Among the places at the forefront in the crafting community, the one-year-old “La Bastellerie” is well worth a visit.
This crafting lounge in Berlin Kreuzberg is a three-room crafting paradise, offering various workshops – from bookbinding, to embroidery, to restyling old clothing -, hosting the newly opened exhibition “The Wunderkabinett” [Closet of wonders], and a small open studio where, for five euros per hour, you can use a sewing machine and various other tools.
While making pin buttons and drinking tea, Ina Göllmann recounted the beginnings of the crafting lounge. “We started a couple of years ago with crafting parties, an idea that I got while researching on the web. I read about craft events in the Unites States and in London and thought it was a great idea. I wondered why there were no such events in Berlin”.
The parties proved successful, so they decided to take the project one step further and opened La Bastellerie, at first an open workspace only. Activism and community-building are also at the heart of La Bastellerie’s mission. “We observed that people who had never even met before, all of the sudden created something together and sort of got to know each other in a different way. This is a good basis to make ideas circulate and motivate people to do stuff together”.

La Bastellerie

Independent craft and DIY are slowly taking root in Germany, and whereas this is the city where this sort of movements are more likely to emerge, the explanation seems to rest in the historical and cultural tradition of German artisanry. “Germany is the only country where, in order to found a business as a carpenter, you need to have a Master craftsman’s diploma [in German Meisterbrief].
So, the focus has not been on DIY, and even the word “basteln” [the German equivalent of “to tinker”] is not really highly thought of. It mainly refers to activities for children or “aunties” and it is relegated to the hobby area”, said Ina. La Bastellerie wants to help change the perception of craft, which is also why they chose to keep the word “basteln” in the name, “in order to give it a good connotation, to send the message that this is something that adults do as well, also as a hobby, of course, but not only”.

La Bastellerie is also home to the Wunderkabinett, an ever changing exhibition of very unique handmade products. It was founded by Leah Buckareff, a Canadian bookbinder and musician currently living in Berlin – and co-founder of the Torontian City of Craft -, who had dreamt about creating the Wunderkabinett for some time, and wanted to keep herself engaged in the craft scene.
When comparing the local crafting community to its Canadian counterpart, Leah Buckareff also sees the smaller importance of consumer culture in Germany as a factor: “North America’s long history of consumer culture encouraged a lot of us to start making our own stuff and altering our own clothes to make it unique at a very young age. A lot of today’s craft scene is born out of that DIY culture. Consumption wasn’t as big a part of German life so today’s craft scene also feels like they’ve taken or mimicked the already developed craft world (via Etsy) and applied it to the community here”.

The interest in crafting among young adults is undoubtedly growing and the many craft fairs and designer markets offer a great showcase. More and more groups are forming, such as the Stricken Bar, a collective created by some of the members of the “Collectif France Tricot”, who regularly organize very successful knitting events in downtown Berlin’s bars. With places such as La Bastellerie and groups that showcase crafters’ work and bring the know-hows to the masses, crafting is well on its way to becoming an important aspect of this vibrant city’s cultural and artistic reality.

Two photographers, Elisabetta Lombardo and Gabriele di Stefano, explore Berlin and its surroundings and look for artists, groups, organizations, whose idea of work is based on the concept of sharing knowledge to provide self-sufficiency to others.
We each bring our own understanding and view of self-sufficiency and accept that, as our investigation evolves, we will widen our own perspectives.

The key is the absence of criteria of entry, the openness of the activities. These are not mere courses or classes, these are open spaces for learning and doing, spaces that do not restrict access. They all, in a way or another, have to do with sharing knowledge, skills or spaces with others and contribute to the creation of a new idea of work, one that is not so much based on selection, restriction and scarcity, but one where independence can be achieved and where competence is not sold to the highest bidder.
We explore different fields, from printing, to sewing, to fixing things. The interviews will be published on both our websites.

You think you know someone? Contact us!

Dieses Projekt soll eine Erkundung des Konzeptes von Selbstversorgung sein in einer Zeit, da viele sich enorm anstrengen müssen, um über die Runden zu kommen und in der Wissen und Fähigkeiten nicht das Privileg einiger Weniger sind, sondern für jeden leichter zugänglich.

Der Schlüssel ist dabei, dass es keine Eintrittsbarrieren gibt, dass die Aktivitäten offen sind. Dabei geht es nicht bloß um Kurse oder Seminare, sondern um offene Räume zum Lernen und Machen, Räume ohne Zugangsbeschränkungen. Sie alle teilen, auf verschiedenem Wege, Wissen, Fähigkeiten oder Räume mit anderen und tragen damit zu einer neuen Idee von Arbeit bei, die nicht primär auf Auswahl, Abgrenzung und Verknappung basiert, sondern eine, in welcher Unabhängigkeit erreicht werden kann und Kompetenz nicht einfach an den Meistbietenden verscherbelt wird.

