eventcharacter in the long run. Squattingfor its protagonistsmeant participating in an collaborativeeffort. In termsof inhabitingthe spaces,it often amountedto an existential experiencebecause the derelicthouses lacked modern amenities such as heating,running coldand warm water, electricity, all of whichis todayconsidered standard.

18 Howis squattingand squattedspace conceived? Or rather,by virtue of beingan ad-hoc

activity:is it conceivedat all? In its originalform, squattingwas not purpose-driven.To

be successful,the "event" neededconcrete preparation. But this by no meansinvolved

preconceivedabstractions of spacethat overlay physical space in theway traditional planning

does.Rather the interventionwas thought of asa tacticalmove, as something that is "setinto

motion,without being clear what that thingis andwhat direction it is taking."10 Butit might

interferewith andchange the courseof planningbecause it producedfacts 'on the ground'

that hadto be takeninto furtherconsideration. In this way,squatting had significant impact

oncity developmentin Berlin.Beginning at theend of the 1970s,activists together with newly

arrivedimmigrants" reclaimed buildings in the district of Kreuzbergwhere large quantities

of old housingstock were already scheduled for demolitionto makeway for state-sponsored

housingprojects in form of high-modernistapartment blocks. After tenaciousfights and

Fig.3Palast der Republik, 2004 negotiationsinvolving landlords, local politicians,city government,and development

agencies,large parts of the neighborhoodcould be preserved,upgraded with the help of

squatters,and revitalized." As a resultof this grass-rooteffort, community participation in

planningprocesses was formalized and entered mainstream development and urban renewal

policies.

Thus,it can be concludedthat in orderto "go on" andestablish itself fora longerperiod,

squattinghad to convincesociety of its usefulness.To legalize its status,squatting needed to

moveon fromtactics to strategywhile offering something that could be used for bargaining.

As a consequenceof negotiationsover spaces, it mightalso be necessaryto giveup a squat

andlook for newopportunities. Finding new openspaces implies knowledge of periodiccycles

of developmentand neglectin the life of a city as well as fast identificationof historically

uniqueoccurrences. 19 Reactingfairly quickly,many Kreuzberg squatters moved ahead to EastBerlin in the first monthsof 1990thus successfully using thegreatest confusion after the collapseof the GDR to occupya varietyof vacantbuildings in nowcentral districts such as Mitte,Prenzlauer Berg, andFriedrichshain. Here the movementcould consolidate itself effectively due to theprevious abolitionof privateproperty in EastGermany and the followingslow process of re-privatization andproperty restitution."

While squatting poses problemsfor planningand managementof space becauseit underminesplanner's positivist notions of efficiencyand optimization, the effects of squatting havechanged planning and helpedto establisha thinkingthat is morestrategy oriented.

Reversely,squatting cannot defy mystification and the subsequentappropriation of themyth bycity marketingand tourist industry.'4 In bothcases, in Kreuzbergof the 1980sand Mitte of the 1990s,metamorphoses triggered by squatterand derivative movements produced new urban mythsattracting both touristsand youngurban elites to thesesites. In turn, gentrificationis usedas anargument by alternative users to getaccess to inexpensivespaces from patronswho hopefor a subsequentrevaluation of their properties.Understanding the complexprocesses of devaluationand revaluation is knowledgethat was certainly helpful in gettingthe Palastder Republik temporarily handed over and for puttingup a festivalof the scopeof Volkspalast.Moreover, the sanctioningof the endeavordepended on a widealliance of artistsand other supportivepeople to establishthe Volkspalastas a temporaryautonomous zoneand a spaceof possibilities.

20 FromPalais to Palastand Back

Palastder Republik is a buildingquite difficultto appropriatenot onlyfor its enormousscale

but becauseit is literallyand metaphorically occupying a critical pointin bothunified Berlin

andunified Germany. Its specificsocial and historical identity as a socialistcultural palace

andsite of the parliamentof the formerEast German state, GDR, added a politicaldimension

to the temporaryconstruction of an alternativespace right in the contestedcity center.

The buildinghas beenthe subjectof a heateddiscussion not only amongstarchitectural

professionalsbut in the publicat largeduring the lastfifteen years. The future of the building,

which is the singlemost emblematic structure built bythe GDR,was debatedon virtually

everylevel of the societyincluding the German parliament, the Bundestag,where after several

hearingsits demolitionwas finally decided in 2003.

Theso-called "Palace of the Republic,"built between1973 and 1977,united the parliament Fig.4 Replicaof theStadtschloss, 1993 anda centralpeople's house" in onesingle structure. It waserected on the site whereonce

a Hohenzollernpalace stood whoseruins where destroyed in 1951to createa centralopen

spacefor massdemonstrations. Today, there are plansto reconstructthe Baroquepalace

(alsocalled StadtschloB, city palace).In orderto justify this enterprise,the knockingdown

of the socialistpalace is representedin the popularrhetoric as a kindof revengefor the

SchloB'sdemolition. The deeper issue with the buildingis that it wasconceived as a signof

the sovereigntyof the GDR.

21 Theerection of Palast der Republik was decided in the momentwhen the state'sindependence wasfinally internationally acknowledged. For people still hopedthat the divisionof Germany wouldbe onlytemporary, these aspirations were contested by politicians in the otherGerman state as the followingstatement of a memberof the West parliamentat the occasionof the building'sopening in 1977shows, "This building now emphasizes the usurpationof the

CapitalCity functions by East Berlin. This demonstration of the EastBerlin's illegal Capital City claimsshould not be silentlyaccepted." 16

Inthe lightof this statementit becomesplain that the officialclosure of the Palastder Repub/ik on the eve of the Germanunification was a politicallymotivated decision, an act that was symbolicof the definiteregime change. Furthermore, the rusheddismantling of the building representedan attemptto makeretroactive corrections to the "mistake"of the GDRas an episodeof Germanhistory. However, the coupd'architecture could noteasily be substantiated on culturalgrounds since the unificationcontract demanded that "the culturalartifacts of the

GDRhad to be preserved."When the buildingwas 'found' to beasbestos contaminated only a few daysbefore unification, it wasa welcomeopportunity to avoidany kind of publicdebate andshift the matterfrom a byzantinecultural question to a lesscomplex public health issue.

Thisway the politicallyinevitable shutdown was effectively constructed as yet anotherEast

Europeanenvironmental catastrophe, a sortof architecturaland urbanChernobyl.

The Vo/kspalastfestival was not the first temporaryappropriation of thesite. Althoughthe

Palastitself had beensealed off from the publicsince 1990,the "square"in front of the building,renamed as Schlossplatz,actually became one of Berlin'scentral fairgrounds. In additionto Christmasmarkets and beach volleyball tournaments, which were presented here seasonally,a cabaret theatre, the BKALuftschloss, had its circustent homeon thesquare for 22 severalyears. Other temporary events, in contrast,aimed at endingthe provisionalstate of the

Schlossplatz,which many deemed inappropriate for the historicalcenter of the city. In 1993,

Wilhelmvon Boddin, a businessman with aristocratic roots, initiated and funded an exhibition on site that proposedto rebuildthe old Hohenzollernpalace. The show was enshrinedin a full scalereplica of the Schlossfagade, painted on plastictarps andoccupying the Schloss's originalfootprint wherever it was possible.This installationdid not onlyturn architecture into a spectacle.It alsoappropriated the polemicpotential of the temporaryto polarizethe

Schlossplatzdebate into an either Palast or Schlossdiscussion. The plans to replacethe Palast derRepublik by a reconstructionof formerPrussian palace, however, are pendingbecause sufficientfunds for the projectare missing. It tookthe organizersof Volkspalastmore than two yearsto gain permissionfrom the authoritiesto reopenthe Palast.They had to mitigatethe

polarizedsituation by convincing Schloss proponents that they neitherintended to preserve

the Palastder Republik nor to stagea nostalgiashow within its confines.The major obstacle

to overcome,however, was that the buildingwas owned by the stateand that repurposing

it wouldapparently contradict the parliament'searlier decision to replacethe building.On

the other hand,the advisorycommission to the Bundestag(Internationale Expertenkommission

"HistorischeMitte Berlin") had recommended to usethe ruinfor culturalactivities until its final

demolition.

ThePalast itself couldbe moresecurely revisited because it had undergonea significant

metamorphosis.Due to the asbestosremoval, the buildingwas stripped of all its interiors 17 andnewly exposed its barestructure of massivesteel beams and concrete floors. Instead

of displayingthe old socialistpomp, it now appealedto the contemporaryminimalist

sensibility.The disappearance of all surfacesand internal enclosures allowed the architects

to aesthetizisethe emptinessof the building." 23 As the architecturalsetting of the festival,the Palastder Republikwas conceivedas a space-frameor mega-structuresimilar to thoseutopian visions of buildingsas citiesthat proliferatedall over WesternEurope during the 1960s.Huge scaffolding-like structures alternatelyspanning on top of or entirelyreplacing existing cities were part of a partlysocial, partlytechnological utopia. Envisioned as infrastructurerather than form they were supposed to functionas flexibleand open carriersfor new forms of communallife. 19 In fact, the festivalexplicitly referred to thesemega-structural fantasies as it includedan architectural conference,Fun Palace Berlin 20OX, dedicated to CedricPrice's Fun palace, a projectwhich servedas a scorefor manyof theseprojects. 20

24 -- --- .Ini - ~ El - -

Inside-out / don'twork from an abstract choreographicidea.

(..) / havea needto findimagery.

SashaWaltz"

Theperformance Dialoge04 (Dialogues04) was Sasha Waltz's contribution to the Volkspalast

festival.Like earlier Dialoge pieces by the Berlin-basedchoreographer, the showmade virtue

of a specificsite bytransforming the pre-existingsituation into a stagefor contemporary

dance theatre. Inauguratedin the early 1990s,Dialoge is conceptualizedas a series

improvisationsprogrammatically set outsidetraditional forms of theatreto allowintensive

and informalperiods of closecollaboration between choreographers, dancers, artists, and

musicians."For Dialoge04,Waltz and her companyWaltz & Guestscollaborated with the

Slovenianchoreographer Iztok Kovac.The accompanyingmusic, Reinhold Friedl's Xenakis

Fig.5Waltz&Guests, Dialoge04 [aflive!,was a live performanceof electronicmusic using lannis Xenakis compositions as

sound samples."Not only the series'title Dialogue(s)also its pluralform is programsince, in

fact, a multitudeof dialoguesevolves between dance and space, choreography and music,

and,also, audience and performers.

Waltzdescribes the themeof Dialoge04as the "resettlementof anabandoned world in which

old connotationsof powerand grandeur lost their meaning."2 4 Thisresettlement by means

of danceis an intriguingproposition as it exposesthe re-appropriationof body and space as

aninterlinked phenomenon. "Any revolutionary 'project' today, whether utopian or realistic,"

Lefebvrewrote, " must,if it is to avoidhopeless banality, make the re-appropriationof the

body,in associationwith the re-appropriationof space,into a non-negotiablepart of its

25 agenda.""Thus the questionof the bodyis closelylinked to the productionof newforms of socialspace.

Theperformance was a montageof two partswhich in termsof imageryand construction of the spectatorvaried greatly. In the first half,the 'stage'was set in the hugespace that was formerlythe centralfoyer and the spaceseparating the parliamentsection from the Grand

Hall. Duringthe secondpart, in contrast,the performersmade use of almostthe entire expanseof the building.The hybridity of the piecesuggests two readings:one temporal, the otherspatial. On the onehand, it can be interpretedin termsof beforeand after, past and present.The discontinuity of the two partsis amplifiedas the experiencesof thespectator is constructedin two contrastingways. Spatially, on the otherhand, the buildingof the Palast derRepublik was intrinsicallyhybrid as its originalprogram combined stately with popular functionsin a veryunique way. This programmatic hybridity, which is eminentin the overall

26 takenup bythe choreographersto constitute articulationof the building'sarchitecture, is Fig.6Waltz&Guests, Dialoge04 the basicnarrative structure of the performance.

