All those who haven’t yet explored Lichtenberg for themselves tell horror stories about the district: the former “no-go area” (as it was termed around the time of the World Cup in 2006) is supposedly far-removed in every sense from the more fashionable districts, Lichtenberg is where the Stasi operated, and – above all – nobody should live further east than the Ostkreuz station on Berlin’s circle line.
We had three weeks to investigate these prejudices and make the district our own. On the whole, the district we discovered was quite different from the clichés: although Lichtenberg was indeed different from Kreuzberg or Friedrichshain, it does offer other advantages to its inhabitants: you can buy produce at the Asian market that you can’t find anywhere else in Berlin, you don’t have to wait for a table tennis table to become free in the public parks, and the tourists generally got off the train before we did and this meant we could always explore our own personal Lichtenberg highlights in an undisturbed manner.
The works created on location here can be interpreted as an attempt to confront the district and its residents with these prejudices and to turn these prejudices on their head.
With the kind assistance of gold extra
Bastelbögen:
Den Bahnhof Lichtenberg for download
Die Stasizentrale for download
Das Dong Xuan Center for download
