Workshop:
James Gregory Atkinson

13.04.2023 / 19:00 / CRAC Alsace

WORKSHOP WITH JAMES GREGORY ATKINSON
Thursday, April 13, 2023, 7 p.m.
Location: CRAC Alsace, 18 Rue du Château, 68130 Altkirch (France)

In his research-based exhibition projects, artist James Gregory Atkinson combines autobiographical with political history and responds to the extreme gaps in records of Afro-German life in Germany’s official archives. In doing so, Atkinson draws on transnational queer and Black narratives, modifying them and bringing them into dialogue with the present. In this way, he creates alternative ways of confronting the past.

During his residency at CRAC Alsace in April 2023, Atkinson will research “Schwarze Schmach” propaganda in local archives, libraries, and various locations along the Rhine. The focus of his research is on French colonial troops deployed along the Rhine and at Franco-German borders points during the First and Second World Wars. Tracing the footsteps of these troops, Atkinson charts their legacies and impact on (Afro)Franco-German life in the region.

In his workshop, Atkinson uses his interdisciplinary approach to bring these stories into dialogue with contemporary conditions.

Film Program:
Whose Public?

20.04.2023 / 20:00 / GHS Biologie

BFF 2 X AKA-FILMCLUB PRESENT: CAROLE ROUSSOPOULOS UND CHANTAL AKERMAN
Thursday, April 20, 2023, 8 p.m.
Location: Faculty of Biology large lecture hall, Institute for Biology II/III, Schänzlestraße 1, 79104 Freiburg

LES PROSTITUÉES DE LYON PARLENT
Director: Carole Roussopoulos, 1975, 46 min., French with English subtitles

On June 2, 1975, nearly 200 sex workers occupied the Saint-Nizier Church in Lyon for eight days to draw attention to their precarious working and living conditions, which were characterized by (police) violence, exploitation, and social exclusion. In LES PROSTITUÉES DE LYON PARLENT, Carole Roussopoulos contributes towards the self-determined audibility and visibility of sex workers, broadcasting the interviews in real time on monitors and confronting people passing on the street. June 2, 1975 is still commemorated today as “International Whore Day,” recalling the sex workers’ continually relevant demands.

NEWS FROM HOME
Director: Chantal Akerman, 1977, 85 min., French with English subtitles

Shots of streets both lively and lifeless condense into a snapshot of New York City; some lie empty, in others, people push and shove along densely crowded sidewalks. From subways and cars, the film follows the never-ending tunnels and streets until the city becomes a picture postcard of itself viewed from a boat. The shots are accompanied by Chantal Akerman’s voice reading letters that the director received from her mother during her stay in New York between 1971 and 1973. Thus, in NEWS FROM HOME, Akerman interweaves image and voice as well as autobiographical and documentary elements into a cinematic dialogue.

Introductory lecture by Dr. Eva Kuhn, Art and Film scholar, Leuphana University Lüneburg

The collaboration between the Biennale für Freiburg 2 and the aka-Filmclub forms the cinematic prologue to the Biennale exhibition taking place in summer 2023. Across five dates, the curated series comprises screenings of selected films surrounding the thematic focus of the Biennale, accompanied by introductory lectures. The films will be shown in chronological order, providing insight into the history of cinematic explorations of the street as motif, backdrop, and metaphor from the 1950s to the present day.

Film Program:
Youth / Transgressions

27.04.2023 / 20:00 / GHS Biologie

BFF 2 X AKA-FILMCLUB PRESENT: HÉCTOR BABENCO
Thursday, April 27, 2023, 8 p.m.
Location: Faculty of Biology large lecture hall, Institute for Biology II/III, Schänzlestraße 1, 79104 Freiburg

PIXOTE: A LEI DO MAIS FRACO – ASPHALT SHARKS
Director: Héctor Babenco, 1980, 128 min., Portuguese with English subtitles
Pixote, a ten-year-old boy, is picked up by the police on the streets of São Paulo and taken to a juvenile detention center where violence and corruption are the order of the day. The institution’s criminal and sadistic guards abuse the children from the streets using torture and humiliation tactics. Two runaways are murdered by police officers, who turn the blame on Lilica, a 17-year-old trans woman. Together with Lilica, Pixote and friends manage to escape. Back on the streets, they fight a constant battle for survival.

Introductury lecture by Hella Wiedmer-Newman, PhD Candidate at eikones – Center for the Theory and History of the Image, University of Basel

The collaboration between the Biennale für Freiburg 2 and the aka-Filmclub forms the cinematic prologue to the Biennale exhibition taking place in summer 2023. Across five dates, the curated series comprises screenings of selected films surrounding the thematic focus of the Biennale, accompanied by introductory lectures. The films will be shown in chronological order, providing insight into the history of cinematic explorations of the street as motif, backdrop, and metaphor from the 1950s to the present day.

