We Want To Stay

In the framework of our 11-days-long programme LET'S SIT DOWN TOGETHER AND TALK ABOUT A LITTLE CULTURE,  we cordially invite you to open the programme with us and NHK6 – Nachbarschaftshaus Karlsgartenstraße 6 in solidarity with their struggle: 

For two years already, the initiatives active in the Nachbarschaftshaus at Karlsgartenstraße 6 in Neukölln are threatened to lose their space. These organizations and initiatives are organized and driven by migrant women who do creative and political work with their communities but also within a larger network, reaching out to neighboring audiences and other visitors to the space. Faced with the loss of the space, various forms of protest have been organized – from petitions, actions, meetings with local politicians and street demonstrations, the last ones using colorful masks of imaginary, mythical or animal beings.

In a space where art and politics are so closely linked, using aesthetic and symbolic elements in the protest is a consequence of learning relationships, of knowledge transfer beyond the linguistic borders that exist in this space. The technique of making paper masks was brought to NHK6 by a Chilean artist, a user of the space, who themselves had learned it within the framework of the social struggles in Chile, where these masks were and are part of protest blocs. Upon arrival at the NHK6, the technique was embraced by migrant women from various parts of the world, who recognized their forms of protest and resistance, but also of celebration of their regions and appropriated the process, taking its result to the street when they protested against the decision of the Bezirksamt Neukölln to hand over the three-story house to the Volkshochschule and especially against the lack of perspective for continuing their work and engagement of the last years. An exhibition of some of the masks made in the mask workshops held at NHK6, as well as photographs and videos, will be shown in the space of SAVVY. There will also be a performance-protest – against all forms of social Verdrängung (displacement/eviction).