Thefirst of the imagessets the frame for the choreographer'soccupation with the bodyin the society,that is, theappropriation of the bodyby specific societies. With very little elements the first situationis constructed:a pieceof lawnin shapeof a squareis laidout in the vastspace of the foyer.This fresh green 'carpet' of almostsoccer field size delimits the territorythat the

20 dancersoccupy while it situatesthe audienceand musicians outside along its border.The lawnsetting the stagefor the performancecarries different references. First of all,it alludesto sportsand 'physical culture' at large,a notionthat is underscoredby the outfitof the dancers whichresembles casual attire in whiteand blue. 27 Thestrong light equally distributed over the entirefield is characteristicof floodlightas it is commonlyused for the nightlyillumination of 26 sportsfields. Second, the grassappears like an initialvegetation (Spontanvegetation) starting to take possessionof thebleak forms of the buildingthat presentsitself in a ruinousstate."

Whereasthe first allusionmight evoke an imagery connected to the past,the ideaof the ruin raisesthe questionof the futureof the building.This question is directlylinked to the third suggestionwhich implies the lawnas the parkthat is plannedto coverup the siteof the Palast derRepublik temporarily once the old structurehas been razedto makespace for a future

buildingproject.

Thefirst associationwith gymnastics and sports is far from beingan arbitraryone given the

prominentrole that "physicalculture" occupied in the GDR.Although the Palastitself was not

usedfor sportsevents apart from the bowlingcenter it housedin the basement,exercise here

is usedin a metaphoricalway. These activities prominently served the legitimizationof power in socialistregimes. This kind of appropriationthrough the statewas drivenby the desire

to disciplineits subjectsby controlling their bodies.A wholeset of valueswas attached to "physicalculture": it wasto displayyouth, health, and strength and associate these notions

with the socialiststate. Furthermore, politics of sportsplayed an importantrole in the clash

ofthe two ColdWar orders. It soughtafter establishing hegemony in a smallbut highlyvisible 29 areaof competitionbetween the systems.

ButWaltz's thematic approach to the bodyin relationto this architecture,and to whatthis architecturesupposedly stands for, doesnot attemptto reenactformer socialist"physical

culture"and resistssymbolism. Her choreographyrather diverts the forms of movement

it borrowedfrom gymnastics.It takes up formalizedfigurations and movementsand alters

themsignificantly by either changing constellations of the dancersor bymodifying the tempo

of movements.In general,dance challenges the orderingproject of exercising.Whereas 27 movementsin gymnasticsare formalizedso that they can be repeatedand objectively measured,dance is innovativein its attemptsto pushthe expressivepossibilities of the human body.These fundamental differences express themselves in the wayspace is createdfor and throughboth activities.Standardized movement demands standardized spaces generated bythe universallyapplicable rules of the gameand the optimizingeffort of constituting comparableexternal conditions. In this sense,sports facilities are absolutespaces that can 30 betransferred everywhere in the globalcontext. Contrastingly,dance is a wayto interpret and re-interpretspace. The ever-changing configurations between dancing bodies and their probingrelationship with the surroundingproduces a specificspatiality.

Waltz'schoreography relates gymnastics to dance with a methodcomparable to the

Situationistdiversion. The way in whichpre-defined movements are over-written has much in commonwith AsgerJorn's altered paintings (peintures detourn6es) just to cite oneexample.

Hispaintings of the Modificationsseries were indeed over-paintings of secondhandcanvases

31 byunknown artists. ThroughJorn's intervention, paintings of arguableartistic merit which wereacquired on flea markets,became subject of a creativere-cycling. Due to the playful make-overby a higherauthority, the "real"artist, a productof visualculture is revaluedand elevatedto the ranksof art. Fig.7Waltz&Guests, DialogeO4

The secondpart of the performancevaries greatly from the first one as it overthrows the soccerfield's containmentand expandsthe action alloverthe building.Due to the reconfigurationof the entiresite as "theater,"dancers and audience are invitedto explore the enormousexpanse of the building.32 Theaudience reenters the buildingthrough the side entrancewhich originallywas reservedfor state leadersas their accessto the parliament section.Beginning with the parliament,crossing the mainfoyer via a bridgeand ending in 28 the GrandHall that is situatedon the oppositeside, Waltz's choreography inscribes a circle

in andaround the building.Thus, she carefully choreographs a circulation impossible under

the originalconditions. The performancesets out onto a spacetravel that embracesthe

emptinessof the buildingby offering an uncompressedview of the scene.While being rid

of the limitationsposed by traditional theatre that tries torepresent space on the stage,the

performanceneeds the threadof processionthat links dancersand spectators to repelthe

dangerof beinglost in space.It playswith the building'sspatial possibilities of verticaland horizontalvision. In the closingscene, the distancebetween dancers and viewers is stretched

to its extreme.This exploration of spatialdepth by placing the bodyin the recessionof space

is oneof theways to negotiatethe sheersize of the space."When the audienceis positioned

far aboveon the edgeof the GrandHall while a singlecouple dances on the bottomof the its

amphitheatre-likeshape it is almostas if onewould stand on top of a hill lookingdown into a

valley.In orderto cometo termswith this spatialexcess, Waltz reads the ruinas landscape.

Theatreas the place for spectacleconfigures the spectator'sexperience. The bipartite

performanceproposes two differentapproaches from which it extractsmuch of its narrative

potential.First the centralizedfield of actionsettles the spectatoralong its theborders

and confrontsthe seatedbody with the impossibilityof fully graspingthe simultaneous Fig.8Waltz&Guests, DialogeO4 performanceof the dance.In the followingpart, the spectatorassumes an activerole as

part of the choreographyliterally following the unfoldingperformance on a pre-scribedpath

throughthe variousrooms. The theater is re-definedas a contingentexperience involving all

partsof the bodywhile traveling in space.By exposing the mechanismsof spectacle,Waltz

invitesthe spectatorsto choreographtheir own perspective on the ruinthat since it haslost

its originalcultural identity can be appropriated in a newway.

29 Mockingthe mock

Fassadenrepublik,a second performance of the festival whichI wish to examinemore closely, is a gameenvironment that parodiesthe politicsofficial city developmentin the centerof

Berlin,especially its methodsto promotecertain building projects. The game is set up in the followingway: the city with the nameFassadenrepublik (fagade republic) is basedon the additionof a basicmodule, a fagadepanel of threeby three meters. To achieve a greatvariety of fagadedesigns, the Berlin-basedgroup Raumlabor,which collaboratedon this project with PeanutzArchitekten, announced an internationaldesign competition on their websitea monthprior to the opening.One hundred of the bestfagades were chosen by the architects andpainted onto plastictarps. For the installation,a majorsection of the first floor of the

Palastwas flooded, and the panelswere set up as a labyrinthforming canals, all reminiscentof

Venice,the lagoonand tourist city par excellence. The Venice experience was made complete with inflatableboats as the commonmeans of publictransportation. Fig.9Raumlabor&Peanutz, Fassadenrepublik

Appropriationin Fassadenrepublikinstallation is problematizedas the regimeof the image,as the appropriationof the city for the tourist'sgaze and, at the sametime, as the impossibility to inhabita purelyvisual construct. The setting of the gameenvironment participates in the generaltrend of disengagingexterior from interior,of separatingsurface from content,a themethat is criticalto the fagadedebates. The fagade as the interfaceof a buildingdefines its relationshipto the interior.What happens when the faqadebecomes an independent elementthat doesnot havean "inside"to whichit is givingsome kind of formalexpression nor an "outside"towards which it is facing?In the Fassadenrepublik,the facades become the elementthat turnsthe exteriorinto total interior.This world is almostexclusively generated bythe repetitionof thisone element. 30 Theinterior world of the fagaderepublic is organizedhorizontally, in a sequenceof chambers thatis containedwithin a blackbox, all togetherbringing the interiorworlds of videogames to

mind.The facades form navigablespaces and simulate houses whose functions are narrated

by easilyreadable representational codes. The waterand the chosenform of movement

addelements of adventurefor andinteraction between the players. In this city which is

transformedinto a game,emphasis is shiftedfrom sightto action,which might also turn out

to bethe mereillusion of actionlike it is constructedin theme-parks.

Theformula of the Fassadenrepublikis to simulatecity andstimulate participation. With taking

up a fetishof currentcity development,the fagade,the installationespecially mimics official

practicesof preparingreconstructions of lost buildings.With the project,the architectsmade

useof the opportunityto placea polemicalcomment in spatialproximity to the Senate's

mostambitious inner city projects.They thus usedthe protectedspace of the Palastas a

carnevalesquezone, to suspendthe existingorder temporarily. Their critique is especially Fig. 10Raumlabor&Peanutz, Fassadenrepublik directedagainst the Berlin-specificproliferation of Trompe/'oeil installations, which are part

of the bigre-ordering project and are guided by an ideaof the city as somethingdefined by

its image(s).35

Mockups such as thatof the Hohenzollernpalace or FriedrichSchinkel's Bauakademie serve

differentpurposes. Firstly, they are a meansof populismpretending to make"planning"

moretangible to laymenwhile actually implanting just onescenario as the only possible

one.Secondly, the installationsare fund-raising events that advertisethe projectto potential

investors.Thus the beliefin the powerof illusionisticimage exposes the essential weakness

of the publicplanning authority, that is the lack of necessarymeans to imposeany kind of

grandstyle planning.Largely dependent on private investments for publictasks, architectural 31 choicebecomes a questionof tasteand the stylisticpreference of thefinancier. Projects like the replicaof the palacefagade are made for watchingonly as they constitute something that hasno interiorand, hence, cannot be experienced as actualarchitecture. Above all appealing to the tourist's gaze,image-building through fagades is simulationof architecturethat functionsas visual"repair." It is supposedto re-enactthe lost likea "prosthesis"of thecity's body,and is chargedwith the hopethat the "prosthesis"eventually becomes a limbagain. 36

It is architectureas mediumwaiting to bematerialized.

Raumlabor'swork combinesarchitecture with performance;a seeminglynew and surprising combination.That performance art canhave an impacton architecturedocuments Gordon

Matta-Clark'sstatement: "I feel my work intimately linked with the processas a formof theater in whichboth the workingactivity and the structuralchanges to andwithin the buildingare 37 the performance."In the Fassadenrepublik,the processof both makingarchitecture and operatingthe city is the performance.As animators, the architectsinstigated the audience to engagein commonactivity. Partly this audienceconsisted of touristsattracted by the unique opportunityof canoeingin a floodedbuilding and, thus, ironically involved a groupof transitory residentsof the city - a groupthat usuallydoes not perceiveof itself as a community.

Nevertheless,it is this group probablymore than any other that indirectlyinfluences the transformationof cities into feel-goodand look-goodenvironments. Becoming part of the theater,tourists in the fagaderepublic were empowered to participateand produce their own pieceof the city ratherthan turning the Palastder Republik as a symbolof the perishedGDR into a meretourist spectacle.

32 It is still too earlyto concludeexactly what the Vo/kspa/astfestival achieved. Some critics haveexpressed a great deal of optimismabout its resultsstating that the projectwas a successfulattempt to exorcizeideological ghosts by superimposing new meanings onto the disgracedbuilding." The proponentsof the Palast'sdemolition and reconstructionof the

Hohenzollernpalace seemed to pushtheir agendamore fiercely than ever with the backingof politicians.This opposition holds that the ownerof the buildingcontradicts his own decisions bysanctioning and even funding such an appropriation.

In its own way, Volkspalastparticipated in the productionof images.As a future vision,it

introducedthe metaphorof the Pa/astruin as a possibleFun Palace, an ever changing machine that is entirelyoperated and controlled by its users.Obviously, the massivemonumentality

of the Palastder Republikcannot be equatedwith CedricPrice's diagrammatic framework.

