Garden by name, garden by nature — but where does the water come from?

Garden by name, garden by nature — but where does the water come from?

 

Through a radical re-greening concept, the Atelier Gardens campus is home to many species of trees, shrubs and plants. It wouldn’t be a garden, otherwise! Thoughtfully planned by Harris Bugg studios, many of the plants on-site are drought-proof but nonetheless some of the greenery on site requires water. To limit demand from drinking water sources, and heavily aligned with the sustainability concept of the campus, measures have been implemented to harvest the rainwater on-site. This approach not only reflects sustainability but also resonates with the core values of Soil, Soul, Society and Celebration at Atelier Gardens.

Now, onto the gritty details:

A total of three stormwater systems have been planned for the Atelier Gardens site. The prototype is the stormwater management system in the west. Here, primarily parts of the roof areas of Studio 1, Studio 2 and House 9 as well as a very small part of the (still) sealed traffic area are connected to the cistern (west).

In order to ensure that rainwater is safe for flushing toilets and watering the garden in terms of hygiene and aesthetics, a multi-stage purification process was implemented above and beyond the quality and condition of the respective precipitation catchment areas.

  1. the sludge trap retains coarse floating matter and dirt.
  2. the calmed inflow into the sludge trap favours that the finest dirt particles can settle on the bottom and at the same time the inflowing water is prevented from stirring up the sediment again.
  3. dirt particles that are lighter than water (e.g. pollen) float on the water surface. When the rainwater overflows into the cistern, the so-called overflow siphon prevents these floating dirt particles from reaching the tanks, which is important for consistently clear and fresh water quality.
  4. The rainwater pump sucks the rainwater through a floating intake in the upper part of the cistern. This is where the best water quality is found (approx. 10 cm below the water surface).
  5. Since the rainwater is used for flushing the toilet on the one hand and for drip irrigation on the other, it must be prevented that foreign particles >100 μm (= solids such as rust particles or grains of sand) cause corrosion damage in pipes and fittings. The installation of the backwash fine filter prevents such operational disturbances.

All connected consumers are supplied via a separate pipe network that is completely separated from the drinking water system. An automatically controlled pump pumps water into the pipe network as required. If there is a shortage of rainwater, it is fed from the drinking water network.

In addition to collection and use, it is also important to take into account rain events that cause the cisterns to overflow. The realised system solution therefore includes infiltration trenches to infiltrate the rainwater and return it to the natural water cycle.

While you may not be able to see the under-ground catchment cisterns, come spring, you’ll be able to see the effects on the garden! Come by and see for yourself!

A Journey to Foster Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Representatives from sustainable enterprises, environmental protection and the start-up world, as well as students from various academic fields, all gathered in TON1 to advocate for a new era of entrepreneurship. Since 2015, the Kreatives Unternehmertum (KU) collective has been travelling once a year through various cities in Germany, Switzerland and Austria to spread its message of social entrepreneurship.

The first stop of this year’s Kreatives Unternehmertum Street Show tour was Berlin, addressing the topic of oversaturation and the idea of ​​post-growth. It’s no coincidence that TON1 was chosen as the meeting place for the event “Oversaturation – What comes after a society in which everything is there?!”. And what a more fitting place for such a discourse than the Atelier Gardens campus which is perfectly suited as a development space for social and regenerative entrepreneurship, as emphasised by our campus director, Selim Pekin Güngör.

Shaping Systemic Change

“We live in a time where disruption is the order of the day,” said KU Managing Director Manuel Binninger. This intense need for change was a strong thread running through the entire evening. For example, during her talk, Nina Breu, Managing Director of Economy and Society at Greenpeace Germany, argued for a systemic change in the economy to solve ecological, social and democratic issues associated with capitalism. Sebastian Fittko, founder of the Initiative Regenerative Marktwirtschaft (Initiative for Regenerative Market Economy), also expressed how he strives for a holistic and symbiotic economy, which is not solely focused on the growth of the gross domestic product.

After a roster of thought-provoking talks and discussions, it was time for natural wine from the ecological producer Nature’s Calling and delicacies from the Brandenburg area. With a slice of country-style bread with saffron butter in hand, the 60 or so guests (most of them entrepreneurs) exchanged their personal thoughts and ideas. Because that’s what KU is all about: “We see ourselves as an entrepreneurship university,” says Binninger. They want to help companies implement their activities in harmony with people within a market economy.