Workshop:
somebody*ies

29.04.2023 / 14:00 / DELPHI_space/außenstelle

WORKSHOP WITH SOMEBODY*IES
Saturday, April 29, 2023, 2 p.m.
Location: DELPHI_space/außenstelle, Unterlinden 10, 79098 Freiburg, Germany.

In this workshop, somebody*ies give an insight into their working methods and research. The artists will share different aspects of their work, from performance and zine, posters, painting, textile objects to historical research. From the indoor space we move to the outdoor space: the first part of the workshop will take place in DELPHI_space/außenstelle, the second part in Klarastraße, which the collective will activate with different artistic and performative interventions during the Biennale.

Film Program:
Berlin. Aspects

04.05.2023 / 20:00 / GHS Biologie

BFF 2 X AKA-FILMCLUB PRESENT: SHELLY SILVER UND MARTEN PERSIEL
Thursday, May 4, 2023, 8 p.m.
Location: Faculty of Biology large lecture hall, Institute for Biology II/III, Schänzlestraße 1, 79104 Freiburg

FORMER EAST / FORMER WEST
Director: Shelly Silver, 1994, 62 min., German

Shortly after the fall of the Wall, artist Shelly Silver takes to the streets of Berlin to ask passers-by from East and West for their personal opinions on the pressing issues of the time. What is their sense of ‘home,’ for example, what do they think about the antagonism between socialism and capitalism, or the welcome money that the FRG pays to former GDR citizens entering the country? Silver creates a portrait of a city in transition: supposedly insurmountable prejudices, resurgent right-wing populist tendencies, and a spreading fatigue with democracy come to the surface—despite or precisely because of the need for mutual reconciliation.

THIS AIN’T CALIFORNIA
Director: Marten Persiel, 2012, 96 min., German

In the 80s, neighborhood kids Denis, Dirk, and Nico conquer the streets of Magdeburg-Olvenstedt on homemade skateboards. As teenagers in Berlin, they are in with the skater scene, using the concrete plazas and architecture of the GDR as their playground. When GDR officials sense success on this new phenomenon, some of the clique are sent to Euroskate ’88. After the fall of the Wall, the group lose touch with each other, until a tragic death brings them back together in 2011. The fictional documentary is comprised of Super-8 film sequences, interviews, and archive material, as well as animations.

Introductory lecture by Dr. Sabine Rollberg, former professor, Academy of Media Arts Cologne (until 2019); former editorial director WDR/Arte (until 2018)

The collaboration between the Biennale für Freiburg 2 and the aka-Filmclub forms the cinematic prologue to the Biennale exhibition taking place in summer 2023. Across five dates, the curated series comprises screenings of selected films surrounding the thematic focus of the Biennale, accompanied by introductory lectures. The films will be shown in chronological order, providing insight into the history of cinematic explorations of the street as motif, backdrop, and metaphor from the 1950s to the present day.

Film Program:
The Street As a Metaphor for Life

11.05.2023 / 20:00 / GHS Biologie

BFF 2 X AKA-FILMCLUB PRESENT: PANAH PANAHI
Thursday, May 11, 2023, 8 p.m.
Location: Faculty of Biology large lecture hall, Institute for Biology II/III, Schänzlestraße 1, 79104 Freiburg

JADDE KHAKI – HIT THE ROAD
Director: Panah Panahi, 2021, 93 min., Farsi with English subtitles

In a rented car, a family of four travels through a rugged landscape in northern Iran. Where they are headed remains unclear. The aimlessness of the road trip is reflected in the film’s imagery: the roads blend into the landscape more and more until they seem to dissolve into each other completely. Panah Panahi contrasts the noticeably growing tension with moments of situational comedy. This finally snaps with full force. Accompanied by the pop songs of Shahram Shabpareh, past and present collide.

Introductory lecture by Neriman Bayram, Kommunales Kino

The collaboration between the Biennale für Freiburg 2 and the aka-Filmclub forms the cinematic prologue to the Biennale exhibition taking place in summer 2023. Across five dates, the curated series comprises screenings of selected films surrounding the thematic focus of the Biennale, accompanied by introductory lectures. The films will be shown in chronological order, providing insight into the history of cinematic explorations of the street as motif, backdrop, and metaphor from the 1950s to the present day.