WhilePrice's project remained a visionon paper,for goodreason, the Palastis a structure

thatpossesses its ownphysical presence and history. The question of non-controlis likewise

illusorysince it is the programmersof the Palastwho will finallychoosee which performances

to includeand exclude. Indeed, the selectionof performances- mostof which werefrom

chosenfrom fringeculture and subculture- was criticizedas not inclusiveand popular

enough.The selection was the maintool to distinguishVolkspalast from other lesscritical

forms of usingthis space.Yet, it might happenthat the festival pavedthe way for the

spectacleit wantedto preclude.After the festival,it seemedto be moreacceptable to usethe

Palastder Republik. It cannow be appropriated,or ratherrented, as a locationthat provides

the atmosphericbackground for a multitudeof eventsranging from large scalebusiness

meetingsand exhibitions to popconcerts. If the festivalcontributed to this newacceptance,

Volkspalastmight have indeed salvaged the building.

33 34 Part Two:Halle-Neustadt Plays

35 Thiscase illustrates the unusualintervention into a formerworkers' housing estate that, since the early1990s, has become increasingly depopulated. Contrasting the prevalentscenario of declineand urban demolition, the artisticre-appropriation of oneof the abandonedbuildings was a spirited attempt to find ways to reinventsocial spacewhile generatinga public awarenessof the socio-spatialdynamics of the surroundingcommunity. At stakehere is the futureof a modernistcity, the functionalistand architectural heritage of the defunctsocialist regimethat onceembodied a modelof collectiveideal society that becameobsolete with the regime'scollapse fifteen years earlier.

In September2003, HalleThalia Theatre held an internationaltheatre festival in Halle-

Neustadt,a newtown and former socialist model city nearHalle. As a majorsite of the festival, a formerstudent dormitory, the hi-riseSlab A in downtownHalle-Neustadt, was reactivated as a temporaryhotel. Hotel Neustadt, the nameof both the hoteland the festival,became the thematicframe and stagefor theatricalperformances. The festivalwas co-fundedby the newlyestablished Federal Cultural Foundation of Germany,the city of Halle,and private sponsors.The organizationteam includedtwo architects,Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius and

MatthiasRick, which are associatedwith RaumlaborBerlin, the groupthat wasworking on a strategicdevelopment plan for Halle-Neustadt,Kolorado. 3" Thusthey put into practiceone of their proposalswhich called for municipalinstitutions such as theatres,museums, and universitiesto establishtemporary spin-offs, the so-calledsatellites (Kultursatelliten), in the newtown, which is generallyconsidered a wastelandin termsof culturalactivities. 4 0 With the assistanceof theatrepeople and architects, local youth was invitedto participatein the furnishingand operation of HotelNeustadt as partof the program.They indeed succeeded in establishinga full-servicehotel occupying the first eightout of eighteenfloors in the existing the hi-risebuilding, with servicessuch as a balconymall with wellness center, a hairsalon, an 36 indoorgolf facility, a casino,conference rooms, and an undergroundnight club.

The festivaloffered a completetourist experiencewith happeningsthat were not limited to the hotel;from thereit alsoemanated into the publicsquare in front of thebuilding and

includedthe nearbytrain-station, the formernerve center of the entirecity.

Inthe first chapter,I will lookat the dialecticalrelationship between crisis and response. For that purpose,I will situatethis kindof temporaryintervention that is developingaround the themeof urbandemolition as a form of community-basedtheatre in the expandedfield. In the secondpart, I will examinea selectionof performancesand their artistic strategiesall of whichwere organized around the modernistcity as subjectmatter. The expanded notion of performanceimplied here allows for artisticand non-artisticcollaborations that will be discussedin the thatchapter. Thirdly, I proposethat HotelNeustadt is seenby architects as a

modelfor rethinkingthis city andas a culturalcatalyst to triggerchange without development in the conventionalsense. What are the characteristicsof this newmodel of envisioningthe city?How does the temporaryintervention position itself within the existingstructures of both

physicalspace and planning methodology? What kind of visiondoes the strategyimply for the futureof Halle-Neustadtand other cities with similar crisis?

37 Invadingthe 'modernist'ghost-town

Tostage an internationaltheater festival in Halle-Neustadt,a former workers' housing estate andan arearecently hit bydepopulation, sounds like an unconventionalendeavor very likely to fail from a commercialpoint of view.What are the motivationsof the theatreto take this step?

As a setting,Halle-Neustadt, a typical Plattenbaugebiet" of the GDRera, couldnot be more depressed.Since the collapseof the old regime,the city developedfrom a socialistmodel city into the prototypeof a post-unification"shrinking" city. 42 Halle-Neustadtwas the

GDR'ssecond largest new housingdevelopment exclusively built to accommodatemore than100,000 workers of the surroundingchemical industries and their families.43 Produced with standardizedtechnology, major parts of thenew city rapidlygrew out of the ground between1964 and 1974.44Since 1990, the transformationsin EasternGermany have led to processesof de-industrializationand, subsequently, de-population in industrialcities and regions.Apart from this economicalcontext, the abundanceof certaintypes of apartments is relatedto the growthof housingoptions. Today, the formerlyprivileged new apartment complexessuch as Halle-Neustadtare competing with the remodeledold town quartersand suburbanhousing. For these various reasons, Neustadt has lost about30.000 inhabitants - onethird of its originalpopulation - withinthe lastfifteen years. Consequently, many housing blocksare vacant. To respond to this crisis,housing corporations started to demolishsections of their unneededhousing stock with the financialassistance of stateprograms."

38 - - I - U UEE~EEE=

Yet,the theatre by initiating the project wanted to addressthe socialand emotional dimension

of this crisis."To go to Neustadtand to engageoneself there," writes Annegret Hahn, director

of ThaliaTheatre Halle, "means dispensing with politicalcommitment to the past.From the

originalprivilege of havinga homein Halle-Neustadtdeveloped a stigmaof havingbecome

a loserin a failed system.The future, if there reallyis one,lies in the old city, whichalso

sufficesfor the future."46 Hahnhighlights three points here. Firstly, the debateis politicized

insofaras Halle-Neustadt'sidentity is tiedto the socialistregime with whichnobody wants to

identifytoday. Secondly, it is psychologizedbecause whoever stays in or evenmoves to this

neighborhoodis stigmatizedas someoneidentifying with the old system.

Thirdly,the lossof socialsupport for Halle-Neustadtis played out inthe dichotomyof newand

old.It manifestsitself in a dropof emotionaland financial investment in favor for old Halle- a 47 tendencyrepresenting a complete reversal of the pre-unificationsituation.

Withits moveinto Halle-Neustadt,the festivalHotel Neustadt attempts to adopta strategy

crucial to community-basedtheatre. By addressingcommunity-specific issues, these

performativeforms hopedto trigger changesthat would affect its participants,both Fig.12 Foerster-Baldenius Squatter's home performersand audiences. British theatre company director and writer BazKershaw attests

that this notionof theatreas "culturalcatalyst" is "predicatedon the possibleusefulness of

theatreto particularcommunities. By tailor-making performances for knownaudiences these

companieshoped to changethose audiences in someway, howevermarginally." 4" Hotel

Neustadtis basedon similarlygeneral premises of the theatre'sefficacy. Moreover, it shares

someof the characteristicswith community-basedtheatre as it encouragescollaborations

with non-artistsaround a commontheme, performs within and with the community,and

emphasizesprocess such as workshops as muchas final product.

39 Themain issue for community-basedperformance, however, was to changethe mindsand, subsequently,actions of its participants,but not space.For example,Kershaw does not explicitlyaddress the role of spacein his studyof radicaltheatre, nor doesit seemto be addressedby the performanceshedescribes. Space is mainly consideredasthe placewhere a particularcommunity is localized.Furthermore, it playsa roleas a settingor environment, henceas somethingexternal to theactual performance. In contrast, space, or ratherthe crisis of space,is the majorconcern of Hotel Neustadt. Reviving the ideaof festivals as environmental form,the organizerscalled for embeddedperformances that were thematically related to the site. Giventopics were: "life in a largehousing estate and tower blocks;" "Halle-Neustadt;"

"city shrinkage;"and "hotels."" As we will seein the nextchapter, the selectedprojects were alsonot rigidlylimited totheatrical performances, but wereperformative interventions and installationsin the widestsense. I've selectedfive of theseperformances that, on the one hand,illustrate a spectrumof worksand, on the other,could be usefulas toolsbeyond the actualfestival.

40 U ~

Toolkit

HotelNeustadt was the nameof the theatrefestival hosted in a vacantbuilding. But it

wasalso the nameof a parasitehotel that occupieda hostof roomsin a hoststructure, a 2*1 formerstudent dormitory. How did this unusualplace for bringingtogether such different

communitiesas theatrepeople, international artists, local youths,residents, and festival

-At came being? Al, visitors, into

Hotel Tuning 50 JNPMWX Thecentral aspect of the HotelTuning process wasthe involvementof localteenagers into

the projectof creatingand running a hotel.Underlying this approachis a conceptof how

identityis created.As WolfgangKil proposed,identification with a placeemerges through participationin the shapingof the environment.'"Nevertheless, the involvementhad also a

symbolicaldimension because youth as a permanentsource of optimismwas prominently

featuredin the urbanismof the city." Assistedby Foerster-Baldenius and Mathias Rick from

RaumlaborBerlin, a groupof abouta hundredteens took overthe taskof bothdesigning the

hotelrooms and assembling their interiors. Furthermore, they were responsible for decorating

hallways,equipping the receptiondesk area, and for reactivatinga formerunderground club

Fig.13HotelNeustadt Reactivated floors in the basementof the building.

Eachroom of the ninety-twohad its individualdesign. The designs are groupedfloor-wise

aroundcommon themes, such as landscape,noise, fear, feeling, community, luxury, and

order.The cause for thisdiversity was less an anxiety of samenessthan the ideathat creative

freedomof the individualdesigner needs to be preserved.

41 Byoffering a varietyof possibleoutlets for individualcreativity and occasions for participation,

HotelTuning like manyother of the performancesand installations in andaround the hotelare informedby Joseph Beuys' theories on socialsculpture.

"Everyhuman being is anartist," Beuys famously stated "because I am talking about the 'point of freedom'that existswithin every individual.""

Improvisationis another aspect of this diversity. Many ideas developedunder the circumstancesof the tight budgetwhich forced the participantsto improviseand work with the meansthat wereavailable. 54 Suchfound or donatedobjects often triggeredthematic designideas for entire rooms.Moreover, improvisation as the elementaryvirtue of the I*2 eieo -,Wk .- 1'I 1N4V hotel,was also uphold in its materialculture of that hasits parallelsin the stuff of theatrical productions.55 Usedwere primarily color, paper, fabrics, donated and self-produced furniture, andrecovered materials. Major and unbeatably cheap building material for the furniturewere doorswhich were salvaged from buildingsallotted for demolition.This mass produced door of the 1970sis a composedof a softwoodframe, filled in with an innercore of honeycomb cardboardand hasa surfaceof imitationwood that often bearsthe tracesof its previous users.As a buildingmaterial, it waseasily to workwith, yet its sandwich-likestructure had to beconsidered as a designparameter. In the hotel,the doorsreappear transformed into beds, chairs,benches, and desks furnishing the roomsand in variousother installations. Fig.14 HotelNeustadt Rooms

Sincethe buildinghad beenvacant for severalyears, the reactivationof the building's infrastructurewas a major challenge.Difficulties with reactivatingpluming and electrics exposedthe fragilityof infrastructuralsystems. They have to bein usepermanently otherwise they becomedefunct. The official publication of HotelNeustadt accounts for severalfloods 56 andwater damages due to SlabA 's pipesclocked by lime. Thehotel's provisoriness, of 42 course,depended on the audiences'readiness to playalong. There was no wayto complain aboutnon-operating elevators, or theabsence of hotwater. Also some non-standard elements

likepublic warm showers and common kitchens demanded from the hotelguests to adoptat timesa squatterattitude.