So the first of seven events of this year’s KU Street Show ends with cheerful and inspired chatter. Next stop: Hamburg, with the topic “From Me to We: What Co-operations Does the Future Need?”. Here at Atelier Gardens, the story of regenerative entrepreneurship will continue, long after the event.

Imaginary Dinner at Atelier Gardens

The Imaginary Dinner is a unique networking event that employs immersive design to reflect upon our collective futures.

The concept was developed by With Company, a transformative design agency based in Lisbon but with its roots in Berlin.

For the 2nd edition of this immersive dinner, With Company partnered up with Atelier Gardens, the Berlin campus supporting pioneers for change and regenerative entrepreneurship.

Inés Lauber and Roots Radicals add to it the right food concept with a seasoned circular and up-cycling approach.



Together at a table were an environmental lawyer, a passionate botanist, a companion’s robot cat, an algorithm, a 100-year-old tree…and many other characters, that engaged in future archeology.

Based on Live Action Role-Playing techniques, the imaginary dinner invited key figures from the local transformation economy scene to play their role and discuss extreme future scenarios.

At times, we transcended reality; At others, we delved into the core of human nature. Through collective exploration, we ventured into the possibilities of designing future systems.

The outcome was dynamic discussions that skillfully embraced divergence while navigating extremes, we explored alliances and possibilities mirroring our collective imagination, culture, and aspirations to face these transformative times.

Meet Changing Cities

CHANGING CITIES

The mission of Changing Cities puts an emphasis on livable cities. Creating awareness of civic problems, they implement creative actions that inspire people to initiate change themselves by supporting them in getting involved in a variety of campaigns and initiatives.

They bring their expertise into the political discourse to create the framework conditions for the transport transition locally, at the neighbourhood level, to the state and federal political level.

Atelier Gardens caught up with Changing Cities when they moved to the Atelier Gardens campus last year. For more information, you can learn more about what they do here.

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On a snowy February day early this year, nearly 40 fully packed cargo bicycles arrived on site. They are Changing Cities—the newest tenants on the Atelier Gardens campus. The organisation, which some people may still remember from the bicycle referendum in Berlin, was founded in 2016. The members’ primary motivation and goal? To make cycling comfortable and safe.

Ranghild Sørensen, spokesperson for Changing Cities, says that the association collected 100,000 signatures for the referendum within just three and a half weeks. The government also recognised that the city was ready for a change in mobility and passed the Mobility Act shortly thereafter. Changing Cities set an important movement in motion with the referendum: today, almost 7 years later, over one million signatures have been collected all around Germany for another 54 bicycle referendums. According to Sørensen, this is one of the association’s greatest successes: “Transport policy is no longer left to the experts, but is debated in public discourse.”

Towards the Redistribution of Public Space

Changing Cities quickly realised that passing the Mobility Act was not enough. “You need political consent and willingness to implement it. And there isn’t enough of that at the moment,” says Sørensen. Of the 2.698 kilometers of cycle paths that should be built by 2030 according to the Mobility Act, merely 113 kilometers had been completed by January 2023—a scant 4.2 percent. This observation comes from a bicycle network monitoring.

New ideas and actions are needed, and therefore the association pulls up their sleeves and starts from scratch. Once again, a bottom-up approach to the redistribution of public space is at the centre of action, starting with citizens. Inspired by an initiative in Barcelona, the Kiezblock campaign was born: transit traffic should be kept out of the neighbourhoods, which in turn should improve the quality of life of residents. The Changing Cities association pursues a similar idea with the school zone campaign. Simple measures should be taken to ensure that children are safe on their way to school. “There are schools that have fought for a crosswalk for seven years and are still waiting,” says Sørensen.

Large demonstration against the stop of cycle path expansion, July 2nd, 2023

A Shared Vision & Philosophy

The twelve-member team feels right at home in the new offices south of Tempelhofer Feld. The association identifies with the campus’ motto, “Soil, Soul, and Society,” because it reflects its ambition to redefine public space. Especially in terms of social issues, Sørensen sees an overlap with Changing Cities’ attempts to change the way we live together.

As Changing Cities is a relatively new resident, there haven’t been that many points of contact with the Atelier Gardens community yet, but the association has high hopes for the green spaces outside the offices, particularly in the summer. “We want to hold meetings with volunteers here, and possibly host conferences in the future,” says Sørensen. The in-house cinema also offers interesting possibilities.