Pflaster:
Resistant Streets

13.07.2023 / 19:00

PFLASTER: STREET TALKS IN AND ABOUT FREIBURG

RESISTANT STREETS WITH DOROTHEE ANNETTE KREUZER
Thursday, July 13, 2023, 7 p.m.
Meeting place to be announced

Participants are invited to accompany social worker Dorothee Annette Kreuzer and broaden their perspective as they move through the city, directing their gaze to places that are characterized by contradictions. The streets of a city mark its centers, delimit them and guide people through them. As public spaces, they are equally contested sites of political disputes. This raises the question of who owns these spaces and how the city can be shaped and lived in.

In the PFLASTER series, the Biennale für Freiburg 2 invites experts from different fields to examine the circumstances and stories of specific urban contexts during guided walks. While walking through Freiburg, the street talks open up a space to reflect together on the potentials of social movements: how, for example, does feminist representation manifest itself in public space? Furthermore, the conversations will critically reflect upon aspects of Freiburg’s colonial urban history and examine the current realities of life on the street. Using existing resources and expert knowledge from within the city, PFLASTER aims to sharpen the focus on the historical and contemporary layers of meaning, (in)visibility and (in)accessibility of urban space. Participation in the street talks is free of charge.

The PFLASTER series is spart of the prologue of the Biennale für Freiburg 2, taking place from February to May 2023. The prologue events, including a film program, street talks, performative interventions, and workshops set impulses for the exhibition, which will be on view at various locations in Freiburg from June 16 to July 30, 2023.

Pflaster:
Dietenbach

30.03.2023 / 18:00 / Dietenbach

PFLASTER: STREET TALKS IN AND ABOUT FREIBURG

DIETENBACH WITH WOLFGANG BORGARDS (INDEPENDENT ARCHITECT BDA)
Thursday, March 30, 2023, 6 p.m.
Meeting point: corner of Carl-von-Ossietzky-Strasse / Mundenhofer Strasse, 79111 Freiburg.

What has to happen before a street is built? What processes and decisions surround the emergence of a new Freiburg district? From planning to construction, a great number of steps are necessary. Architect Wolfgang Borgards and artist Ben Hübsch take a closer look at these elements on the Dietenbach site and interrogate the design and functional criteria of a future cityscape.

In the PFLASTER series, the Biennale für Freiburg 2 invites experts from different fields to examine the circumstances and stories of specific urban contexts during guided walks. While walking through Freiburg, the street talks open up a space to reflect together on the potentials of social movements: how, for example, does feminist representation manifest itself in public space? Furthermore, the conversations will critically reflect upon aspects of Freiburg’s colonial urban history and examine the current realities of life on the street. Using existing resources and expert knowledge from within the city, PFLASTER aims to sharpen the focus on the historical and contemporary layers of meaning, (in)visibility and (in)accessibility of urban space. Participation in the street talks is free of charge.

The PFLASTER series is spart of the prologue of the Biennale für Freiburg 2, taking place from February to May 2023. The prologue events, including a film program, street talks, performative interventions, and workshops set impulses for the exhibition, which will be on view at various locations in Freiburg from June 16 to July 30, 2023.

Pflaster:
Postcolonial Urban History

22.03.2023 / 18:00 / Hörsaal Anatomie Universität Freiburg

PFLASTER: STREET TALKS IN AND ABOUT FREIBURG

POSTCOLONIAL URBAN HISTORY WITH HEIKO WEGMANN (FREIBURG-POSTKOLONIAL)
Wednesday, 22. March 2023, 6 p.m.
Meeting point: Anatomy Lecture Hall, University of Freiburg, Albertstraße 17, 79104 Freiburg

How closely Freiburg’s inner city is interwoven with the history of colonialism is a question that Heiko Wegmann, the founder of freiburg-postkolonial, will reflect in this street talk. Today, these complicated relations are only visible in a few places. However, for many locations and monuments, their entanglement with colonial history can be traced back through photographic evidence, daily newspapers, and other contemporary historical documents.

In the PFLASTER series, the Biennale für Freiburg 2 invites experts from different fields to examine the circumstances and stories of specific urban contexts during guided walks. While walking through Freiburg, the street talks open up a space to reflect together on the potentials of social movements: how, for example, does feminist representation manifest itself in public space? Furthermore, the conversations will critically reflect upon aspects of Freiburg’s colonial urban history and examine the current realities of life on the street. Using existing resources and expert knowledge from within the city, PFLASTER aims to sharpen the focus on the historical and contemporary layers of meaning, (in)visibility and (in)accessibility of urban space. Participation in the street talks is free of charge.

The PFLASTER series is spart of the prologue of the Biennale für Freiburg 2, taking place from February to May 2023. The prologue events, including a film program, street talks, performative interventions, and workshops set impulses for the exhibition, which will be on view at various locations in Freiburg from June 16 to July 30, 2023.