As for the Hotel'sexternal appearance, some carefullyplaced signs communicated the

temporaryfunction of the hi-rise.Four large pictograms placed on the fagadeand neon signs 57 locatedat the entrancesof boththe train stationand the hotelindicated the intervention.

Thehotel also introduced a completetourist infrastructure with guidedtours in the area,bike

rental,and a gift-shopselling the ownline of Halle-Neustadtsouvenirs. With its restricted

budget,the hotelcalled the populationto donatedomestic and decorative items suchas

towels,refrigerators, kitchen utensils, and plants for the hotel'sequipment. Thus, the hotel

improvisationserved also as a generatorfor transactionsand redistributionof things.This

exchangewas one of the strategiesto establishlinks to the local population.Already in

February2003, the festivalplanning team had opened its office,ironically named "Fernost"

(Far East),in the Halle-Neustadttrain stationto slowlyadapt the local populationto the

upcomingartistic invasion.

BalconyTuning

PeanutzArchitekten focused on the investigationof the balconiesas the interfacebetween

privateand public. Their Balcony tuning also identified the loggiasin Halle-Neustadtas a major

stagefor individualityin the otherwiseuniform environment of a housingsettlement based on

prefabricatedconcrete panel technology. Taking up this potential,the architectsapplied their

method,tuning, which they defineas the semanticreloading of objectsand situations. The

tuningseries consisted of differentparts: a balconyguide, balcony tuning consultations,and

severaltunings executed by Peanutz Architekten themselves in the HotelNeustadt. 43 Tobegin with, the architectsorganized a guidedtour exhibitingthe mostexemplary balconies in the area.Moving around with scooters,festival visitors were called upon to explorethe diversityof decorationsand usages. Inspired by their recordings of Halle-Neustadtbalconies,

Peanutzwent on to offerpublic consultations assisting in bothpractical solutions for someof the commonbalcony problems and extravagant designs that would add pivotal use and display value.During these tuning sessions,more than a hundredvisitors, who hadnever before consultedan architect,received an expertopinion on howto customizethe mass-produced buildingelement according to their needsand desires. Besides performing architecture as a specialservice to the local community,Peanutz also "tuned" somebalconies for Hotel

Neustadtevents. A bigflower heart dressed up a weddingpavilion (The Wedding Celebration by performanceartist DianaWesser and Perform S.) and a triathlontrack compressed onto one singlebalcony (platten man) for the sportification,an extreme and fun sportsevent staged in Fig.15 BalconyTuning andaround the hi-rise.

Syntosilmol 25

Syntosilmol 25 is the nameof an installationby the Swissaction group Syntosilthat addressedloss of orientation.Disorienting the festival visitors was a challengingtheme since organizationand geometry of theformer dormitory are simple: four bedroomapartments on bothsides of a middlecorridor. Occupying three of theseapartments on differentlevels, the dada-inspiredZUrich-based group set up a sequenceof rooms,a labyrinthand an experiential 58 laboratory,which were inhabited by a bizarrespecies called the "idiots."

44 Sequenceof spaces:

upperlevel: artificial garden as waitingroom > Templeof Doors> straightcorridor with 24

doors> slide> lowerlevel: desk for distributionof helmets> laboratoryof threerooms with

organicforms

Thefirst roomcalled Temple of Doors was a labyrinthof honeycomb-likecells formed up by six

doors,which filled two of the largebedrooms entirely. Transition between was made possible

throughpartially opened sides of the hexagon.The labyrinth effectively disorients by breaking

the orientationframework which is crudelybased on the twobody axes established by the

front-back,and left-right relationships. Whereas the geometryof thebuilding's architecture

imposesan orthogonalgrid onto themoving body, the installationsuccessfully disorients

this referencesystem by establishing an enclosurewith six equalsides. After traversing no

morethan four cells,the spatialmemory of the clearstructure gets lost andthe disturbed

Fig.16 Syntosilmol 25 participantwill try to reinsertthe previousorder by finding the way out. Additionally,the

changeof scalein the labyrinthhas disquieting aspects. The size of the cellsderives directly

fromthe objectthat is formingits enclosure,the door,whose proportions, in turn,are directly

relatedto the humanbody. Despite, or ratherprecisely for that reason,it generatesthe

labyrinth'sclaustrophobic world. But Syntosil take the playwith scaleseven one step further.

Not onlydo they placethe participantin a labyrinthformed by doors;they also recreate

the door'sown internal structure for the labyrinthresembles its veryhoneycomb core. This

telescopinginto thematerial structure of thingswill laterbe reiteratedin the roomson the

lowerlevel.

45 Anotherfield ofplayful exploration is the confusionof the door'ssemiotic functions. Usually, a door marksthe thresholdbetween two separatedrooms and can be operatedin order to alternatelyopen or closeoff this connection.In the installation,this relaymechanism is arrested.Some of thedoors are just permanentlyopened to allowthe passagefrom one combto the other.Yet, their original meaning is still legiblethrough the existenceof the door handles.Along the samelines, the actualaperture from one roomof thelabyrinth to the other is not a doorbut a holein the wall.That none of the doorsin the installationis actuallydoing what it is supposedto do, becomesplain in the next room.The labyrinth leads into a long straightcorridor that exaggeratesuniformity by placing one door after the other.Syntosil's corridoris alsoan invertedpanopticon device that contrastthe uniformwith the potentially 59 interestingobject. Peep-holesthat are inverselybuilt into someof the doorsgive visual accessto enigmaticworlds behind them. This inversionof insideand outsidehumorously exposescommon voyeurism of collectivehousing arrangements, a setting where doors often haveeyes and ears to recordevery step of the neighborand in whichsecurity devices turn into meansof socialcontrol.

Throughanother hole in the floor, a slide leadsto the lowerlevel. 60 Here,an "alchemical laboratory"is installedwhich has to beexplored with "focusing helmets." Each of thefollowing three roomshas walls decoratedwith organicforms and sphere-shapedand illuminated objectsthat aresuspended at its center.Taking up the maintheme again, loss of orientation occurshere as a loss of scale,or more precisely,as the simulationof the simultaneous existenceof differentscales which enables the viewer to telescopefrom micro to macrolevel.

Thebody, the onlyobstacle to the fluidtelescoping experience, has to be manipulatedand thereforeequipped with imagingtechnology, the sphere-shapedhelmet. In the lastroom, the viewis filteredseveral times through both the helmetdevice as well as througha seriesof 46 ------~-~ UU U - - U' -- -- -

perforated walls.These open the prospectonto another hi-rise vis-h-viswhich, shockingly,

looksexactly the sameas SlapA: mirror, alchemy, or dej&vu?

Espressobar furniture

Anotherfifty doors were reworked into furniturefor the dormitory'sformer espresso bar as

it wasrevived as festival canteen. A Raumlaborteam designed,executed, and, subsequently, 1 evenoperated the barthat is locatedon groundfloor level."Its bigwindows that openonto

squarehad been barricaded with woodenpanels during years of abandonment.Situated at an

importantpublic intersection next to a passagethat cuts through the building and that shapes

the bar'sangular floor plan. Main elements of thenew espresso bar design are furniture, color,

andseveral objects such as the barand lamps. Although using the samecheap materials as

otherinterventions, as well as found installations, the interiorsare unified in aneclectic retro-

lookattesting to the architect'ssignature. Fig.17 Espressobar

Fortheir design,the architectsemployed the formallanguage of modernism,although not

withoutambiguity. They positionthemselves towards modernism by taking a contextual

approachand developing their designwithin and with theexisting space thus acknowledging

the validityof modernistprinciples and themes.62 The seatingareas (Sitzmdbel) take up

a modernisttrope, the fluid landscape.This elementwas conceivedas a band that is

contextuallyfolded around the rowof freestandingconcrete piers along the windowfront. On

the onehand, there is a continuityof the element,which, on the other,is brokendown into a

modularsystem based on the dimensionsof thedoors which were used as the material.

47 In eachof thebays, which are shapedby the deeplyinwards projecting piers, the modules occurin differentconfigurations to createa varietyof situations.63 To pronouncethe logic of the band,the piecesare carried out as closedboxes; a designdecision that bestowsthe furniturewith a immobilesolidity.

This tectonic reinterpretationof furnitureturns the announceddynamism into rhetoric.

Insteadof beingtruly mobileand allowing for the participatoryreconfiguration of the "users," the situationsare determined by the architects.The furnishing is similarlyambiguous in its relationto the temporary.While the materialof the furnitureitself suggests temporariness, its treatmentis rathercareful than spontaneous. The modules are well-executed: all panels have a 450bevel cut so thattheir edges are invisible. Thus, the architecturallandscape a miniature displaysthe architects'care about advertising their skills.

Clubgolf

ChristophBrucker's clubgolf was a mini-golfcourse installed in the gamezone of the hotel.

The19-hole parcours,distributed over severalapartments, was entirelymade of domestic itemsthat were harvested from the abandonedapartment blocks. In the tradition of theobject trouv6,Brucker repurposed objects such as wall units,furniture, pipes, computer monitors, carpets,and shovels. As homage to MarcelDuchamp, even a pissoirwas included. Like Kyong

Park'sproject proposal The Slide and Sportification, also clubgo/f envisaged leisure activities as a possiblefuture use for the apartmentblocks.

Clubgolfwas an interactiveinstallation. For a test arrangementof thistype, it is importantthat it is shownin a non-museumenvironment because an institutional setting would prevent most 64 peoplefrom actually using it. Nevertheless,each hole was accompanied by an explanation 48 cardto assistthe receptionof the piece.On each tag, there was information on teeingground

andputting object, recommended fairway, bounds, and hazards. For example, hole 4 (sofa)

readin the followingway: "For the fourth tee,one needsto climbthe baseof a wall unit in

orderto hit the ball from thereto a sofa,in whosearm a washbasindrainpipe serves as a

hole.""

Bruckercalls hisapproach towards found objects conversion, which is a conceptualmethod

of reinventingthem based on an investigationof their structuraland aesthetic qualities. The

artist notesthat an open-mindedview towards the objectand the abilityto recognizethe SOFA 4 unnoticedsides and characteristics of thingsare prerequisitesfor this kind of modification FUrden vierten Abschliagmuss man den Unterschrankder Schrankwand strategy.There is noobject that could not be put backinto useagain. 66 besteigen,um von dort den Ball hin6ber zu einem Sofa zu schlagen,in dessen Eckelementein einmontierter Likewise,Brucker's selection does not displaya specificaesthetic preference. It is rather SpOlbeckenablaufder Aufnahmedes an eclecticcollection of what couldbe foundon site.The famedwall unit "TypeLeipzig," Balles dient./ Forthe fourth tee one must climb the base of a cupboardin pre-Wendecenter piece of numerousEast German living rooms ends up next to a clearly orderto hit the bail from there to a sofa, first-wavepost-Wende corner sofa, as it probablydid in real life. Similarly,the "Fernost" in whosearm a washbasindrainpipe servesas the hole. wasredecorated by the artistwith the abandonedinteriors of the formerChinese restaurant festival Fig.18Clubgolf "PekingEnte" (Beijing Duck). Here, the anteroombecame the festivehighlight of the planningoffice. Heavy red curtainsand carpetsare contrastedwith dark brownplanking.

Thesefake wooden elements adorned with golden dragons were removed from the ceilingsof

the restaurantand instead mounted on the walls.If Bruckeridentified this roomas the germ

of HotelNeustadt, can we in turn seeHotel Neustadt as the germfor a newHalle-Neustadt?