From Successful TV Production Site to Today’s Atelier Gardens

The 1960s saw a slump in film production as the film industry was losing ground to the booming TV business. This didn’t go unnoticed in the film studios on Oberlandstrasse, where Ufa made losses in the millions. After the studios with its staff, which had grown to around 500 people at the time, were almost bought by ZDF, in 1963 the Berlin Universal-Film-Atelier GmbH & Co. KG (BUFA for short) became the company’s eventual buyer.

Despite turbulent times, German film history continued to be written in Tempelhof. In the year of its sale to BUFA, Walt Disney’s “Emil and the Detectives” was filmed on site. Scenes from the Karl May films “Der Schut” or “Der Ölprinz” were also produced in the studios and attracted names such as Terence Hill or Winnetou actor Pierre Brice.

During these times, in parallel to film productions, dubbing work was in full swing. Just to name a few, “Odds and Evens” with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, “Dirty Dancing” as well as various British and American series were dubbed in Oberlandstraße.

The Dawn of the Television Era

Films like “Didi – Der Doppelgänger,” which was jointly produced by Ufa and ZDF, showed that television was taking on a greater role in the filming spectrum. What is now considered a common practice, the co-financing of films by the film and television industries was still a novelty at the time. The film drew close to 2.2 million viewers to German movie theaters in 1984, leaving little doubt about the success of the new state of things.

Television was becoming increasingly present. In 1963, the Tempelhof studios signed a contract with ZDF, which from then on became a permanent tenant of TON 4. In the so-called “Current Affairs Studio,” programs such as “Kennzeichen D” or the “Nachtstudio” were created, which both ran for decades and decisively shaped the German television landscape.

Legends of German Television

Starting in 1969, the production of the ZDF Hit Parade rapidly became the biggest symbol of television’s success in the Oberlandstrasse: 22 million people tuned in to watch the show on average. Until 2000, the Hit Parade “wandered through” the studios and was shot sometimes in TON 6, and other times in TON 3, 1, 2, or 5. Both BUFA and the Oberlandstraße studios became widely known thanks to this show, as fans regularly waited outside the studios to catch a glimpse of the stars.

The quiz show “Der große Preis” with Wim Thoelke, which had been running for almost two decades, and “Circus HalliGalli” with Joko and Klaas, which was recorded between 2013 and 2017, were also similarly successful productions.

The Oberlandstraße Studios Now

And today? The halls of the Atelier Gardens are no longer at the center of German film history as they were almost 100 years ago, but they are still involved in major film productions. In 2018, Netflix was on site to  film scenes for “Skylines,” and in 2019 Amazon used the studios for “Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo.” The so-called Dubbing Village is also still in use.

In addition, there are film events such as the “Human Rights Film Festival,” open-air cinema in the summer and regular film screenings organized in conjunction with the Arts of the Working Class, Fotografiska and the Atelier Gardens Film Club. Thus, the history of film continues to live on at Atelier Gardens, always morphing into new formats and synergies. What’s more, Atelier Gardens hosts events and activities related to sustainability, circularity and regenerative power.

Reconstruction & First Television Productions

May 1945. World War II ended in Germany. Like many other locations in Berlin, the film studios on Oberlandstrasse had suffered substantial damage. Nevertheless, operations to recuperate and reconstruct the site moved so quickly that barely two months later, in July, the first productions could already begin, starting primarily with dubbing projects.

The situation in the Tempelhof studios was quite special: unlike Ufa’s other production facilities, these studios were located in the state’s American sector. Even before the first German productions started in 1946, smaller projects were launched in the studios in the summer of 1945 under the supervision of the occupying powers. Among other things, the U.S. authorities commissioned the dubbed production of Hitchcock’s “Suspicion.” Meanwhile, in the other Ufa studios located in the Eastern sector, Soviet propaganda was the order of the day.

New Technologies Arrive at Oberlandstraße

Within the first year after the war, the number of staff in the former glass houses quadrupled from 36 to 160, and by the mid-1950s the four studios had been rebuilt. A new studio was even added to the pre-existing ones. The studios’ focus shifted to two main aspects. On the one hand, the aforementioned dubbing productions: two of the studios were explicitly dedicated to dubbing work and a separate atelier space was to serve this purpose alone. The so-called “Dubbing Village” of the Atelier Gardens is still in use to this day. On the other hand, from then on colour film would become an important focal point. Although the first experiments with colour film took place at the beginning of the 20th century, the company had to wait until the end of World War II before colour film became widespread in Germany. According to their own statements, the studios on Oberlandstrasse were equipped with “the latest technical equipment” perfectly suited for color film production. Thus, the first German post-war color film “Schwarzwaldmädel” was partly shot in Tempelhof in 1950.

