Space for us! Bike Tour of the Independent Performing Arts 2021

The energy with which its inhabitants create and defend independent spaces for participation and culture is one of the defining characteristics of the city of Berlin.
Over the course of the three-hour tour Space For Us!, we will four important locations of this creative and defiant community along the Spree river.

The meeting place is Holzmarkt 25, which came about through a subcultural interim usage of a conversion area used by the city’s waste disposal company, BSR. The project was threatened with failure in 2021 when the state of Berlin initially refused to grant the leasehold contract for the property. In the meantime, however, the property has been secured and the development of an “urban village” has been secured.
The property at Ratiborstraße 14 in Kreuzberg owned by the federal government has been the object of negotiations between the federal government, state government and users for quite some time. On the property are small businesses, accommodations for those who have been forced to flee their homes, an alternative trailer settlement and a daycare facility. In addition, the property was the starting point for the development of the protest opera Wem gehört Lauratibor (Who Does Lauratibor Belong To?) that made headlines at the beginning of the summer.
The history of Figurentheater Grashüpfer began in 1984 in Friedrichshain and led to the current location in Treptower Park in 1997. The performance venue exists thanks to a combination of personal dedication, persistence and a little bit of luck and has served as a trailblazer for artist-managed locations.
The monumental Spreepark closed in 2001 and has been empty ever since - until the state-owned company Grün Berlin GmbH became the operator of the property in 2016. Since then, the now hundred-year-old amusement park has found new life. Plans are being made and renovations are underway to create a public space for cultural events and programming.

Over the course of this tour, we will meet people who dedicating themselves to and struggling to secure the future of these locations. We will hear their success stories and let ourselves be inspired to shape a city that reflects the energy of its inhabitants.