49 Theatricalcity as model

Theatralityis a meansof estrangementthat transformslife "into a spectacle,"both on stage andin reality.With its interventioninto the existingNeustadt, the fictionalhotel attempted to triggera "metamorphosisof the real,the habitual,the ordinaryinto the theatrical""7 The theatricalas a formof estrangementof life is manifestin variousaspects in theHotel Neustadt project.68

Firstly,artists were not only presentas performersin Halle-Neustadt.During the preparation and the festival,the artworldtemporarily inhabitanted the hotel fiction thus deliberately blurringthe boundariesbetween art andlife. In orderto animatelife in the "real"city, artists intermingledwith actualresidents and became catalysts for newvitality due to theirfaculty to seethings anew. Secondly, theatre as the apparatusfor theatricalproductions makes its infrastructureavailable in order toenable and sustain the hotel'sfiction in a playfulway. In the hotel,the theatricalmachine is oftenused for unintendedpurposes. The theatre's backstage staff playsvarious roles such as thoseof make-upartists, contractors, and bellhops.The theatreworkshop facilitates building (Hotel tuning, Espressobar), the assistantdirector becomesthe coordinatorand problem-solveron site, andthe make-upcrew operatesthe wellnessarea. This offering of serviceslies within the concernof performance-orientedsocial art of the 1990s.

Thirdly,the work on the hotel- the publicstaging of buildingactivity - is itself,theatrical.

GordonMatta-Clark noted that the relationof building(and un-building) to performancewas

"processas a form of theaterin whichboth the workingactivity and the structuralchanges to andwithin the buildingare the performance."9 Noiseof air hammers,delivery of materials 50 andfurniture, and the publicityof the gesturesof makingin the formertrain station,on the publicsquare in front of the hotel,and on the hotel'sbalconies are meantto signalto the

Neustadt'spopulation that somethingis happening.The direct involvement of the community addedanother dimension to the process.Foerster-Baldenius, coordinator of the youthproject andself-described performing architect, emphasized workshops as a settingfor the work with non-professionals.Within this framework,the publicmaking of architectureincludes animatingactivity and coordinating the participativeeffort of designand execution as partof the performance.

Variousparticipants have described Hotel Neustadt as a city. KyongPark, artist from New

York,called it a "hi-risefavela" interpreting Hotel Neustadt not onlyas a city but as a specific

modelfor a newcity (favela)that juxtaposes the oldone. "It [HotelNeustadt] is a city without

a masterplan," he writes,"a newcity within a dyingcity, a temporarycity within a long-

term city, a nomadiccity within in staticone. The hotel attractedthe missingelements of Halle-Neustadt."70 Alsofor the groupRaumlabor Berlin, who was commissioned to develop

a planfor HalleNeustadt, the hotelserved as a prototypeintervention, which in contrastto

conventionalplanning could be implementedimmediately because of its limitedduration.

Whatis being proposedhere is a doublestrategy, which Park characterizes as "participatory

interactionbetween artists and population"and simultaneity of "bottom-upand top-down

movements."On the one hand,the theatricalcity allowsfor variousscenarios to be acted

out,because each intervention has only a limitedduration. The various temporary situations

canbe testedand evaluated and, subsequently, either corroborated or replacedby a better

strategy.Unlike conventional planning, which is transmittedby meansof verbalsigns and

plans,the intercedingscenarios are communicated non-verbally. 51 Themasterplan would be replacedby a dramaturgyof urbanevents similar to the conception of the Hotel-NeustadtShow where the differentperformances in the hotelwere experienced on differenttrajectories through the building.Other examples are the openingceremony of the festival,or the surprisingappearances such as the stilt performers(Grotesk Maru), the hotelbear, the NightSauna, and the performanceof the stationcleaning team.

Onthe other hand,the hotel/city wantsto generatean examplefor alternativeattitudes towardsspace. The project attempts to initiatea processof "appropriatory"activity based on participationof the population.This proposal could be imaginedmuch like WalterBenjamin's descriptionof what he callsa porouscity where"building and action interpenetrate in the courtyards,arcades, and stairways. In everythingthey preserve the scopeto becometheater of new,unforeseen constellations. The stamp ofthe definitiveis avoided.No situation appears intendedforever, no figureasserts its 'thus andnot otherwise."7' WhatBenjamin depicts is an admittedlyromanticized situation in which building/architecturecomes into beingas functionof spatialpractice, through the activityand action of the city's inhabitantswho can continuouslyadapt it to their changingneeds. These architectures include more temporary formssuch as additions,encroachments, decorations, or nomadicelements. Hotel Neustadt exhibitedsome strategies that resemblethis approachand encourage local activists to copy them.Moreover, it alsouses its licenseas an artisticproject to do thingsthat aredenied in "reallife."

Thereare different obstacles to mutablespace. Firstly, there is a mentalbarrier, which prevents evenmany home-owners from makingmajor changes to their homes.Secondly, Peanutz's balconyresearch revealed that thereare manyregulations imposed by housing companies, which effectivelylimit the rangeof possibleinterventions. And finally, Halle-Neustadt's 52 modernisturbanism, as conditionedby functionalism, is a majorhindrance. Functionalism as the earlytwentieth century ideology of rationallyplanned cities and buildings,was a deterministicdoctrine based on the scientificanalysis of the needsof the society.Still today, suchbuilt structures are too rigidto accommodateindividual and changing needs because of the buildingmaterials used and the minimalismof mostdesigns.

Hote/-Neustadtwas somethinglike a developmentaid beyonda mere managerialscheme to tacklethe city'scrisis. The project sought new purposes for the hi-riseand attempted to initiatenew developments. The initiative was celebrated by its participantsand local media as a greatsuccess for creatingmore awareness for the situation,on the onehand, and a positive vision,on the other.72 Thefestival triggered several follow-up projects. First of all, a group

of highschool students who had been organizing a basementparty space in HotelNeustadt,

tookover the name"Fernost" after the festivalfor an ongoingparty service and have plans to

73 continuethe enterpriseprofessionally after receiving their high-schooldegrees. Kulturblock

e.VHalle-Neustadt, a Neustadt based artist collective founded in 2002,took up the festival

idea and invitesartists on a regularbasis to developworks specificallyrelated to Halle-

Neustadt.Since 2003, the grouphas also championed the conversionof the Neustadttrain

stationinto an exhibitionvenue for contemporaryart (Kunsthalle)to salvagethis important

landmarkfrom demolition. Lastly, an exhibition of thework of thecity's former chief architect,

RichardPaulick, was held on the occasionof the40 th anniversaryof Halle-Neustadtin 2004.

Theshow accounts for the rediscoveryof the architecturalvalue of Neustadt'soriginal plan.

In2004 as well,Halle applied for the title "EuropeanCultural Capital 2010," using a concept

that took as its themethe dualityof the city andthe modelcharacter of the ongoingurban

transformations.On its tour of the applicantcities in Germany,the jury alsovisited Halle- 53 Neustadt.Although Halle was not chosenas a final candidatein the competition,it was generallyagreed that basingtheir campaignon the phenomenonshrinkage and urban redevelopmentwas a courageousstep for a city with suchrich a richcultural heritage. Major impulsesfor the future willresult from the city's participationin the IBAStadtumbau 2010

(InternationalBuilding Exhibition "Urban Redevelopment" in Saxony-Anhalt).Following the traditionof buildingexhibitions, the latest IBA,which is organizedby the BauhausDessau

Foundation,supports a networkof cities in Saxony-Anhalthelping them to developtheir individualpaths of urbanredevelopment and to promoteinternationally the expertisethat has been gainedin the restructuringprocess. The participationof Halle-Neustadtin this programwill enableRaumlabor Berlin to continuethe implementationof its Halle-Neustadt

Koloradodevelopment plan. As part of the IBA2010 initiatives,the ThaliaTheatre will return to Neustadtin September2005 to holdan InternationalSummer School.

54 Conclusion

Culturalactivities have become increasingly important in the era of globalizationbecause they helpcities to positionthemselves in the globalurban networks. Due to the mobilityof

capitalin the globaleconomy, cities are competing against each other for resourcesand new

investments.Whereas earlier cities were shaped by the growthof industries,they nowneed

to becomethe sourcefor neweconomic developments themselves.

Today,the most visible of these "new urban economies"are those basedon cultural

75 and leisure activities. Internationalart-related events, such as the "CulturalCapital of

Europe"initiative 76 and periodiclarge-scale art-exhibitions, are importantelements of this

economy.These events, for example,allow for the transferand bundling of fundsto improve infrastructure.A furthertangible effect is the event-relatedincrease in tourism.Intangible

benefitsinclude media attention and publicityfor the city, gainsin planningcompetence,

and intensifiednetworking among cultural and civic institutions- all of which have a

positiveimpact on the imageof the city and the urbandevelopment in the longerterm.

Suchimprovements contribute to the innovativeclimate in the city,which in turn is seenas

the basisfor additionalgrowth as it becomesa centerfor informationaland knowledge-rich 77 sectorsof the neweconomy.

BothHotel-Neustadt and Volkspalastused the logic of the artevent to attract visitorsto

specificsites and to proposenew purposes for buildingsthat have lost their originalfunction.

Althoughboth festivals used similar strategies, one waslinked to the problemof shrinkageand

the other tothe preservationof an importantmonument. The contexts of the appropriations

ontheir parttriggered different reactions. 55 HotelNeustadt opposed the idea that demolitionis a solution.Dictated by pragmatism, demolitioncreates no new infrastructureexcept for a specializedindustry. These acts of un-buildingmay even lead to additionalmental and emotional problems for the peoplein the affectedneighborhoods, especially if these processesare not counterbalancedby positive gestures.On the contrary,the perforatingcity needsto bepositively appropriated for several reasons.Firstly, shrinkage today is producedby depopulation; especially by migration of highly qualifiedpeople to the westernparts of Germany.The morepeople leave, the greaterthe chancesthat the downwardtrend will reinforcethe emptyingof thecity, despitedemolition of vacantbuildings. Related to this depopulationis a declinein the qualityof urbanlife and space,both interrelated factors that are interpreted as keyaspects of competitivenessin the ageof globalization.Thirdly, there is the dangerthat the residualspaces will be overtaken bydestructive forces such as radicalrightist groups. For all thesereasons, the productionof positiveimages is crucialto preventfurther weakening of theposition of this shrinkingcity.

Accordingly,the city officialsof Halle,unlike Berlin's municipal authorities, invited artists to re-appropriatethe abandonedspaces for the festival.Hotel Neustadt offered a setof cultural strategiesfor reinterpretingthe negativeconnotations associated with depopulation, vacancy, decay,and urbandemolition. The theatrical intervention showed that urbanredevelopment triggersnew social and artistic practices if it is approachedwith imagination.

56 Onthe onehand, urban demolition is stagedas a spectacle.On the otherhand, art projects emergearound demolition and possiblepreservation. Farewell rituals such as partiesin andfor buildingsscheduled demolition are forms of celebratoryconsumption that allow 78 participantsto experienceruination as somethingpositive.

Althoughperforation in Halleand Berlin is the outcomeof differentphenomena, it imposes thesame constraints on planning conventions. Wolfgang Kil describes a paradigmshift for the architecturalprofession, from planning based on growth to subtractiveprocesses, trends that leadto morelandscape and less architecture. For a younggeneration of architects,this means thatalmost no commissions for newbuildings will be availablein the future.Instead, they will 79 haveto accompanythe cities'transformations and plan un-building processes. StudioUrban

Catalystsadds that the tasksof the professionare currently shifting from designingspaces for a givenprogram towards re-programming existing architectural hardware. 80 In the future, 8 ideadevelopers with social fantasy will beneeded, andtemporary appropriations will indeed becomean importantplace of experimentalreprogramming. The temporary appropriation of the hi-riseproposed a set of conversionaltechniques that, if adoptedby architects could bringnew developments. Bruckers clubgolf is oneexample of howthe city couldreinvent itself withoutexternal pressure to develop.Ideas for reusesuch as newleisure activities in former apartmentbuildings could be taken up anddeveloped professionally.

