Bibliothek der Zukunft / SN#2, Part 1

Both bodies of water and libraries are in public perception commons, public places and not merchandise. Thereby they offer an ideal starting point to deal with open spaces and meeting points in the city. »The Archipel« already consists of several floating pontoons that can be connected flexibly to one another and forms an open platform for everybody on the waters of Hamburg (the Archipel project was initiated by F. Brüggemann, A. Ruiz-Larrea & N Tohermes).

For the summer of 2019, the »Library of the Future« (BDZ) is created as a new, independent island that can dock with the ARCHIPEL. It creates an open and mobile infrastructure for collaborative artistic and social production on the water and establish a place for the negotiation of the present and the future together with everybody who likes to join. In this different forms of encounter and sharing of knowledge are made possible. A place where people feel welcome and come together in everyday life. The library of the future / Sculpture Navale #2 is locally situated on the Vering Canal and at the same time makes a transitory gesture: On access to water, we work with artistic strategies on another city and try out an alternative organisation of community life.

Collective construction site of the BDZ – working together
Spring 2019: in an open construction and design process, we built together the library of the future and worked and learned from and with each other. Flexing huge steel pontoons, welding on eyelets, painting with boot paint in blue and mint green, craning the pontoons into the Vering Canal, building walls, roofs and a bookshelf, baptism of the islands with the neighbourhood and singing together with the spontaneously formed shanty choir. In the BDZ building process, which was open to everyone, there was mutual learning from and with one another. Everyone involved was able to contribute their own expertise – from steel and timber construction to flyer and program development, from the taking over the outside kitchen with huge pots to informing the neighborhood. The built structure and processes of the BDZ are shaped in a collective (construction) process.

Program summer 2019 – library together
Summer 2019: We are working together on a library of the future in a four-week open program. Make up and tell stories, carve them in Linol and put them on paper with an old printing press. Writing, reading, thinking about new futures together, translating, playing with words and reading aloud in public channel lectures. Giving concerts and listen to them, celebrating in costumes, chatting with neighbours and coming together while cooking, eating and washing up every day – the open library workshop with numerous events and activities was a flexible and convertible social meeting point on the water for and with the neighbourhood.

Folders / documentation – the BDZ is mobile
Thirty folders collect the resulting prints, texts and zines and form a lively, constantly growing archive. As part of the BDZ each of the folders can travel, be passed on and filled with content in other places.

The project was developed and implemented together with the collectif mit, ftts Kultur and the ARCHIPEL in Hamburg. It is part of the nomadic residence »Sculpture Navale« and has developed as an international project with the locations and work locations in Hamburg and Nantes. The cosmopolitan composition and multilingualism of the teams also enable a wide variety of cultural exchanges, offering new perspectives on how European cities are set up with regard to their relationship with water.

Category:
Urban
Participatory

Associated services:
conception
design
realisation

Year:
2019

Place:
Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg

Team:
collectif mit (Fabien Bidout, Claire Melot), ftts Kultur (Federica Teti, Todosch Schlopsnis), das Archipel (u.a. Gomaa Alsali, Finn Brüggemann, Nick Buckenauer, Greta Ganderath, Ilona Klein, Julius Levi, Modu, Timon Schmoling) and flex (Jana Beckmann, Janna Nikoleit)

Supported by:

Fonds PERSPEKTIVE (Bureau des arts plastiques, Institut française Deutschland, Goethe-Institut)

Hamburg Municipality middle

Kinder Helfen Kindern e.V.

SAGA GWG neighbourhood foundation

Honigfabrik

Hamburg architecture summer 2019

Press:
Tide
Hamburger Abendblatt
kiekmo

Photo-Credits:
flex, collectif mit, das ARCHIPEL, Niklas Löscher (Salon Kostümfest)