Wasteland Twinning

Wasteland Twinning Network Forum 2012

21-23 Sept 2012 at ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik, Berlin

An exploration of urban wastelands and networked transdisciplinary practice

The Wasteland Twinning Network Forum will bring together the international project partners of the Wasteland Twinning Network from Europe, Asia, USA and Australia. Hosted at the Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik, the Forum will feature presentations, guest speakers, critical debates, Twinning Ceremonies, wasteland interventions and workshops.

Representatives from the various Network locations will present wasteland sites, the associated projects and the questions that they evoke. For example, Yogyakarta’s Bon Suwung Collective will address the social relations and property conflicts arising from the use of the land by a squatting community. Alongside the presentation of their ongoing programme of research, experimentation and public events, Wasteland Twinning Nottingham asks: what is the impact of artists focusing on undeveloped urban sites? Is ‘cultural capital’ created, and what are the implications of this?

Guest speakers from parallel practices of urban geography, art, activism, and architecture, will highlight wastelands as spaces continually recreated by a complex web of social, natural, economic, and technological worlds. Following the scheduled events, registered participants are invited to join project partners and guest speakers for dinner.

Throughout the Forum, Wasteland Twinning Ceremonies will be conducted. In an act of ‘reverse postcolonial exoticism’, a Twinning Agreement between the Sydney and Kuala Lumpur wasteland sites will be forged at a critical moment in their parallel cycles of urban land use. Wasteland sites in Berlin and Amsterdam will celebrate their agreement to undertake a Non-Twinning Relationship.
Europe and Asia will share centre stage in debates: from migration and subcultures in Guwahati and Berlin, to land rights and ecology in Yogyakarta and Nottingham. A resident laboratory will analyse objects and samples of physical material gathered from wasteland sites across the Network. The Forum will be the launch of Recreation Ground: a trilateral collaborative project between the Network partners in Berlin, Nottingham and Amsterdam.

Wasteland Twinning Network Co-directors:
Matthias Einhoff, Will Foster, Lars Hayer, Alex Head and Paulina Olszewska.

From the Network:
Rebecca Beinart, David Bell, Mathew Trivett (Wasteland Twinning Nottingham UK), Sonal Jain (Desire Machine Collective IN), Lena Obergfell (Sydney AU), Ansgar Reul (W139 NL),Ferdiansyah Thajib (KUNCI Cultural Studies Center ID), Saubin Yap (Rumah Air Panas Art Society MY).

Guest speakers:
Benjamin Brace (UK), Tore Dobberstein (Complizen DE), Sofia Donna (GR), Mathew Gandy (UK), Annette Maechtel (DE), Stef Richter and Romy Richter (Burghard DE),Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum (DE), Jan van Duppen (NL).

Tools of The Trade Will Foster, Alex Head, (2011-2012). Instruments for observation, experimentation, mapping or surveillance carried out on the Köpi Brache and bordering river Spree. Made from scraps found in and around the wasteland site. Wasteland Twinning Rounders Club: Appropriating the wasteland as adventure playground, recreation space and dangerous play area, Wasteland Twinning Nottingham hosted a friendly rounders tournament on The Island site on 30th June 2012. Wasteland Rounders Kit Bats: Buddleia wood, Bandage The bats are carved from buddleia felled and dried from the wasteland site. The bats are named in order of size: pico, bambam and seal club. Bibs: Cotton, Natural dye (yellow = dried buddliah flowers, grey = elderberries), Hazard Tape The bibs are dyed with natural pigments sourced on site. The yellow team has been dyed with dried Buddleia flowers, an invasive species attractive to butterflies and bees that self-seeds on rough ground. The grey team has been dyed with Elderberries, the fruit of the flowering Elder tree. As well as being a foodstuff and medicinal plant, Elder is considered to have protective qualities that help defend you from evil spirits. A Facilitator to the Objective Dialogues table prepares to guide Tore Dobberstein & Jan Van Duppen through the process Often each object would pass through 2-3 of the different stations available before a conclusion was recorded. Here the sample object is measured Investigators peer into the illuminated magnifying glass Overview of the Objective Dialogues Table City Branded shirts from (Be)Berlin & (I)Amsterdam are returned through exchange between the two representatives of the respective wasteland sites The Non-Twinning Party, Ansgar Reul, Tonya Sudiono, Will Foster, Alex Head, Lars Hayer Alex Head, Chair Person on Behalf of the Wasteland Twinning Network leads an audience to the Twinning Ceremony between Nottingham, UK and Yogyakarta, Indonesia The Twinning Party proceed through the piece Annette Maechtel Mathew Trivet discusses the concept and research leading towards the Artist Impressions project The signed Agreement Not to Twin, by Berlin & Amsterdam Two listeners to Nottingham Rounders Club and The Fallow Games, played as two split tracks that could be merged via a cross-fader (Un)Common Language Workshop hosted by Rebecca Beinhart & Wasteland Twinning Berlin. A game that explored definitions and (mis)understandings of specific words and phrases connected with the wasteland locations A closing meal with participants and attendees of the forum prepared by Kantine Closing meal with participants and attendees of the forum Lena Obergfell & Saubin Yap The audience swing and jive their arms in time with the instructors moves Matthew Gandy Presents: Marginalia: Cultural and Scientific Aspects of Urban Wastelands