UnlikeHalle, Berlin is not a peripheralcity but onethat in the pastfifteen years has tried to

becomea globalplayer. With its primaryfocus on largecorporations and the attemptto lure

someof them to transfertheir headquartersto the city, Berlinoften overlooksitself as an

alreadyattractive and innovative place. Moreover,even without a growingeconomy, there

57 is the obsessionto fill in the openspaces in the city's fabric.The plansfor reconstructing the Schlossare emblematicof thisdesire. Instead of preferringlarge prestigiousprojects andthereby disposing future resources, the city shouldcreate the bestconditions to sustain home-growninnovation, which often comes from the margins.Volkspalast showed how these openspaces could be preservedand used at the sametime, andhow bridging the waiting periodcould even be fun.

58 59 Notes

I HenriLefebvre, The Production of Space,(Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell, 1991),p.42.

2 Ibid.,pp.166-167.

3 Regardingthe historyof theproject: Philipp Oswalt,at thattime directorof the EU-funded researchgroup Urban Catalysts, spearheaded the ideaof re-openingthe Palastder Republik after the asbestosremoval. An exhibition,held in November2002, introduced the planto a widerpublic and presented concrete program ideas by a varietyof invitedcultural institutions of Berlin.The following year, the association"Zwischen Palast Nutzung - Freunde und Fbrderer e.V."successfully organized the first guidedtours in the emptybuilding. For the organization of the festivalin summer2004, Oswalt teamed up with Amelie Deuflhard, the artisticmanager at Sophiensaelein Berlin-Mitte.Sophiensaele is an independenttheatre founded by Sasha Waltzand Jochen Sandig in 1996.

4 Possibly,the questionof eradicationis evenmore complex as it doesnot simplywant to stampout the tracesof the past.In fact, iconoclasmanticipates the inevitableloss of the building'soriginal meaning in the future.According to AlbertSpeer's appraisal, the ideological messageof architecturewould not last morethan fifty years.He believed,that evenhis architecturefor the Hitler regimewould ultimately be judgedbased on aestheticcriteria only.(Bernhard Leitner, "Albert Speer, the Architect,"In: October20, 1982, p.16)The relative easewith the reconstructionand reuse of Naziarchitecture as governmentbuildings in the new Germancapital of Berlinseems to concedeSpeer's point. Stalinist architecture is no exceptionin this process sincethe Stalinallee(today Karl-Marx-Allee) in former East Berlin wascarefully restored as well after 1990.

' I amborrowing a conceptby Ackbar Abbas, which he originally used to describepost-colonial politicsof historyin HongKong. See: "Building on Disappearance:Hong Kong Architecture and Colonial Space." In: Ackbar Abbas, HongKong: Cultureand Politicsof Disappearance. (Universityof MinnesotaPress, 1997), pp. 63-91.

6 Wendeis the mostcommonly used expression for the 1989/1990events in Germany.It is besttranslated with "switch,"or (regime)"change."

60 7 Raumlabor,a loose network of architects,grew out of a groupof diplomastudents of Daniel Libeskindand MatthiasSauerbruch who set up a studiospace in a former butchershop in AlmstadtStr. in Berlin-Mitte.One of the architectsassociated with this group,Benjamin Forster-Baldenius,realized his first interventionstogether with andfor a former squatter communityin PrenzlauerBerg, Lychener Str. 60, while PeanutzArchitekten made their markwith situationaltunings and furnishings of temporaryspaces such as the YaamClub on the riverfrontin Berlin-Treptow.Oswalt researched phenomena of temporaryuse and theoreticizedthem in his alternativemorphology of Berlin(Berlin: Stadt ohne Form: Strategien eineranderen Architektur, MUnchen; New York: Prestel,2000).

1 It is impossibleto speakof onesquatter movement. The movement was shaped by local dynamicswhere ever it appeared.Moreover, it is historicalin the sensethat its goalsare redefinedover time. The followingquotes are takenfrom the book by JohanSjerpstra, Crackingthe movement:Squatting beyond the media,Translated from Dutch by Laura Martz, (Autonomedia,New York, 1994).It is also publishedonline under http://thing.desk.njf bilwet/Cracking/contents.html.The book, written by an authorfrom Amsterdam, is a rare pieceof literaturefrom within the squattermovement, which was inherently anti-intellectual as it "abandonedthe intellectualatmosphere in orderto explore,in placeof Frenchtheory, their own space."It was written as a responseto distortionsproduced by massmedia- coverageof squattingevents.

9 Sjerpstra,Cracking the movement:Squatting beyond the media,page numberunknown. (http://thing.desk.nl/bilwet/Cracking/suatting.html)

0"Talkingover the squat,its preparationand execution, the hookupof the telephonefor the alarmnetwork, the collectivehome repair jobs, keepingpolice or landlordsout of the way - that was all part of suchan event:a slow,unsurveyable, gradually accelerating series of meetingswith peopleabout whom you found out nothingelse except that they wouldshow upin the eventit wasnecessary. These unexpected convergences released the energywith whichthe cravingfor the eventwas transformed into actions."Ibid., (httpf//thing.desk.nl/ bilwet/Cracking/special.html)

" A specificmigration from West Germany added considerably to WestBerlin's revolutionary spirit.In the decadesbefore 1989, the city wasa primedestination for draftdodgers due to its specialstatus as demilitarizedzone. 12 The Kreuzbergsquatters called themselves Instandbesetzer which is a pun combining instandsetzen (German for "to repair")and Besetzer (German for "squatter").

13 Fora study on the influenceof propertyrestitution on post-Wendeurban development in Berlin'sinner-city districts, see HartmutHsuBermann; Birgit Glock;Carsten Keller, "Die sozialenKonsequenzen der Restitutionvon Grundeigentumin Deutschlandund Polen."In: BerlinerJournal fOr Soziologie, 11. Jg., Heft 4, 2001,pp. 533-550. A good sourcewritten in English is ElizabethA. Strom, Buildingthe new Berlin: thepolitics of urban developmentin Germany'scapital city, (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2001).

14In the caseof Berlin,two standardexamples account for the appropriationof alternative sitesby city marketingto fabricatethe newmyths of city. Oneis the KunsthausTacheles, a departmentstore ruin situatedin the triangleformed by FriedrichstraBeand OranienstraBe in Berlin-Mitte,both of whichare increasingly prestigious and well-trodden streets. Originally squattedby artists, its remainsare now a well-marketedtourist landmarkdescribed in all city guides.Secondly, it wasthe Loveparade,originally a privatebirthday party taking over the publicspace of a majorstreet (Kurfirstendamm),that becamefor yearsinternational figureheadof Berlin'ship techno and youth culture eventually not onlyattracting visitors from all over theworld but alsohigh rank local politicians.

15 For a discussionof culturalpalaces in the GDRin the 1950sand their role for the articulationof the state iconographyaligned to the ideologicaland aesthetic principles of socialist realism, see: Ulrich Hartung,Arbeiter- und Bauerntempe:DDR-Kulturhsuser der fanfzigerJahre.Ein architekturhistorisches Kompendium, (Berlin: Schelzky und Jeep,1996). The sameauthor also wrote a wellinformed article on the Palastder Republik, see: Ulrich Hartung, "ZwischenBauhaus undBaroque: Zur Asthetik des Palastesder Republik,"In: kunsttexte.de FachzeitschriftfOr Kunstgeschichte im Netz, 1/2001-1, www.kunsttextede/download/denk/ hartung.pdf.See also: SimoneHain; Stephan Stroux, Die SalonsderSozialisten: Kulturhsuserin derDDR. (Berlin: Ch. Links, 1996).

16 Unknownauthor quoted in Strom,Building the new Berlin, p.71.Strom's translation of a speechquoted by Lothar Heinke in: "Vom'Palast der Republik'zum 'Balast der Republik'?," In: Der Tagesspiegel,27 March 1993, p.10.

17There are marks on the building'ssteel beams that indicate the locationof separationwalls andcladding. This mapping suggest reversibility of the eviscerationprocess. In fact, muchof

62 the immobileoriginal interior was archived.

18At an earlystage, large scale photographs of the emptyinterior, which were on display at the "ZwischenPalast Nutzung" exhibition, promoted this aesthetic.On the otherhand, partsof the Palast'soriginal interiors had been sacked by the clubculture after the building's closureand survived in the retroactivechic decorations of their hangouts (e.g.WMF, Club derRepublik).

19 Thevisions oscillated between the polesof socialand technological utopianism. Examples arethe designsof Buckminster-Fuller(USA); Archigram's Walking City (GreatBritain); space- framesby Yona Friedman; the l'architectureoblique Claude Parent & PaulVirillio (France); Constant'sNew Babylon (Netherlands), and Superstudio (Italy). The Centre Pompidou (1973- 78)in Parisby Piano/Rogers is indebtedto theseideas. Rem Koolhaas' diploma project at the ArchitecturalAssociation (AA) in London,Exodus, or the VoluntaryPrisoners of Architecture (1972),is a horizontalstrip designbased on a provocativereading of the BerlinWall as mega- structure.That the idea hasnot completelylost itsutopian edge showed a recentdesign: thedesign scheme by THINK (Fred Schwartz and Rafael Vinoly amongst others) for the WTC designcompetition proposed a high-risescaffolding-structure to housea WorldCultural Center.

20 Pricedeveloped this project,which was never executed, together with Britishdirector and theatrereformer Joan Littlewood.

21 Quotedin: RobertHilferty. "Dance-Theater's New Act: Waltz'ssensation-causing Kdrper." New YorkMagazine. November 18, 2002.

22 Thevariety of buildingschosen for the Dialogeseries illustrates Waltz's range of interest in architecture.More importantthough is that the performanceshave a quasi ritualistic functionas theymark a specialevent either in the existenceof the buildingor in the life of her dancecompany. In 1995,the first Dialogewas staged in the HackescheH6fe in Berlin-Mitte, a mixeduse complex clustering around a numberof courtyards,before its reconstruction andsubsequent enactment as tourist attraction.Four years later the companyrelocated to SchaubUhnetheatre in the westernpart of the city but not withoutgiving a farewell performance(Dialoge '99//) in Sophiensaele,the theatrewhich Sasha Waltz had founded asthe headquarterfor her company.Unlike Sophiensaele,at home in a defensivered-brick buildingthat wasbuilt by a worker'sunion, Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum, site of Dialoge

63 '99//, is a pieceof contemporaryarchitecture which has a very strongsignature of its architect.Dialoge '99/// hadthe opportunityof exploringthe then emptybuilding before its officialinauguration.

23 Inmy descriptionsand interpretations, I am widely relying on visual documents as well as on rarenewspaper reviews (Katrin BettinaMUller, "Sashas Tanztheater-Laden", In: Tageszeitung Berlinlokal Nr. 7466vom 20.9.2004, p. 23;and Birgit Rieger, "Dialoge04," Weblog:http;// dosto.kh-berlin.de/~marcela/index2.php?id=71,19 September 2004). Additionally, Remo Lotano'soral account of the performance providedmissing pieces to thepuzzle.

24 My translation of "Vonder tsnzerischenWiederbesiedlung einer verlassenenWelt, in der die alten Konnotationenvon Macht und Grd8eihre Bedeutung verlorenhaben."

" Lefebvre,The Production of Space,pp.166-67.

26 Thisdivision of functionsis expressedin the basicdiagram of the buildingwhich is showing thetwo centerpieces,parliament and Grand Hall, articulated as two halvesthat are separated from eachother bythe mainfoyer. Externally, this major themeis emphasizedby the two cubicvolumes projecting out of the otherwisehermetic body of thebuilding. Architecturally, theyform white marble-clad bands that clasparound the bronzeglass fagade like brackets.

27 Inorder to makeup two completesoccer teams, twenty dancers and two choreographers, Waltzhad to recallformer dancers of thecompany, which, as a sideeffect, transformed the whole eventinto a reunion.

