DOMESTIC AFFAIRS

The new artistic intervention by STUDIO ƘARFI!
We are exploring the “private sphere”. To what extent is it political and to what extent is it a space of its own from which social inequality and colonial continuities can be challenged?

“The Laden” at Schlesische Str. 10 in Kreuzberg offered our research teams a lively space for their experiments. Working groups of 5-10 trainees – young refugees aged 15-27 from various crisis regions around the world – worked here continuously throughout 2023.

The project documentation as a PDF? CLICK HERE!

»TEPPICHROLLER«

Our work phases in “the Laden” typically start with group work on a collaboratively selected image/object/movement/recipe, followed by our own experiments to provoke experiences and changes in perspective.
Scattered furniture and other collected items, such as discarded wheels, were transformed into living sculptures that very vividly remodeled the characteristics of domesticity, youth and mobility: Teppichroller [carpet roller]!

Pictures: Philip Crawford, Nele Düll, Luis Krummenacher

»TEPPICHSCHUHE« 

Carpets were also to be set in motion. Imitations of oriental carpets from the “Deutsche Werkstätten” in the GDR and West Germany in the 1970s were cut apart and sewn into footwear. The avant-garde mules are irritating – they immediately swapped the qualities of statics and movement; what usually lies flat and appears stable suddenly runs away… A sign of the times?

Pictures: Philip Crawford

»COPY SHOP« 

In another experiment, we posed the question of the value of domestic objects. What happens if we remove the utility value of things?
The antique shop  Aatik is located in the immediate vicinity of our store at Schlesische Str. 10/11. As part of our exploration, we made 1:1 models of the goods on sale there. What is the story behind the objects and what do the cardboard and paper models tell us? What is lost and what is added? Our “COPY SHOP” opened on September 14, just in time for Art Week!

Pictures: Luis Krummenacher

Artistic Director
Philip Crawford

Education and Empowerment
Armine Abdel Mohammed

Project Coordination
Brooke Meenan

Collaboration
Clara Sak
Daria Py

Supported by: