27.08.2024 | Press release from the Office for Art in Public Space: kunststadt stadtkunst 71-2024 has been published!

Kunststadt titel 71

The Office for Art in Public Space is pleased to announce the publication of the 71th issue of the journal for art in public space kunststadt stadtkunst.

In her editorial, Dr. Elfriede Müller, the long-standing head of the Office for Art in Public Space, looks at the key points of her three decades of work from 1994 to 2024. During this time, Elfriede Müller developed the office into the competence center for art in public space and laid the foundations for a democratic and transparent advisory board structure for art in public space in Berlin.

A first thematic focus summarizes the conference “Art in Urban Space for the Districts”, with which the Office for Art in Public Space, together with committed politicians, demanded the provision of annual funding for art in urban space for all Berlin districts in March 2024.

Another focus is on the topic of participation in art-in-architecture competitions, which is analyzed from different perspectives, from the side of the awarding authority and the user as well as from the perspective of artists. These contributions with numerous examples of best practice are based on an event in November 2023 on Campus Rütli.

The chapter on art in urban spaces is dedicated to the loss of urban open spaces for art and possible counter-strategies. In her article, Nina Kadri explains the principle of multiple senses as a basis for accessibility, including for art in buildings and urban spaces.

The chapter “Art and Remembrance” deals with the failed competition to comment on the Bismarck Memorial in Hamburg and the new Aryanization Memorial in Bremen. Katinka Theis uses the example of Kreuzberg's Oranienplatz to look at a “culture of remembrance from below” and the attempt to create an active place of remembrance for the victims of racism and police violence.

In the art theory section, Philipp Schink reviews the book “Images of Class” by Jacopo Galimberti on operaism and the visual arts in Italy in the 1970s.

The international section takes us to Baghdad: Susanne Bosch reports on initiatives for art in public space in Iraq. Sylbee Kim provides an insight into the recent development of contemporary art in South Korea.

The Competitions chapter sets a new milestone with 21, mostly very short contributions. Highlights include the worldwide open two-phase competition for a decolonial memorial in Berlin-Neukölln, the art competition for the new Bauhaus Archive building and the competition “Art in the urban space of Leipziger Strasse”. The latest issue of our specialist magazine kunststadt/stadtkunst thus also covers the diverse activities of art in public space in all its city-wide breadth and far beyond.

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The journal kunststadt stadtkunst is available free of charge in many public cultural institutions. Outside of Berlin or in justified cases, the magazine can also be obtained from our office:

Büro für Kunst im öffentlichen Raum
im kulturwerk des bbk berlin

Köthener Str. 44
10963 Berlin
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