28 The metaphorof grassgrowing over ruins,of new life emergingfrom the old derelict forms,highlights the nice ambiguityof this ruin: is it still in processof buildingor is it alreadydisappearing? Also another performance, Ruedi Hsusermann's Richtfest (topping-out ceremony), suspendedthe process of ruinationfor a momentand declaredit beingin the stateof raw-buildingagain.

29 Most peopleperhaps still todayremember the small countryGDR by the top ranksit occupiedin the medaltables of worldchampionships and Olympic games.

30 HenningEichberg, "Thinking Contradictions: Towards a Methodologyof Configurational Analysis," In: Knut Dietrich (Ed.), How Societies Create Movement Culture and Sport,

64 InternationalSeminar, June 21-24, 2001, in Copenhagen,(Copenhagen: Institute of Exercise 15 andSport Sciences University of Copenhagen,2001), p. .

1 Jorn'sModifications were exhibited at the RiveGauche gallery in Parisin 1959,shortly after the constitutionof theSituationniste Internationale. From: Elisabeth Sussman, (Ed.), On the passageof a few people througha rather brief momentin time: the SituationistInternational, 1957-1972,(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press ; Boston, Mass.:Institute of Contemporary Art, 1989),p. 22.

32 Logisticallychallenging, the about 1000 spectators had to besplit into smallergroups, which wereguided through the buildingin intervals.In the courseof the secondpart, the audience hadto waitoutside, reenter, and exit again.Finally, it reenteredthe buildingfor an epilogue: a Chinesesoup kitchen installed next tothe greenfield where on longtables producers and spectatorsgathered after the performance.This commonplace tied theevent together and highlightedthe simultaneityof pre-performance,performance and after-performance.

33 Manyof the festival'sperformances grappled with the monumentalityof the building.A senseof agoraphobiabecame apparent in the worksthat attemptedto fill the space.Some weremass events where the space seemedto control the user.Exemplary are events like Le BalModerne and the exhibitionof the Chinese armyof terracottawarriors (on displayin the Palastder Republikbefore the actual festival).

34 Thewater's reflectiveness in the projectconfirms the primacyof sight. However,it also displaysthe architects'occupation with waterand its usabilityin the city that informsother projectsof the groupsuch as BadLy (temporary public pool, Lychener Str.60, Berlin, Summer 1999)and Clubder Nichtschwimmer(river bath, Graz,2003). Theflooded fagade republic alsoshows their excitementwith engineer'sprophecies. According to feasibilitystudies, the demolitionof the Palast'scould drasticallychange ground water levelsand thus damage surroundingmonuments.

" Howaggressively theright architecture of thecity is promotedin imagery,could be seen in the so-calledDowntown Master Plan (Planwerk lnnenstadt), drawn up by in 1996.The accompanyingillustrations make clear what architecturalappearance is desiredthereby obviatingthe conventionalneutrality of zoningplans.

65 36 Oddlyenough, von Boddin's1993palace mock up haseffectively altered expectations as evenmost proponents no longerdemand the reconstructionof the actualpalace but of its fagade. Sincethe Bundestagdecision from July 2003 which calledfor the reconstructionof the fagade,the termSchlossfassade is firmly established in the commonparlance.

1 GordonMatta-Clark, "Gordon Matta-Clark's Building Dissections" (Interview by Donald Wall, 1976), In: Fabozzi,Paul F., Artists, critics, context:readings in and aroundAmerican art since1945, (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002), p.282.

38 WolfgangKil statesthat "this friendly'attack' [Vo/kspalast]from the subculturefreed the buildingfrom the weightof ideologicalattitudes. A new,young generation, unburdened by old East-Westpolarisations, showed that it wascapable of nonchalantlyusurping the very core of the newcapital. With this, the iconoclasticphase could come toan end; old scoresno longer hadto be settledby destroying 'guilty' buildings." From: Wolfgang Kil, "Post-Communistor anti-modern?:Models and motivations for planningin Berlinafter 1990,"conference paper given at Cities after the Fall: EuropeanIntegration and UrbanHistory Conference, Minda de GunzburgCenter for EuropeanStudies, Harvard University, March 2005, and publishedon the conferencewebsite: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ces-lib/kil.html.

39 Koloradois Raumlabor'sstrategic development plan for Halle-Neustadt.It was the winning entry for the StadtUmbauOst competionin 2002.According to Kolorado,the entirearea of Halle-Neustadtis subdividedinto fields,which shouldbe developedin individualways. Thename of the projectalludes to a popularbrand of mixedcandies named Colorado with differenttastes, shapes, and colors. Raumlabor's proposal was published in: arch+166/167, Dec 2003;Quaderns de Arquitectura, May 2004; and in: JeskoFezer; Mathias Heyden (Ed.), Hier entsteht:Strategien partizipativer Architektur und rsumlicherAneignung, (Berlin: bbooks, 2004).

40 Althoughplanned as a completecity for a populationof 100.000,Halle-Neustadt lacks any majorcultural institutions. A culturalcenter, which was originallyenvisioned as the center pieceof the planning,was never realized. For the originalproposal, see: Joachim Bach, "Das KulturzentrumHalle-Neustadt: Studie zu Programmund Gestaltung," In: Deutsche Architektur, Oktober1969, pp.602-607). The failure of the projectis exemplaryfor the antagonismof socialistand bourgeois culture in the GDRcultural politics. Since the 1950s,the Kulturhsuser were regardedas key elementsin the formulationand production of socialistculture, which primarilyaddressed workers and, in a limitedway, farmers.This type of culturalcenters 66 wasbuilt next to factoriesand was usually a multi-purposebuilding. (Hartung, Arbeiter- und Bauerntempe: DDR-Kulturhsuserder fdnfziger Jahre. Ein architekturhistorischesKompendium, 1996)However, the KulturzentrumHalle-Neustadt was envisionedas a Kulturforum,that is a compositionof specializedbuilding types, such as a concerthall, a theatreand a library, whichare groupedaround a centralplaza. Sited in the centerof the newdowntown, Halle- Neustadt'sKulturzentrum was representative of the bourgeoisidea of the culturalinstitution ascivic center. It thus resembledmore of the LincolnCenter in NewYork, Hans Scharoun's Kulturforumin Berlin,or AlvarAalto's town centers than of a socialistKulturhaus/Kulturpalast. Raumlaboraddressed the immanentlack ofcultural institutions in Halle-Neustadtin their Koloradoplan andproposed to win overHalle's cultural institutions to establishtemporary spin-offs,the so-calledsatellites (Kultursatelliten), in the newtown. In: Raumlabor,Ko/orado brochure,2003, p.72.

1 A Plattenbaugebietis a residentialneighborhood built exclusivelywith prefabricated concretepanel technology.

4 A "shrinking"city is a city that loosessubstantial parts of its populationwithin a relatively short periodof time. Thephenomenon is a hugeeconomical and socialchallenge for the affectedcities andtheir governments.The phenomenon questions the urbanism,which is traditionallyfocused on growth. The term "shrinking", a translationof theGerman schrumpfen, hadbeen coined around 2000 when the discourseappeared in Germanacademia. Amongst the first whothematized the shrinkagewas a groupof diplomastudents of Dutchprofessor KeesChristiaanse at TU Berlin,which was workingon differentcase studiesmainly in EasternGermany. Shrinking Cities was also the title of an exhibitionorganized by P. Oswalt in collaborationwith differentinstitutions such as the BauhausDessau Foundation. It washeld in 2004in KW,Klaus Biesenbach's Kunstwerke in Berlin.The exhibition presented research on andideas for a selectionof contractingcities: Detroit (US), Liverpool/Manchester (GB), Leipzig/Halle(GER), and Ivanovo (RU). The comparative research also tried to relativizethe extentof the phenomenonpointing out that it doesnot only happenin EasternGermany but everywherearound the world dueto eitherde-industrialization or rationalization;both areprocesses that renderlarge amounts of workforce redundant.However, this declineis extremein EasternGermany because it appearsall overthe former countryat the sametime andshould be interpretedas a specificaspect of the Germanunification process.

4 Theorigin of the newcity is closelylinked to the Chemiedreieck,the so-calledtriangle of chemicalindustry, located south of Halle.The arrival of the chemicalindustry was a relatively recent phenomenon.Thefactories of Leuna(1916/17) and Buna (1937) were founded during 67 andbefore the two WorldWars of the twentiethcentury to producenew synthetic materials. Thefoundation of Halle-Neustadt(originally called Halle-West or Chemiearbeiterstadt)in the early1960s was the attemptto solvethe housingcrisis in Halle,which the warindustry had triggered.Planned as anindependent city, Halle-Neustadtwas originally restricted to workers form the chemicalindustries to offerthem a improvedliving situation as compensationfor the bad workingconditions in the factories.Modern apartments and a bettersupply with goodsthan normal were used as recruitmenttool. Halle-Neustadt's privileged statuswas also conditionedby anxiety of worker strikes,because Halle and the surroundingindustrial sites werethe majorsite of the 1953uprisings. For Halle'srole in the uprisingof June 17, 1953,see: http://www.17juni53.de/karte/ halle.html(17 May2005).

44 Forcontemporary accounts of the planningand construction of Halle-Neustadt,see: Richard Paulick,"Die stsdtebauliche Planung fUr denAufbau der Chemiearbeiterstadt,"In:Deutsche Architektur,April 1967, pp.203; and the entireissue of Architekturder DDR, Juni 1974.

4s Thefinancial program, however, is not advertisedas funding for demolition.The funding is linkedto the federalprogram for city redevelopment,StadtUmbau Ost, which requires cities to presentan overalldevelopment plan to legitimizedemolitions.

46 AnnegretHahn, "Vorwort/Preface," In: HotelNeustadt, Thalia Theater Halle (Ed.), (Berlin: Alexander-Verlag,2004), p. 33.

47 DuringGDR-time, the dichotomyof newand old was pushedto the extremein the dual city of Halle.Whereas Halle-Neustadt was built as a parallelcity for 100.000inhabitants accordingto modernistsideals of light,air, andsun (andcentral heating) on the outskirts, the old coreof Halle(founded 1200 years ago andthus oneof the oldestGerman cities) was widelyneglected. Both cities were separatedby a rivervalley (Saale Aue) and connected by anelevated highway. With the event ofthe collapseof the GDR,the conditionsand ideologies that had privilegedHalle-Neustadt were not valid anymore.The unificationof Germany reversedthe urbandevelopment: the old town rebuilt andthe new oneneglected. At the sametime, Halle-Neustadt,which before 1990 had been an independentmunicipality, was incorporated intoHalle.

48 Emphasisby Kershaw.Baz Kershaw, The politics of performance:radical theatre as cultural intervention,(London; New York: Routledge, 1992), p.3.

68 49 CoraHegewald, "Theater-Visionen/Theatre Visions," In: HotelNeustadt, Thalia Theater Halle(Ed.), p.254.

5 Theterm tuningwas adapted from PeanutzArchitekten. Tuning describes their methodof improvingsituations and objects by adding some extra value to them.More explanation later underBalcony Tuning.

1 Kil is proposinga "handson" identity,which is opposedto image-basedforms of identity production.Wolfgang Kil, "Identitst entsteht durch Aneignung," in: UlrichSchwarz (Ed.): Risiko Stadt, (Hamburg:Junius, 1995), pp.141-145.

52 Therow of five slabsin the centerforms theStadtkrone of the city. Thehi-rises originally housedstudent dormitories and married symbolically workers with intelligentsia.They also representeda sourceof continuousself-rejuvenation for the city,Thus, the stagingof Hotel Neustadtin oneof the abandoneddormitories is of symbolicalimportance.

