studio nagelneu presents

Wild plants for the wild city, or: saving Berlin from capital

Sunday August 16th 14-18h
studio nagelneu | Hermannstraße 103, 12051 Berlin

All over the world, cities are being turned into comfort zones for the privileged. Neighborhoods that used to be havens for immigrants, the queer community and artists are becoming unaffordable and/or unbearable for their residents through a combination of privatised housing, luxury retail and data-driven policing. This is about more than gentrification. In essence it is a capture of the urban commons by capital, just as the formerly open, community-managed spaces of the village and countryside were taken over by private landowners ahead of the Industrial Revolution. Today we’re in a similar situation with AI, which will only scale up and accelerate the process of enclosure and flattening.

In this workshop, we will map how and where this urban capture is happening in Berlin, and consider how wild plants (aka weeds) might be the hidden superheroes we need to save the city’s wild side, both in its everyday democratic frictions and the spaces that serve as refuges for the vulnerable and excluded. We will approach the wild plants through imagination journeys and sensory encounter. (Note: no psychedelic plants or drugs will be used in the workshop, only garden weeds.)

Donation: €15-20 sliding scale

Register via dear.nature@pm.me