Diana Lucas‐Drogan

»Die Haut von Hellersdorf«

Exhibition, workshops and performances in public spaces.

September 2016 – October 2017

»Die Haut von Hellersdorf« explores the relationship of residents, active individuals, initiatives and students in Hellersdorf to their physical environment. One main focus is how refugees appropriate some spaces and how they are excluded from others. The accumulated interviews and descriptions show a Hellersdorf on the move, beyond its own urban boundaries, in the orbit of the so‐called ›refugee crisis‹.

Threads from their conversations form an individual picture of Hellersdorf, socially and spatially. This picture shows Hellersdorf on the move and in transformation.

Diana Lucas‐Drogan sews, prints and draws this individual spacial‐social fabric onto textile pieces which she calls ›Aufzeichnungskleider‹ (eng. recording clothes). The fabric becomes a map and the textile pieces become mobile site plans.

The artist will present the textile pieces and the various routes on which they then will be worn by performers. There will be no audience invited to the performances. Rather it is the attention of random pedestrians which the artist seeks. Passers‐by intersect the cartography diagonally and this reading makes it become a kind of „Counter Mapping“. At certain moments the performers will be filmed and their bodies „scanned“ close up, providing material which will be used for a series of projections in September.

»Die Haut von Hellersdorf« is a collaboration between Diana Lucas‐Drogan, the designer/photographer Matthias Neumann, the fashion designer Alexandra Pawlik (Nadelwerk), the performers Kreshnik Gashi, Hassan Kello, Laura Kiehne, Ghaith Noori, the sociologist Holger Braun‐Thürmann and Master Students of Social Work at the Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin‐Hellersdorf and residents.

Part 1: Habitus Hellersdorf
17 February to 15 April 2017
Thu–Sat 15–19h
Every Friday: The artist is present from 12–16:30h

Some of the conversations led to „Go‐Alongs“ whereby the artist or a student accompanied residents on their everyday pedestrian routes through the neighbourhood. „Go‐Alongs“ are used as a method in scientific‐qualitative research and they raised specific questions for the students: Which physical, bodily traces are left in Hellersdorf by certain routines, by exclusion and by appropriation? What traces does a researcher leave? Who is Hellersdorf? Who determines what „outside“ means?

The accumulated knowledge is presented in an exhibition in the station urbaner kulturen. As a deliberate criticism of the monopoly that cartography has in the representation of the places we live in, the physical experience of Hellersdorf will be embodied in videos, photographs, drawings and Parka coats. Visitors are invited to put on the Parkas and to listen to local stories retold. The coats narrate local experts’ knowledge as well as inviting visitors to tell them their own stories.

Part 2: Aufzeichnungskleider
Saturday 25 June 2017, 16–17:30h
station urbaner kulturen
The artist will present the textile pieces and the various routes on which they will be worn later in July by four performers. There will be no audience invited to the performances in July. Rather it is the attention of random pedestrians which the artist seeks. Passers‐by intersect the cartography diagonally and this reading makes it become a kind of „Counter Mapping“. At certain moments the performers will be filmed and their bodies „scanned“ close up, providing material which will be used for a series of projections in September.

Thanks to: LaLoka and Stop Deportation Group

Final: Mapping‐Performances
Thursday 21, Friday 22, Saturday 23 September 2017, 19h30 – 21h each day in Hellersdorf’s public space

Meeting point at 19h30, station urbaner kulturen

In her project »Die Haut von Hellersdorf« the artist and architect Diana Lucas‐Drogan explored the relationship of residents, active individuals, initiatives and students in Hellersdorf to their physical environment. Out of her research and the accumulated interviews and descriptions she developed so called „Counter Mappings“ which she printed and drew onto individual spacial‐social fabric to produce textile pieces. On three evenings they will be worn – like a second skin – by performers in Hellersdorf’s public space.

Trailer

Blog