Working with Michael Ruglio-Misurell, I recently completed a proposal for an intervention at Kulturpark-Plänterwald the now defunct, former GDR amusement park in Berlin. Having the luxury of a DAAD fellowship allowed for quite a bit of research into the relationship between the Amusement Park, the river, the compartmentalization of leisure time in early 20th century Berlin and the extraction of natural resources and manufacture of nature- some of which I'll post here.
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| Our intervention: drawing of the dynamics of an elevated camera obscura. |
First, a brief introduction of the park itself, as it is today, since it may not be familiar to those who haven’t been to Berlin. Later I’ll get into the research and history of the park and its relationship to various supporting infrastructures.
Like many of the other “destination ruins” in Berlin, Plänterwald has served as the object of fascination for that certain type of visitor drawn to Berlin. (see Bruce Labruce’s Otto: Or, Up With Dead People, or a simple google image search to see the extent of Plänterwald ruin porn on the English-speaking internet).
However, on the scale of institutionalization Plänterwald lies between the two other most popular “destination ruins” in Berlin - the half-squatted Teufelsberg and the wholly municipally administered Tempelhof airport. Plänterwald today functions as sanctioned venue for various cultural events (including the American-run event to which we submitted our proposal).
Below are some photos of the park as it exists today:
