21.03.2024

Every year, the projects for the coming year are selected at a general assembly of nGbK members. Participation in the general assembly is open to all members while guests can attend the event without voting. On March 15 and 16, the 165th general assembly of the nGbK took place in the Stadtwerkstatt right next to the new nGbK premises, where it took place in the last two years already.

This year, there were 23 projects to choose from, each applying for an event or exhibition project to occupy the new exhibition spaces in 2025; as well as three applications in the recently introduced „third-party funding category“ with which the nGbK provides start-up funding for larger-scale projects.

Not least, the project general assembly is always an opportunity to discuss the nGbK’s common principles and aspirations. On the first day of the two-day event, the nGbK’s climate officer presented an input on climate neutrality; and the new focus group on anti-discrimination presented its plans for a series of talks on the current cultural climate surrounding issues of anti-Semitism and racism.

On the second day, the applicants briefly presented their projects and answered questions from the membership. All projects had already been visible for a week on the nGbK website in a short version, and the full applications were available to all members. From the large number of submissions, three proposals were finally selected for realization in 2025: „Viral Intimacies“, which deals with the current conditions of HIV/AIDS, „East UnBloc Chain“ on experimental media art works and practices from Central and Eastern Europe, and „Activist Choreographies of Care“, which aims to open a satellite studio of the perfocraZe International Artist Residency (pIAR) from Kumasi in Berlin. The third-party funding project „Dissident Paths: Walking together as a Method“ was also selected.

In addition to discussing the content of the individual projects, the assembly also provided a framework for more fundamental debates: What are the demands on the annual program as a whole? How much digital participation, how much joint discussion in the room should be possible? Do strategic planning considerations overlook the independent quality and urgency of the individual projects? In keeping with the polyphony of the nGbK, such questions are constantly being renegotiated and updated.