A Golden Era for Cinema

The Oberlandstraße production facilities were once again at the cultural forefront. Both “Schwarzwaldmädel” and the following year’s film “Grün ist die Heide”, attracted around 16 million viewers to cinemas. Of the 110 West German films produced in 1955, 20 were shot in the newly refurbished Tempelhof studios. Famous names such as Romy Schneiders or her mother Magda took part in productions that were filmed on site.

Business was not only booming in Oberlandstraße—the mid-1950s saw the heyday of cinema across the Federal Republic. In 1957, 817 million cinema tickets were sold—almost seven times as many as in the pre-covid19 year 2019.

Television: Competition or Opportunity?

The wave of newfound success started receding as quickly as it had been rising. The culprit was television, which was becoming increasingly popular. Between 1955 and 1957 alone, the number of “TV subscribers” grew from 100,000 to over a million.

This development firmly pointed the way toward the future of the studios on Oberlandstraße. After all, television needed broadcast material too. In 1957 and 1958, the first five German television films were shot for ARD. These first steps were not particularly successful, but that was only the beginning of the television trajectory in Tempelhof. In the following years, major productions such as Disney’s “Emil and the Detectives” or various Karl May films were shot in the famous studios.

The transition to sound: The golden era of the Tempelhof studios

After the explosive debut of silent film at the beginning of the 20th century, the two glass houses on Oberlandstrasse were at the center of German film production. At the end of World War I, the studios were bought by Universum-Film AG (Ufa) and skyrocketed to prominent status in the film industry. Even the German president Friedrich Ebert made sure to pay them a visit in 1920. Just for perspective: that same year there were 510 German film premieres! Film production was indeed going strong.

During those golden years, productions from Oberlandstraße traveled as far as the USA. Among some of the internationally successful titles were “Anna Boleyn” by Ernst Lubitsch and “Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam” by Paul Wegener. Cinematographer and film director Karl Freund also worked in the studios south of Tempelhofer Feld. With his “unleashed camera” – a camera that could move freely through spaces – he inspired and influenced future generations of directors in Germany and beyond.

It’s not surprising that in this highly prolific time of German cinema, acclaimed British directors flocked to Oberlandstrasse. One of them was none other than Alfred Hitchcock, who used the studios in the mid-1920s. Still quite unknown at the time, his great talent and characteristic approach to filmmaking was already recognized by the magazine “Lichtbild-Bühne.” A few years later, Edgar Wallace, who is considered the inventor of the modern thriller, was in the Tempelhof studios to film his crime movie “The Red Circle.”

Increasingly strong national and international competition

But just as quickly as the studios on Oberlandstrasse rose to fame, so too came their gradual decline. The film industry’s big names were increasingly drawn to the US where Hollywood was rapidly establishing itself as a cinema giant. Lubitsch and Freund, but also Berlin-bred actress Marlene Dietrich, chased their careers across the pond.

The competition was not only outside the borders, but also within the country as the Tempelhof studios were up against other rivals within the German Republic. In 1921, Ufa added the Neubabelsberg studios. There a newly built 8,000-square-meter challenged the demand for the studios on Oberlandstraße as they simply could not compete with such structural proportions. Other such gigantic studios popped up during that time in smaller towns, such as Johannisthal and Staaken.

Too loud for the new sound films

Towards the end of the 20s, the proximity of the Ringbahn railway and the airport adjacent to Oberlandstraße turned out to be problematic for film production. The reason? The invention of sound film demanded extremely quiet conditions as even minor external fluctuations could disrupt the recordings.

Ufa generally lagged behind in the switch from silent to talkies, but when it eventually took the leap forward, the Neubabelsberg studios became the center of attention. By 1930, nine studios were fully equipped and fit for sound film production. Meanwhile, the two Tempelhof glass houses were rented out to foreign and female producers.

Nevertheless, the first sound film productions were shot in the Tempelhof studios as early as the late 1920s. One noteworthy example is Bolváry’s “Two Hearts in ¾ Time,” a sound film operetta that made its debut in 1930.