This project is meant to be an investigation into the concept of self-sufficiency in a time when many of us struggle to make ends meet, in a time when knowledges and skills are not the prerogative of the few, but are more easily accessible for everyone.
Sharing knowledge and skills can mean many different things: it can be a way out of a system based on products that are designed and made under precarious economic and social conditions, it can mean having the chance to contribute to a project where all the participants accept that things can be done together and that, together, it’s possible to enjoy the result. In this case it can be like open-source software, where software is not intended in its most used meaning, rather as a project, that is built and changed by people. The actors, through their participation, give the “software” greater complexity.
What if this software, this project, was the way we work, or work (“Arbeit”) in general? Work is always changing, and the idea that skills and working spaces are to be shared and passed on is at center of our investigation.

The key is the absence of criteria of entry, the openness of the activities. These are not mere courses or classes, these are open spaces for learning and doing, spaces that do not restrict access. They all, in a way or another, have to do with sharing knowledge, skills or spaces with others and contribute to the creation of a new idea of work, one that is not so much based on selection, restriction and scarcity, but one where independence can be achieved and where competence is not sold to the highest bidder.

The very first portrait is dedicated to SDW Neukölln, (Siebdruck Werkstatt), an open screen-printing studio where artists or small labels can use a very professional infrastructure. But SDW Neukölln is much much more.
Elisabetta went to visit the studio and sat down with one of the project’s initiators, Tom Hansing, for an interview.

Tom

Elisabetta: How did you come up with the idea to found SDW?

Tom: The idea came in 2006. I live close to the Rütli school, which in that year was brought to the center of attention through a letter by the teachers to the responsible Senate commission. The school was used as an example of everything that is wrong with the German school system, with a special focus on the migrant kids, depicting them as having no respect, almost “the terrorists of the future”, who don’t speak any German, they are not “our kids”, but the others’. So a couple of friends and I decided to create a garment label, “RÜTLI-WEAR wear”, with the idea to have an attached screen-printing studio. In the end, however, the project of the screen-printing studio came to a halt shortly before its “launch”. Then, two local artists, Agnieszka Jeziorski and Julien Ludwig-Legardez, two very active people, crossed my path during that time. They had the same idea but a different vision, so we decided to open SDW together and each brought her/his personal perspective to the project.

SDW Neukölln is now an open collective of eight to twelve people. Everyday, someone is the studio host, answering questions about all things screen-printing. We have an employee, Joaquin, who takes care of bookkeeping, writes bills, etc.. The others come here and, as compensation, are able to use the studio free of charge. That is why these are people who have a special affinity to screen-printing, such as Louise, an artist and a professional screen-printer, who brings a very specific know-how. Through the studio we don’t make any money, it’s a zero-sum process. We use the money to pay the costs and operating the atelier is done on a voluntary basis. We also do take some external jobs but this is independent from the studio per se.

Louise

Elisabetta: What can be done here and who comes here? Why create an open studio?

Tom: Well, we are not service providers. We approach Work in a different manner. We want to share our knowledge and our infrastructure, which we have in large part received as a gift by a master screen-printer who liked our project. It’s also more fun to meet other people and be exposed to different ideas.
Everything that has to do with screen-printing can be achieved here: printing on paper, foil, wood, glass, T-shirts, wallpaper, etc. If you already know how to print by yourself, you can come here and for a small renting price, realize your projects. It doesn’t matter whether it’s art or whether you’re doing something commercial, as long as it’s not racist or sexist, you’re welcome!
Some of the people who come here to print are artists, some have their own label. Sometimes we see some very special projects, like printing street games, foam dice, special varnish refinished magazines..
Also, SDW is a venue for events..

Elisabetta:..precisely. What types of events take place here?

Tom: SDW wishes to also give a space to Arts and Culture. For example, the artists collective “Nothing but printing” come here. They do mainly one-day-projects, Pop-Up Art, very temporary projects that do not last for a long time. Contemporary art events happen here. It doesn’t cost anything to use the space and it can be rented by anyone. It’s not like we accept just about anything but it’s not curated in the classical sense. If you have an idea and have enough strength to see it come alive, you can come here.

Elisabetta: And also learn..

Tom: Yes. That has to do specifically with screen-printing. If you don’t know how things are done and are interested in the medium, every saturday there are introductory courses where you will learn the different steps involved in screen-printing and how to use the studio, in order to, eventually, be able to work by yourself. We also offer different courses and project formats for schools, students, educational institutions or private people.

