Battle on the Car Park – A staged bazaar

The Neues Zentrum Kreuzberg (New Kreuzberg Centre) in Berlin, or NKZ for short, was conceived in the 1960s as a social urban utopia with 300 inexpensive, high-end apartments, also for citizens of Turkish nationality, an open-air stage, terrace cafes and hanging gardens. Today, with one of the highest unemployment rates in Berlin, the Neues Zentrum Kreuzberg has come to represent poverty and ghetto-life. From 10 to 15 July 2007, the project "Battle on the Car Park" used the vacant multi-storey car park at the housing area as its venue. The artist group Pony Pedro staged a bazaar with 40 long-term unemployed people. Each participant was allotted one space on the car park as "commercial property" and was provided with starting capital to establish a new, temporary business. In addition to the 40 new businesses, the project organizers also installed a roof-top garden, personal vegetable gardens and an arbour bar on the top level of the car park which was open to visitors, residents and the bazaar merchants. The bazaar programme was rounded off with a series of events in the evening with boxing matches, battles of the bands and discussions. By means of intensification, exaggeration and irritation, the project wished to examine the conventional models of starting one's own business and explore the future viability of new, informal markets at the poverty line.

Artistic directors: Pony Pedro (Sebastian Wagner, Mark Thomann, Franziska Werner)

Venues and schedule:
Neues Zentrum Kreuzberg: 10 - 15 July 2007, roof-top garden open until Sep. 2007