It was not until 1931 that the conversion to sound film started in Oberlandstraße. The glass houses had to be made soundproof: a shell-like structure made of steel, concrete and bricks was built around the glass, while the roof was covered with a soft, sound-insulating material. This cost Ufa 280,000 Reichsmarks – which today is the equivalent of about 1.2 million Euros.

A mixed outlook

Despite the buildings’ conversion, it was undeniably the beginning of a dark time for the studios on Oberlandstraße. When the National Socialists came to power, the emigration of producers, actors and directors increased. In 1937, Ufa was bought by the governmental party and, like everything else, was deeply affected by conservatism and film censorship. Later on, the studios took another blow when the Second World War bombing that started in 1943 caused serious damages to the premises.

It was obvious that the two iconic film production sites could only continue their trajectory after the end of the war. Two important milestones following the war’s destructive consequences were the studios’ newfound roles as dubbing studios and TV production sites with long-term tenants such as the public television channel ZDF.

From Film Pioneers to Campus for Urban Regeneration: It all began with Silent Films

At the beginning of the 20th century, the pioneers of the German silent film industry realized their visions in the large red brick buildings housing the Atelier Gardens. It was here that later on TV hits such as “The Kurt Krömer Show” and “Circus Halli Galli” were created and filmed. Long before it became an industrial area, Oberlandstraße was first established as one of the hubs of German film and television history.

The first steps of film in Germany

It was the year 1913. Cinema – still silent at the time – was experiencing a boom in Germany, and particularly in Berlin. The number of so-called “movie houses” in the capital reached 300. 15 times more than a decade earlier. Today, in comparison, Berlin counts 91 cinemas with 266 screens. At the beginning of the 20th century, Germany was also a major player in film production, and film studios were springing up everywhere in the capital’s center. Soon it became clear that sparsely populated areas were better suited for filming as they provided more space and quiet. That’s when the German film pioneer Alfred Duskes decided to set up a film production facility in the still largely undeveloped area south of Tempelhofer Feld.

Daylight as the best condition for filming

From the outside, the studio building looked like a large glass house, since this architectural detail allowed ample natural light to flow in and created ideal conditions for filming. Despite the widespread availability of electricity, daylight was still central to film production at the time. In fact, so important was natural light that on film sets there were people called “sun peekers” whose job was to observe the sky and the various lighting shifts. Only when they signaled “okay” could shooting begin.

In the same year that Alfred Duske’s production facility was built, Oberlandstraße welcomed its second glass house. The building was commissioned by Paul Davidson, a curtain dealer with a penchant for cinema. “Even from a distance, you can see two strange structures towering up from the ground, looking like gigantic bird cages,” wrote the journal Lichtbild-Bühne in June 1913. The only disadvantage of this architectural design was that, just like a greenhouse, it tended to get extremely hot in the summer – something that actors complained about early on.

The golden years of German cinema

Shortly after, the war erupted and put a damper on the film industry’s evolution. Cinema attendance declined, and so did revenue. But paradoxically, the war also presented an opportunity for German film production. Since the French films that had heavily dominated Germany up to that point were banned, a gap opened up in the market that was not only filled by American productions, but also by German and Danish ones.

In the following years, numerous internationally successful films were shot in the two production facilities in Oberlandstraße. These included various films by the Danish silent film star Asta Nielsen or the director Ernst Lubitsch. According to estimates provided by Davidson’s employees, about 1.5 million movie-goers watched Nielsen’s films per day across the world. While in Lubitsch’s case, following his initial success with films such as “The Eyes of the Mummy” (1918), the director set out to continue his career in Hollywood. There, shortly before his death, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his life’s oeuvre.

And that’s just the beginning of the story of the large red-brick buildings of Oberlandstraße. The 20th century still had a lot to offer for the film production facilities that opened their doors in 1913. In the years that followed, the street south of Tempelhofer Feld was shaped by the transition to sound film (in their nascent years, sound films were called “talkies”), the establishment of the first dubbing studios, and became part of the early history of German television. Part of these new transformations were names and titles such as Alfred Hitchcock, Edgar Wallace, “Emil and the Detectives” (1964) or the public TV late-night talk show “Nachtstudio” (1997-2012).

*Talks Helena Norberg-Hodge

Around fifty years ago, Helena Norberg-Hodge travelled to a small part of Tibet called Ladakh as part of a documentary film crew. At the time, the region was barely touched by the global economy and led the Swedish activist to a realisation that would shape her life. In the second talk in the series of events at Atelier Gardens, she will explain exactly what this realisation was and what consequences Norbert-Hodge drew from it.

