University at Buffalo (UB)
The program is a curriculum, but it is also a learning environment, a meeting ground, a contemporary landscape. It is a place of experimentation, action, and conversation where students build their future. This learning expedition created a common memory based on looking forward, a shared artistic and cultural experience. As the current capital of united Germany, and that of two former 20th century dictatorships, Berlin is a metropolis attracting thousands of creative people from around the world. As we met with individuals and organizations, we considered three core qualities: Their tackling contemporary issues by means of a socially and politically engaged formal and aesthetic language; their aiming at establishing strong connections between art, audience and their urban context; and their manifesting Berlin’s constant and ongoing struggle with its own memories and palimpsest-like nature. We sought to investigate these artistic and cultural projects and to understand how Berlin’s unique art and culture scene relates to and productively merges with the city’s distinctive social and cultural fabric.