Staged by DISAPPEARING BERLIN.

Hindenburgdamm 26, 12203 Berlin

What does the future of “Mouse Bunker” – built in the 1970s as an animal breeding and research laboratory, unused for years and now threatened with demolition – look like? Who and what will play an active part in its design and define its later usage? Who calls into existence what it will be in the future?

DISAPPEARING BERLIN invites interdisciplinary artist, poet and filmmaker Julianknxx for a site-specific poetry performance to reflect on changing the narrative of the former site of the Central Animal Laboratories in Berlin-Lichterfelde. In his poems, written since 2016 about the physical and metaphysical aspects of breathing, he tells of experiences of violence and external influences threatening the act of breathing as such. In his performance, individual and local experiences of the civil war in Sierra Leone, where he was born, and his life in the diaspora in London, where he grew up, flow together with collective and global experiences of the Black Lives Matter movement and the lockdown in the wake of the corona pandemic. At a place of human governance, Julianknxx tunes into a global narrative about what it means to live and breathe together, about solidarity and participation and the life of Black bodies in the diaspora.

The “Mouse Bunker” designed by Gerd and Magdalena Hänska, is one of the most striking examples of Brutalist architecture, the name of which derives from the French “béton brut” (engl. “raw concrete”). Julianknxx’s interest in Brutalist buildings in London such as Grenfell Tower (which burnt down in 2017) or Trellick Tower is situated in his knowledge of the alienation of Black bodies from the life-giving potency of the earth in the countries they originally left in order to come to the UK. He sees these buildings as constructed “dead spaces” due to their primary use of concrete as a “dead material”, that is hostile to any healthy life. The history of Brutalist architecture in the UK is rooted in and mustn’t be seen separated from the struggles of immigrant families living in these tower blocks and social housing that the government neglected in the course of its political-economic policies of austerity.

The question of coexistence and of how to make and sustain lives, that of humans and non-humans alike, also occupies the architect Arno Brandlhuber and the gallerist Johann König. After successfully transforming the Brutalist church of St. Agnes into a gallery space in the 2010s, they are now campaigning to put the “Mouse Bunker” under monument protection and converting its unique architecture as a site of human and non-human cohabitation. “There will be areas where nobody can work well. These then simply remain without any functional assignment, open to fox and badger. Cohabitation does not have to be thought of in such complicated ways: We don’t always have to use and control 100 percent of the architecture.” (Arno Brandlhuber)

Following the performance, the documentary “BATTLESHIP BERLIN – Preservation Can Be Brutal” by Nathan Eddy will be shown in cooperation with Johann König. The film impressively conveys the interior of the building while letting the various voices involved in the current debate about the re-use of the “Mouse Bunker” having their say.

Cast:
Writer and performer: Julianknxx / Musical direction: Aron Kyne / Drummer: Toby Couling / Choir: Berlin’s Most Finest, curated by Andy Roda: Brenda Marie Turner, Daniel Keeling, Dorrey Lyles, Marlin Monroe Williford, Monica Lewis, Raymond Thompson, Shon Abrams, Tayo Awosusi-Onutor / Costumes: Harris Elliott Studio.

The event is supported by Arno Brandlhuber and Johann König.

DISAPPEARING BERLIN is a performance and music series, organized and produced by Schinkel Pavillon e.V. and is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.