Smaller, slower, local

Around 60 people have gathered in TON 1. The atmosphere on this evening is cosy, almost intimate – in keeping with Norberg-Hodge’s motto of localisation. The founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture sits on a small stage with our Vision and Community Director Benjamin Rodriguez Kafka and explains: “When I arrived in Ladakh, I had the idea that we had to become smaller, slower and more local – that was the greatest moment of my life.”

Norberg-Hodge had already seen quite a bit of the world by then, having received her education in Sweden, Germany, Austria, England and the USA. She also speaks six languages fluently. And yet she discovers something completely new in Ladakh: “All the differences that I had recognised between cultures that I had known up to that point seemed null and void when I came into contact with this ancient and indigenous culture”. What is significant for her is that in the Ladakhi way of thinking there is an understanding that people are only part of the overall system of nature and must constantly adapt to it.

Localisation for health

“The Ladakhis were the happiest people ever,” says Norberg-Hodge. She talks about how she comes back to Sweden after travelling there, a country that everyone considers to be so successful. And yet, unlike in Ladakh, she sees alcoholism, depression and high suicide rates there. According to Norberg-Hodge, globalisation is to blame for this and so she develops a new concept: the economy of happiness. It is important to return to the local, to restore the connection to the community and to nature.

The absurdity that is sometimes associated with globalisation is illustrated by excerpts from Norberg-Hodge’s documentary “Planet Local”. Scottish prawns, for example, are shipped to Thailand for peeling after being caught, only to be sent back to Scotland. German foreign trade in milk can also only be described as bizarre: in 2020, Germany was not only the second largest importer of milk, but also an exporter. The Swede comments: “Our arms have become so long that we can no longer see what our hands are doing”. According to her, there is no way around global localisation.

More connection to people and nature

In this sense, Norberg-Hodge’s lecture is a continuation of Satish Kumar’s Soil, Soul and Society concept, which also drives our campus. The Indian activist kicked off the event series a few weeks ago with fascinating stories from his life of activism. You can read more about Kumar’s lecture, our campus and our upcoming events on our website.

From Clay Tablets to AI: Forms of Communication

From Clay Tablets to AI: Forms of Communication

“Lanah? Lanah, we’ve lost you again.” The face of the archaeologist Lanah Haddad, who is brought in from Iraq via Zoom, is frozen on the screen stretched out in TON1. The irony of the situation is hard to miss on this evening, which is themed “From Clay Tablets to AI.” Ayham Majid Agha, the curator of the event series, smiles: “How else could we have explained AI better?”

An Interdisciplinary Approach

During the evening, in dialogue with the guests, we reflected on how we communicate with each other – sometimes from an artistic or academic perspective, and other times through lectures and performances. The performance artist Tiara Roxanne kicked things off with a lecture on the grammar of the word “gathering.” The rapid succession and repetition of words acted as meditation, inviting the audience to critically consider how digitisation has changed the way we remember, tell stories, share, collect and perceive who we are.

Roxanne’s performance was followed by a talk by Syrian archaeologist, Yasser Showhan. With Haddad’s (somewhat hesitant) translation, Showhan went into the origins of cuneiform writing, referring to Mesopotamian clay tablets. Very early on in the history of humankind, about 4000 years B.C. to be precise, people saw a benefit in recording things in writing: whether it was for trading purposes, documenting agricultural stocks, calculating, tracking astrological events, recording song lyrics, or communicating.

The evening became increasingly participatory. With music by Bashar Al-Darwish, the audience was introduced to the world of AI-generated sounds, which Al-Darwish himself described as the “sound of the future.” Before Roxanne moved on to explore the connections between AI and colonialism in another performance, guests were encouraged to express their own creativity on clay tablets. The evening gradually drew to a close with accompanying music and an open bar.

This Is Just The Beginning

This evening was the first in the “Artémon” series of events. The name was not chosen randomly: It’s a mixture of the English words “art” and “monster” because the event series is intended to offer a space for artists who are still a bit reluctant to present their own artworks—and the monsters behind them—in front of an audience. In addition, these explorative evenings are also meant to give guests the opportunity to discover the lesser-known sides of Atelier Gardens, such as Keller 7, Halle 12, or Studio 2.

If you want to stay informed about future events and learn more about life on our campus, you can subscribe to our newsletter or visit our website.