neue Gesellschaft
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Film screening and discussion with nGbK Outreach scholar Jelena Fužinato

Hybrid event at nGbK event space and via Zoom. Limited seats on site, registration via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Languages: German, English and BCMS (Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian)

The outreach scholar Jelena Fužinato will be showing a short documentary video and provide a discussion format adressing  topics such as mediation in arts and mediation as an art form. The knowledge and insights are based on three workshops that were held as part of her scholarship in 2022 at nGbK.

In 2022, three workshops dealt with two central themes: infrastructure and care work. During the workshops, building labor and care work professionals were invited to help develop mediation formats based on their practical experience in their respective fields. The third workshop was open to public and included mainly children and passers-by from Hellersdorf.

The workshops sought to explore the possibility of outreach as an organic network of professionals willing to communicate and share their knowledge, respecting the participants' boundaries, time, and willingness to show themselves and their work.

In the first workshop TOOLS TO BUILD AND TO CARE #1 – Ein Brunnen in Hellersdorf, a fountain was built out of scrap wood, as a gathering place near the central square on the pedestrian zone of Kastanienboulevard, diagonally opposite the station urbaner kulturen/nGbK Hellersdorf. The idea was to construct a temporary structure that could later be used as a base for upcoming workshops, events, and spontaneous gatherings. The first workshop was a hands-on project, in which verbal communication was secondary. By focusing on the structure and making mistakes, tearing apart and building together, making decisions on the spot, and without pre-drawn instructions, the created object became a stage of the whole mediation process.

From that material ground, the workshops later continued using the fountain as a space to talk and write about the social conditions of care work and its connection to female labor as care work professionals. Initially, the focus on the two main themes infrastructure and care derived from the interest in migration politics and the working conditions of people in migration who are working in the field of care due to labor shortage. Along the way, the themes spilled out into the public sphere of site-specific situations of Hellersdorf and the use of public space.

In the beginning, the selected care workers for the workshops were predominantly women from the Balkans. Nevertheless, the chain of participants included other social groups needing to connect, comparing the diverse social narratives, exchanging experiences, and understanding the interconnectedness of political actions. Workshop #2 – Care outgrew of its original format and has become ongoing research.

For Workshop #3 – Meet me at the Fountain the built fountain was used as a venue for a drop-in event. The participants could walk in and out of the workshop. The last event served as a community call to action, thus, anyone could get involved in painting the fountain and leaving their commentary in written form on the surface of the structure.

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