neue Gesellschaft
für bildende Kunst

Last inventory with members of the project group and Eva Hertzsch & Adam Page

In June, the nGbK project group The Driving Factor invited visitors to group tours to landscapes of extraction and accumulation in Berlin, Brandenburg, and Saxony. Each of these tours stimulated specific but interconnected engagements with the promises of electromobility and the "Energiewende" (energy turnaround) among diverse experts - particularly with the central but deceptive role given to the lithium battery as a storage technology for "green" energy. The material and immaterial results of this collective knowledge production were "charged" bit by bit at the station urbaner kulturen/nGbK Hellersdorf: They accompanied, complemented, and commented on the artistic positions presented there. During the last inventory in this "storage" of The Driving Factor, the project group talks with the artists Eva Hertzsch and Adam Page, who realized their film The Last Mile with pupils from Hellersdorf-Marzahn as part of the project. Subject of their discussion is the role of art in a civil society increasingly concerned with ecology and nature conservation and increasingly mobilizing against extractivism and the negative consequences of globalization. How and to what extent can artistic practices promote the perception and discussion of issues that are generally considered overly complex or specialized? What makes art and cultural projects that are based on participation and unusual collaborations sustainable? And what remains after the "project"?