Nicoline van Harskamp/Rotterdam

PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND NEW PROPOSAL FOR PILOTPROJEKT GROPIUSSTADT

During my stay in the Pilotprojekt flat in early September, I focused on the municipal election campaigns that were going on throughout Berlin at that time. The faces of prominent local candidates were
plastered all over the town and in Gropiusstadt they made an odd contrast with the absence of people in the streetscape.
In the course of a week, I managed to interview the 4 most important candidates for Gropiusstadt. They seemed very eager to speak to an international representative of ‘Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt’ just a few
days before election time. I asked them to explain their political principles to an outsider, that is, somebody who is not familiar with German politics, and then try to explain the concept or ‘masterplan’ of Gropiusstadt from those. Their answers ranged from:

“A typical social democratic idea to intervene when the market doesn’t regulate itself.” (SPD)

“People want to have entertainment, distraction. And that’s a free-spirited mentality that we liberally support in the Gropiusstadt.” (FPD, talking about Gropiuspassagen)

“The original conception was a very nice piece of city planning. Walter Gropius was an Evangelical Christian, yes.” (CDU)

“It is not an expression of socialism. It is merely the production of cheap living space.” (PDS)

In the video ‘Red, Orange, Yellow’ (refering to the ‘political colours’ used by different parties) I have placed excerpts from the interviews next digital images taken all over Gropiusstadt of election posters with the faces of the interviewees.