Tagged: Gentrification

May 1, 2014

WORDS 3 – TRANSITION

Berlin is a city of TRANSITION- Everybody Comes and Goes

ARTQUEST INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST LUCY POWELL

Within the first week of my arrival in Berlin, the NewYork Times declared, “Berlin Is over!”.
What? Ive only just got here!
I have been having a Wunderbar time, taking millions of photos, going on long walks across different parts of the city, visiting galleries and museums and particular spots pertinent to icons of popular culture, meeting people and most of all finding myself liberated in being able to take it all in and work in a studio whenever I want. So this news is a little startling at first glance, but the more I talk to people who have been here a while, Berliners and artists from other countries who have been living here for a number of years, Im getting a similar vibe….

“There are a lot of stranded artists in berlin”
Have people tended to get lazy?
Are the Fat Cats from overseas cashing in?

I first came to Berlin in 2000, on a trip organised by what was then known as, ‘The North West Arts Board’, when the Arts Council was regional. I had been in Liverpool for many years and coming here was great. The city felt really alive, so much was going on, there was a definite energy, it felt like anything could happen. People were opening up their front rooms as temporary restaurants and gigs and clubs in strange and brilliant places that may not be there if you tried to return the following week. This was way before practically anything in London became a‘Pop-Up’. Visiting again 5 years ago, I was quite shocked by how much building work had gone on, for example Potsdammer Platz was almost unrecognisable. I remember in particular where Checkpoint Charlie is – turned into some sort of disgusting tourist spot where I saw white trainer and track -suit clad Americans posing for pictures and the lovely 1920’s cafe, Adlers, turned into some horrible plastic, boring new place.

The area I am staying in, that I’ve already talked about a little in my previous post- Prenzlauerberg- has changed immensely. Milchof studios where I am based, has been here for 12 years. It is in fact one of the last buildings and set ups of its kind in this area and they want to hang on to it.Almost opposite is a new housing complex , the first ‘Gated Community’ in Berlin. What do you really need a gated community for in Berlin though? Nothing happens! Who can afford to live there? This is the general consensus I have heard.

Milchof, Schwedter Str

Gated Community, Schwedter Str

We are in the East here. When the wall came down everybody left, so this is an area that was former squats and cheap rent. When people left others moved in.One of the last punk parties went on here before the police came. Now its mainly recognised as the area of slow moving bicycles, small children and cafes a go go. The same thing happens in almost every European city-I’ve seen it for myself in Paris, Dublin and London- wherever artists initially move to because its cheap, eventually others come, pushing up rents, opening trendy cafes and shops that initially you think great, i can now buy a decent loaf of bread and sit outside with a decent pint in my local area, but generally most of the original community have no interest in or can afford such things and once its hit say, VOGUE – its all over and the artists move on, usually getting forced to move further and further from the centre of town or to a new city all-together.

How is this affecting Artists in Berlin?

INTERVIEW – Lucy Powell.

I know Lucy from our BA college days back in Liverpool. About 19 years ago Lucy moved to Berlin, so she has seen a lot of changes.