Jochen Becker (nGbK, Station urbaner Kulturen Hellersdorf): Make Sense. The atmospheres of large settlements and urban cultures
Talks on Curatorial Practice
07 NOVEMBER 2025 / 17:00-19:00
Most post-war New Towns worldwide emerged from Fordist, industrialized mass housing—environments often marked by sensory deprivation and cultural emptiness. The critique of these estates, both justified and excessive, began soon after the war, when a generation confronted with the ruins of genocide and destruction rejected the heroic modernism of the interwar period. Detached technocratic planning and radical Fordism shaped cities such as those built with the GDR’s WBS 70 series—the “Ford T” of socialist housing. In the talk, these urban cultures are revisited from an alter-modern perspective, asking whether art and atmosphere can restore sensuality to such barren landscapes. This perspective connects to the work of the station urbaner kulturen of the neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK) in Berlin-Hellersdorf, which since 2014 has sought—through exhibitions and public interventions—to reintroduce culture, reflection, and vitality into this functionalist environment.
Jochen Becker (Berlin) works as author, curator and lecturer and is co-founder of metroZones | Center for Urban Affairs and the station urbaner kulturen/nGbK Hellersdorf. He curated Chinafrika. under construction (Graz, Leipzig, Weimar, Shenzhen, Nürnberg) and advised the relocation of the Düsseldorf Theater FFT, including the project City as Factory and Place Internationale (2017-22). Recently, the exhibition Mapping Along (Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin, 2021) with metroZones and Helle Fabrik, Dunkelkammer Produktion (Scharaun Berlin, Kunstraum München, 2023) have been shown. At station, he curated exhibitions with f.e. Helga Paris/Ulrich Wüst, Arne Schmidt, Katharina Sieverding, Akinbode Akinbiyi/Elske Rosenfeld, or Bitter/Weber. Current: the research and exhibition project Robotron & Co (2023-202x). Becker is active in the Initiative Urbane Praxis, curated the SITUATION BERLIN congresses as well as the Glossary of Urban Practice and is part of the European New Towns, New Narratives research network.
Free admission.
All talks in English.
All times CET/CEST.
On-site participation without registration. Application for online participation: curating.org