Do you remember Avatar? Or Pochahontas? (kind of the same story). Evil guys come to a beautiful perfect land and destroy it. In Avatar the destruction culminates when the home-tree of the blue people (Navari I think) gets burned by the evil stupid people (Americans I think). There are people thinking that this is actually happening right now in Berlin. A lot of places that were part of Berlin’s subculture get shut down by greedy investors and capitalistic authorities. To criticize recent developments Various & Gould put up an artistic installation at Görlitzer Park. Why they did it and what I think about the dying subculture in Berlin after the jump.
The Duali Tree is an artistic installation that should be understood as a serious warning. If all central subculture-relevant spaces such as the Prinzessinengärten, Tacheles, Neurotitan Gallery, Schokoladen and many more have to shut their doors, there will be no public and central subculture in Berlin anymore. I think that Various & Gould did the right thing: Memorating the death of subculture by creating a new subculture in a public space and reclaiming the city. Because generally speaking I am sometimes a little disappointed about the aggresive way that subculture is criticizing authorities and society. Berlin is a divers city and it is a normal development that investors and bussiness is coming into town and wants a spot here. I think that a dialogue of how subculture can still survive in a financially growing city cannot be discussed by throwing stones but with intelligent ideas how both can go hand in hand (because I really think they can). Let’s hope that decorating a tree can be a start to a constructive and creative dialogue.
