This place was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I want to stay away from describing the history of this place because it is intricate and complicated and there are many things to say about the experience of it that is somewhat separated from that intellectual history in my mind. With that being said I do want to give you a sense of what you are walking into when you step inside this crumbling facade. It’s original purpose was a children’s hospital intended to combat the rising infant mortality rate in Berlin. This building has since changed ownership and purpose many times over the course of its life. Since 1997, when it last changed hands, it has been unused and abandoned because it failed to meet many of its funding goals and struggled to file the correct bureaucratic documentation required to move forward with renovations and reconstruction. It has since experienced many fires, various structures collapsing, decaying, and/or purposefully being destroyed. Along side this destruction is the appeal of why you would even consider going here. The artwork.

And the artwork.

Tags!

Architecture!

Murals!

Nature!

Colors!!!!!

And this is only a small part of the work there. It’s is like diving into an abyss of color, texture, space and light unlike any possible museum. I was amazed to be immersed in this subject of culture that is coming from the ground up. It has as little influence from the higher forces of society because it is intentionally temporary and transitory, always under danger of being smashed, painted over, defaced, crumbled, etc. It has no possible monetary gains to be made by the artists. It shows how these peoples individual culture shows through in their work. So it is a part of society and possibly the overhanging powers of society are dominating these individuals in their own lives which then projects itself into their work. I get this sense of convulsing within that control though. Of seizing in it as the body rejects that authority when they do this work. Those spasms shape the work out of a madness or maybe just onto a chaos that can transmute these flailings into something of value.

Adorno says in his essay The Autonomy of Art, “art is not autonomous in the sense that it is metaphysically removed from and independent of society. It is autonomous in that it is not reducible to the requirements of society, namely in the presentation of a harmonious and meaningful whole… relevant parts of Leibniz’s theory are… They reflect the universe from their own individual perspective.” p240