1 JosephBeuys, In: J. Benthall,Science and Technologyin Art Today,(Thames & Hudson., 22 London,1972), pp. . Translatedfrom: JosephBeuys: Jeder Mensch ein Kinstler, Gesprsche auf der documenta5; aufgezeichnetvon ClaraBodemann-Ritter 1972, (Frankfurt a.M.: Ullstein, 1975).

5 Thisway of working prefers techne (art, skill, craft) over technology (techne + reason).While skill enablesto adaptto thecircumstances of a givensituation, possibilities for arrangement aresomewhat more limited trough technology. The latter first needsto createthe conditions underwhich it canperform well. Bestexample for an environmentalmost completely shaped bytechnology is Halle-Neustadtitself.

5 Improvisationwas onepossible intersection of art andlife in Halle-Neustadtsince it is a techniquethat is byno meansnew to theresidents of the city.Actually, it is the rediscovery of a virtuethat was deeplyrooted in the GDR'seconomy of scarcity.Improvisation had its outletsin the contactwith technologyand buildingand was mostprominently displayed in the lovinglymaintenance of the Trabant,the patheticEast German car. Another example are the privategardens (Schrebergarten) with their dachas,which offeredretreat from places like Halle-Neustadt.Whole sets of transactionshad to be madeto acquirerare materials andto get oneof the sought-afterconstruction professionals. According to GDRlaw, only electrichad to be doneby a certifiedprofessional; all othercrafts were executed by people themselves.Related to the phenomenonof improvisationwas the high valueassigned to

69 everythingmaterial. Basically, there was no junk. Everythingwas potentiallyvaluable and was storeduntil it could becomethe resourcefor somethingnew, or a bargaintraded for somethingelse.

56 To fix the lime problem,the toilets in the hotelwere flushedfor monthsprior to the opening.

1"Here, note especially the manipulationof the "Halle-Neustadt"sign at the entranceof the train station.The replacement of the "e" in the wordHalle by an "o" createsa newmeaning (ha/tois the Germanword for "hello").

58 See:http://www.syntosil.ch/ and http://www.syntosil.ch/def/index.php?mol25 (18May 2005).

59 MichelFocault, The Order of Things:An Archeology of theHuman Sciences, translated from LesMots et LesChoses, (New York: Random House, 1970), p.319.

60 InSyntosil's installation, there are two holesto establishhorizontal and vertical connections betweenthe apartments.Other than GordonMatta-Clark, Syntosil was confronted with 20 cm of reinforcedconcrete, which madeactual perforation difficult. Thesedifficulties are summarizedin Foerster-Baldenius'play "The Hole," in: HotelNeustadt, Thalia Theatre (Ed.), p.310.

61 TheEspressobar team included Anne Schmidt, Frauke Gerstenberg, Irina Jurasic,Francesco Apuzzo, andJan Liesegang.

62 Theoriginal design of the espressobar, however,was less overtly modern. In the olddesign, all fixtureswere executed in brickwork.

63 Thefurniture is basedon a modularsystem, which has parts established by a fewvertical anddiagonal cuts.

64 SilkeFeldhoff, Duchamps Ur-Urenkel, Beuys' Enkel. Object trouv6, Schachspielen und Soziale Plastikin derKunst der 1990erjahre.On: http://www.uni-weimar.de/vlv/ausgabe.php?use_ db=vlv7&id=621(19 May2005).

70 65 ChristophBrucker, "Clubgolf," in: Hotel Neustadt,Thalia Theatre (Ed.), p.320.

66 WalterBenjamin first discovereda similar methodof treatingoutmoded things in the Surrealist'swork with foundobjects. He notedthat "no one beforethese visionaries and augursperceived how destitution - not only socialbut architectonic,the povertyof interiors, enslavedand enslaving objects - can be suddenlytransformed into revolutionarynihilism." Walter Benjamin,"Surrealism," in Reflections,Peter Demetz (Ed.), (New York: Schocken Books,1978). Cited in PamelaM. Lee,Object to be Destroyed:The Work of GordonMatta-Clark, (Cambridge,MA: MIT Press, 2000), p.184.

6? Silvija Jestrovic, Theatricalityas Estrangementof Art and Life in the RussianAvant-garde, SubStance98/99, 2002,p.42.

68 Thisform of theatricality,though, has nothing in commonwith the scenographictradition basedon perspectivalvistas as an orderingtool, which was a majoridea in urbanismfrom the seventeenthto the nineteenthcentury.

69 GordonMatta-Clark, "Gordon Matta-Clark's Building Dissections" (Interview by Donald Wall, 1976), in: Fabozzi,Paul F., Artists, critics, context:readings in and aroundAmerican art since1945, (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002), p.282.

70 Kyong Park,"Moving Cities, Moving Nations," in: HotelNeustadt, Thalia Theatre (Ed.), p.121.

71 Walter Benjamin;Asja Lacis,"Naples," in Reflections,Peter Demetz (Ed.), (New York: SchockenBooks, 1978), p.166.

72The media attention was significant. Reporters from a localnewspaper (MZ - Mitteldeutsche Zeitung)and a radiostation had moved into the hoteland broadcasted daily newsfrom the festival. In: WolfgangKil, Luxusder Leere:vom schwierigenRuckzug aus der Wachstumswelt, 1 (Wuppertal:Verlag Mueller und BusmannKG, 2004), p. 25.

1 HeidiPohle, "Fernost macht die Party,"http://www.halle-neustadt.info/artikel204.html, (18May 2005).

74 AspaGospodini, "European Cities in Competitionand the New'Uses' of UrbanDesign," in: Journalof UrbanDesign, Vol.7, No.1, 2002, pp.59-73.

75 Mc Neill& Whilelist the followingfour "newurban economies": agglomeration economies; informationaland knowledge-richeconomies; technopoles; and urbanleisure economies. D. Mc Neill;A. While,"The new urban economies," in: R.Paddison(Ed.), Handbook of Urban Studies,(London: Sage, 2001).

76 CulturalCapital of Europewas initiated in 1985as maintool of culturalpolitics within the EuropeanCommunity./Each year, one or two selectedcities receivefunding for exhibitions, performances,and concerts. For the chosencity, the initiativebears development potential similar toOlympic games and world expositions, but it is entirelyfocused on culture. Since the 2004expansion of the EU,there are discussions in Germanyto introducea similarinitiative onthe nationallevel. 77 Fromthe evaluationof Graz- CulturalCapital of Europe2003. In: M. Gruber;P. Schleich; M. Steiner;and G. Zakarias,"Graz 2003: RetrospektiveBetrachtungen und Lsngerfristige Chancen,"Johanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH - InstitutfUr Technologie- und Regionalpolitik,InTeReg Kurzanalyse Nr. 0 1-2004.On: http:I/wwwjoanneum.at/, (18 May 2005).

78 Someexamples for demolitionrelated art projectsand rituals are: spacewalk (Forst, 2003), Dostoprimetschatjelnosti(Berlin-Hellersdorf, 2003), and superumbau(Hoyerswerda, 2003). Kil cites oneevent, a partyin the InterhotelWarnow in Rostock,that literallyconsumed the building.Former employees and visitors gathered to celebratea last partyin all roomsof the hotel.In the courseof the party,the hotel'sfurniture was put on auctionand its vinecellar wasemptied (Kil, Luxus der Leere, p.12 1). Similar house parties were staged in Berlinbefore the remodelingof buildings(Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, 2002). An examplefor a preservation initiativeis AndreaKnobloch's Rundkino Dresden (2003, www.rundkino-dresden. def).

7 Kil,Luxus der Leere,p. 104.

80 Ibid., p.105.

81 Ibid.,p.106.

72 73 Bibliography

Abbas,Ackbar, Hong Kong. Cultureand Politics of Disappearance,University of Minnesota Press,1997.

Anxiousmodernisms: experimentation in postwararchitectural culture, Will iams Goldhagen, Sarah;Legault, Rejean (Eds.), Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture,2000.

Benjamin,Walter, Reflections, Peter Demetz(Ed.), New York: SchockenBooks, 1978.

Durth,Werner; Diwel, Jbrn,Architektur und Stidtebau der DDR.Frankfurt; New York:Campus Verlag, 1999.

Deutsche,Rosalyn, Evictions: art andspatialpolitics, Chicago, Ill.: Graham Foundation for AdvancedStudies in the FineArts; Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press,1996.

Fabozzi,Paul F., Artists, critics, context:readings in andaround American art since 1945, UpperSaddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002.

Graffunder,Heinz, Der Palastder Republik,Leipzig: Seemann, 1977.

Hartung,Ulrich, Arbeiter- und Bauerntempel: DDR-Kulturhsuser der finfzigerlahre. Ein architekturhistorischesKompendium, Berlin: Schelzky und Jeep,1996.

Herbert, Gilbert,The dream of the factory-madehouse: Walter Gropius and Konrad Wachsmann,Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1984.

HotelNeustadt, Thalia Theater Halle (Ed.), Berlin: Alexander-Verlag, 2004.

Junghanns,Kurt, DasHaus fir alle:zur Geschichteder Vorfertigungin Deutschland,Berlin: Ernst& Sohn, 1994.

Kil, Wolfgang,Luxus der Leere:vom schwierigen Ruckzug aus der Wachstumswelt, Wuppertal:Verlag Mueller und BusmannKG, 2004.

74 Kershaw,Baz, The politics of performance:radical theatre as culturalintervention, London;New York: Routledge,1992.

Kulturin der Stadt: stadtsoziologischeAnalysen zur Kultur,Kirchberg, Volker; Gbschel, Albrecht(Eds.), Leverkusen: Leske & Budrich, 1998.

Lee,Pamela M., Objectto be destroyed:the workof GordonMatta-Clark, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,2000.

Lefebvre, Henri,The production of space.Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell, 1991.

McDonough,Tom (Ed.),Guy Debord and the SituationistInternational: texts and documents, Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press,2002.

Oswalt,Philipp, Berlin: Stadt ohne Form: Strategien einer anderenArchitektur, M0nchen; New York:Prestel, 2000.

Plant,Sadie, Themost radical gesture: the SituationistInternational in a postmodernage, London;New York, NY:Routledge, 1992.

Scribner,Charity, Requiem for communism,Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,2003.

Sjerpstra,Johan, Cracking the movement:Squatting beyond the media,Autonomedia, New York, 1994. Strom, ElizabethA., Buildingthe newBerlin: the politics of urbandevelopment in Germany's capitalcity, Lanham,Md.: LexingtonBooks, 2001.

Sussman,Elisabeth (Ed.), On the passageof a few peoplethrough a ratherbrief moment in time:the SituationistInternational, 1957-1972, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press;Boston, Mass.:Institute of ContemporaryArt, 1989.

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75 Frequentlyused websites

A-matteronline publication: http://www.a-matter.de/

BauhausDessau Foundation: http://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/

HotelNeustadt: www.hotel-neustadt.de

LEO- onlinedictionary German-English: http://dict.leo.org/

PeanutzArchitekten: http;//www.peanutz-architekten.de/

Raumlaborarchitects network: http;//www.raumlabor-berlin.de

ShrinkingCities Exhibition: http;jwww.shrinkingcities.comn

SophiensaeleTheatre: http;//www.sophiensaele.dej

StadtUmbauOst: http://www.stadtumbau-ost.info/

ThaliaTheatre Halle: http://www.thaliatheaterhalle.de/

Volkspalast documentation:http;//www.grussmarcella.de/

Volkspalastfestival: www.volkspaiast.de

"ZwischenPalast Nutzung - Freundeund F5rderere.V.": http;//www.zwischenpalastnutzung.de/

76 77 Sourcesof Illustrations

Fig 1: LandesbildstelleBerlin Fig 2: Volkspalastwebsite Fig 3: Spiegelonline Fig 4: Sourceunknown Fig 5-10:Volkspalast website, www.volkspalast.de Fig 11-18:Hotel Neustadt, Thalia Theater Halle (Ed.), Berlin: Alexander-Verlag, 2004.

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