Elisabetta: What does “self-sufficiency” mean to you and how important is it as basis for your work?
Tom: It is a very broad term. originally one might say, self-sufficiency for us means being able to get low-priced garments, since we are able to get these clothes for reasonable prices and thus to pass them on at reasonable prices. Here you can decorate, “modify” clothing for not too much money. However, I think self-sufficiency here means more the creative self-sufficiency: with our studio, we want to create and maintain a place that puts the infrastructures at other people’s disposal, so that people who can’t afford their own studio, or simply don’t want to set up one because they prefer to work with other people, can come here and profit from a professional structure. A self-sufficiency with infrastructures, a sort of self-sufficiency for a community that creates spaces for the community. It is also about the neighborhood, about creating a social space where new ideas circulate, with a lot of exchange also with the neighbors themselves. We do a lot of things together, such as the big street fest here. A reciprocal self-sufficiency with inspiration and social warmth.

SDW Neukölln is located on the Pflügerstr. 11, 12047 Berlin (Underground stop: U8 Schönleinstr.). Opening times: Tuesday to Friday 10 am to 7 pm. You can find out when the next Saturday courses will be on the website, where you can also find lots of useful information on all things screen-printing.

I was walking through Alexanderplatz in the late afternoon, when I saw a group of people drawing on what is normally a panel reserved for advertisement. So I parked my bicycle and talked to them.
It turns out, this was an action by the Kiss the Demon production, which is part of the current Big Draw Berlin festival.
The actions are called “Transform”,

(…) a temporary agency which will playfully create slogans with passers-by and visitors. Together we will turn these messages into illustrated large-scale billboards. Wonderful materials such as tape, paint, hardcore markers, stencils, mega-fonts and cut-n-paste printed matter will be provided

(from the website).

The next action will take place tomorrow between 3 pm and 8 pm at the Atrium of the Deutschen Bank (next to the Guggenheim).

I want and need to communicate, share, evolve and understand the world around me. It’s been a great time working on the project, and to some extent this project has been therapeutic for me. Precarious work situations such as internships tend to isolate us from one another, so taking the project across countries and now showing it in different places is a good opportunity to meet the people who then look at the photographs and read the stories and sometimes also react and comment on them.
Besides the project I have been trying to react myself against my own particular “precarious situation”, exploring new territories and trying not to be discouraged by a lack of belonging that I seem to carry around with me.
I am speaking about crafting and creating, acting on the real world, working on objects and changing them. Until not too long ago I had not fully understood the potential of this activity on my own life. I always looked at crafters with an admiring eye, merely looking at the objects they create, but not really understanding how this process of slow creation followed by sharing with the world can be, yes, therapeutic.

Somehow connected to this, but not really about me (some news, finally!) is this non-profit organization, Scarabäus Hoher Fläming e.V., whose aim to help people in difficult situations making a new start and making things is key to this activity.
They were present at the pottery market that took place last weekend in Dahlem, along with other artists and professional pottery makers.

(Click on one photograph to access the gallery)

I am very excited and wait for your feedback!

I recently read a book about Miroslav Tichý, a painter and photographer born in Moravia in 1929 who constantly refused to conform to the Communist regime’s conventions, which were dictated also through a drastic change in professors at the Prague Academy of Arts where he was studying. The brutality of the regime and his personal crisis overlapped, which led him to leave the Academy and eventually to withdraw to a life of isolation in his hometown. His paintings and drawings – almost always portraits and figures of women – mainly belong to pre-war Modern art.
He began photographing in the 1960s and the fascinating thing about his photographs – well, only one of the many fascinating things about them – is that he realized them with self-made equipment from materials he found in his garden and around his home. He saw this as a demostration of independence. He also built his dark room equipment entirely by himself and the same of course applies to the framing and matting of his final results, which became final results sometimes years and years after they were taken.

His photographic work is not all accounted for, but the photographs in the book and in the exhibitions (to which he did not participate), are a beautiful and inspiring set of pictures of all sizes, some overexposed, some underexposed, some ruined, but all fascinating. The subjects are almost always women. Tichý studied the female body, though he remained very distant from his subjects, almost as if he were still at the Academy where he painted and drew from posing models.

I was stuck by the beauty and the sophistication of the work, even though he probably was not looking for a sophisticated result himself. Whereas he was precise with the building of his cameras and equipment, he praised luck. “Everything is about luck”, he said, and how one can extract beauty from a mistake.

He did not take himself too seriously and that is by itself something one should praise.
I went through this book like a child discovering a world that I knew existed somewhere, corresponding to my deepest thirst for raw emotions. I don’t know how much Tichý would have agreed to this celebration, as he did’t want to belong to any auto-referential circle of the so-called artists. But he was one, an artist of life and thought. And a great photographer.
His photographs are a window into his life, almost obsessively kept out of the conventions and the so-called normality.

Because of the political circumstances, Tichý’s work is all more important. Under a brutal regime, Tichý was deprived of the possibility to work, arrested and imprisoned several times for no reason, but he keept his mind free, isolated from the rest of the world and through his suffering, gave light to a body of work that is essential, especially in our today’s society.