ZK/U seeks to develop projects, co-produce knowledge and share values created through exchanges. ZK/U does not offer a fixed set of ideas and principles for its fellows. Rather, individual projects and needs shape what could be described as a continuous formation. Instead of letting the ‘final product’ constrain the possible routes that a practice might take, ZK/U focuses on the processes that come from, and feed into, the particular contexts of the fellows’ practice, whether they be locally-defined situations or international discourses.

The Organization behind ZK/U: KUNSTrePUBLIK

The artist collective KUNSTrePUBLIK has been working in public space for over ten years. In their practice, they examine the potentials and boundaries of art as a means of communication and representation of various interests in public space. KUNSTrePUBLIK’s work departs from the spatial and social situation at hand, and creates intersections between artistic, architectural, spatial-theoretical and political discourses.

For instance, in Ulyanovsk, Russia, KUNStrePUBLIK built an oracle that allowed free expression of questions and answers. The collective operated a drivable protest well in Washington D.C.. The artists produced an iconic dice to strengthen the interests of market retailers in Jakarta. They reinterpreted well-known operas and presented them in burnt cars as a way to mark upcoming gentrification, and formed a street parliament with the chants of football fans and the life jackets of refugees. They built a car wash to greet working migrants in the Ruhr area with welcome songs and a baptism.

Beyond their own work, KUNSTrePUBLIK curated multiple project series with the intention of sketching a more inclusive societal image: the two-year project series Archipel Invest brought forth micro-economical future scenarios for the post-industrial Ruhr area; over the course of five years, sculpture park Berlin_Zentrum provided the grounds for commentary on and discussion of urban development dynamics on an inner-city wasteland. In Halle/Saale, the collective concerned itself with human fears in public space, and in the frame of the Hacking Urban Furniture project alternative economies and artistic solutions for the production and maintenance of street furniture were developed.

KUNSTrePUBLIK is the organization behind ZK/U - Center for Art and Urbanistics. ZK/U Berlin links global discourses to local actions. On the crossroads between art, research and everyday surroundings, it investigates the multi-layered dynamics of urban spaces and creates experimental formats and projects that serve as a model for new scenarios.

Apart from the artistic direction of a variety of project series at ZK/U Berlin (CityToolBox, Hacking Urban Furniture, Artist-Displacement, Ständige Vertretung, and so on) KUNSTrePUBLIK is, together with an Advisory Board, responsible for the selection of artists-in-residence and partners.

Reaching beyond the work at ZK/U Berlin, KUNSTrePUBLIK is involved with the establishment of spatial infrastructure in the city as founding member of the initiative House of Statistics: a project for the creation of hybrid spaces for refugees, artists, social initiatives and the pilot project ZUsammenKUNFT.

The artist collective consists of Matthias Einhoff, Philip Horst and Harry Sachs, and is part of the eponymous non-profit association KUNSTrePUBLIK e.V.

www.kunstrepublik.de 
www.zku-berlin.org 
www.skulpturenpark.org
www.archipel-invest.eu