Jerusalem and Berlin, with their particular past and present as divided cities, are extraordinary laboratories for the understanding of contempo

ANCB will host a symposium and design workshop in collaboration with the TU Berlin. The symposium, entitled 'Urban Space, Art and Architecture: Strategies of Raising Public Consciousness', will be held on the occasion of the first Berlin-Jerusalem Workshop of Urbanism and Theory. 

The presentations and discussion will be followed by a keynote lecture by the Israely artist Dani Karavan. 

The symposium will address the diversity and heterogeneity of knowledge in the urban sphere. It will focus on the various ways of raising public and political consciousness through artistic and architectural interventions in public space.

The symposium invites artists and architects from Germany and Israel and asks them to report on their experience with participatory projects that deal with the city as an epistemological space i.e. space of knowledge. Special focus will be given to projects realised in Berlin. Additionally theorists from the field of art - architecture will be invited to broaden the discussion on a theoretical level. The speakers will present their work in two sections that are followed by a panel discussion. The conference will conclude with a keynote lecture by the Israeli artist Dani Karavan.

PROGRAMME

Welcome and Introduction

  • Hans-Jürgen Commerell, Director, ANCB The Metropolitan Laboratory, Berlin
  • Jörg Gleiter, Chair of Architectural Theory, Institute of Architecture, TU Berlin
  • Yehuda Kalay, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa

Raising Public Consciousness I

  • Philipp Misselwitz, Chair of the Habitat Unit, TU Berlin and Network Partner, Urban Catalyst, Berlin
  • Iris Aravot, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa
  • Gabi Schillig, Department of Design, University of Applied Sciences, Düsseldorf 
  • ModeratorJörg Gleiter

Raising Public Consciousness II

  • Matan Israeli, Artist, Coordinator, Muslala Project, Jerusalem
  • Orit Shmueli, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa
  • Jörg Gleiter, Chair of Architectural Theory, Institute of Architecture, TU Berlin
  • ModeratorGeorg Vrachliotis, Department of Architectural Theory, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe

Keynote Lecture

  • Dani Karavan, Artist, Tel Aviv: A site looking for an artist

WORKSHOP

During the first Berlin-Jerusalem Workshop, which will be held in Berlin from May 23 to May 31 2014, two teams of students from Haifa and Berlin will meet and explore the city of Berlin together. Studying similarly complex urban situations in each country, the project has the potential to open up critical reflection and raise awareness of problems of heterotopian urban development, thus contributing to the improvement of living conditions in our multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies – in Berlin as well as in Jerusalem.

The workshop will investigate the public spaces of the city. The approach will centre on critically analysing and devising artistic and architectural strategies of knowledge production and subsequently applying them to the city, with a focus on strategies that explore the public space and do not stop short of intervening.

A total of 37 students will take part in the workshop, with 21 from the Technion IIT Haifa and 16 from the TU Berlin, led by Prof. Jörg Gleiter (Chair of Architectural Theory, Institute of Architecture, TU Berlin) and Prof. Iris Aravot (Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion Israel Institute of Technology) in collaboration with ANCB.

During the workshop, the focus will be on analysing two specific urban sites in Berlin (Kreuzberg/Mitte and Wedding/Mitte).