Pflaster:
Feminist History in the Stühlinger

16.03.2023 / 18:00 / Forgotten Coat Memorial

PFLASTER: STREET TALKS IN AND ABOUT FREIBURG

FEMINIST HISTORY IN THE STÜHLINGER WITH BIRGIT HEIDTKE (FEMINISTISCHE GESCHICHTSWERKSTATT) X HANNAH KINDLER (SOMEBODY*IES)
Thursday, March 16, 2023, 6 p.m.
Meeting point: Forgotten Coat Memorial, Wiwilí-Brücke / Konrad-Adenauer-Platz, bridge entrance city side, 79098 Freiburg

Stühlinger and the places that comprise it can reveal a lot from a queer-feminist perspective. Birgit Heidtke (freelance historian and part of the Feministische Geschichtswerkstatt Freiburg) and Hannah Kindler (artist and member of artist collectives somebody*ies and M.A.R.S Maternal Artistic Research Studio) track down these rarely told stories and little-known places in their research processes.

On the street, sites of feminist memory can be found everywhere in the city. In Stühlinger, these sites primarily recall work done by women from all walks of life. In times of war and peace, they worked in the factories and on the railroads. They were out and about in the district as waitresses, postwomen, servants, artists. They lived in Freiburg or the surrounding valleys, some had migrated from further away. Some of them were abducted and disenfranchised forced laborers.

The walk stops at the Löwenkeller restaurant, demolished in 1990. For many generations of the workers’ movements, it was a popular meeting place. For Jewish citizens of Freiburg, it became a place of duress in 1940, before their deportation to Gurs.
At the former Löwenkeller, the street talk delves into the hub of facilities for children and families and leads on to the culturally diverse businesses of the present day. Stühlinger memorials in the form of street names, commemorative plaques, and memorial stones will be examined on the go.

Let’s do feminist history—on the streets and beneath them: with a warm bar at the end.

Text by Birgit Heidtke and Hannah Kindler

In the PFLASTER series, the Biennale für Freiburg 2 invites experts from different fields to examine the circumstances and stories of specific urban contexts during guided walks. While walking through Freiburg, the street talks open up a space to reflect together on the potentials of social movements: how, for example, does feminist representation manifest itself in public space? Furthermore, the conversations will critically reflect upon aspects of Freiburg’s colonial urban history and examine the current realities of life on the street. Using existing resources and expert knowledge from within the city, PFLASTER aims to sharpen the focus on the historical and contemporary layers of meaning, (in)visibility and (in)accessibility of urban space. Participation in the street talks is free of charge.

The PFLASTER series is spart of the prologue of the Biennale für Freiburg 2, taking place from February to May 2023. The prologue events, including a film program, street talks, performative interventions, and workshops set impulses for the exhibition, which will be on view at various locations in Freiburg from June 16 to July 30, 2023.

Pflaster:
From Schwarzwaldhof to Im Grün

02.03.2023 / 18:00 / Schwarzwaldstraße 18

PFLASTER: STREET TALKS IN AND ABOUT FREIBURG

FROM SCHWARZWALDHOF TO IM GRÜN WITH MICHAEL KOLTAN (ARCHIV SOZIALE BEWEGUNGEN)
Thursday, March 2, 2023, 6 p.m.
Meeting point: Forecourt, Schwarzwaldstraße 18, 79102 Freiburg

Housing shortages, rent speculation, perhaps urban development: these are the connotations brought to mind by talk of the squatter movement. These are certainly important aspects that run through the movement’s history, as seen in Freiburg itself. However, at its height, in the first half of the 1980s, the movement was about something completely different: public spaces, non-commercial public spaces, more precisely. The squats were used to create opportunities for people to meet and—crucially—creatively shape the spaces and their use. Cafés, practice rooms, concert spaces, and theatre stages came to be, where people could try things out and give free rein to their creativity. From the Dreisameck to the Schwarzwaldhof to the AZ (Autonomous Center), a colorful, diverse subculture unfolded between dilettantism and genius, which was exciting, incalculable, sometimes irritating, but never boring.

The PFLASTER on March 2 will be dedicated to precisely this aspect of the squatters’ movement. What forms of public life and participation were created? What was their subversive potential? And how was it once again constrained?

Michael Koltan from the Archiv Soziale Bewegungen (Archive of Social Movements) will talk about what emerged at that time, how it developed further and what remains of it today, stopping at locations important to the movement. Fittingly, the street talk begins where the entrance to the Schwarzwaldhof used to be: at the forecourt in front of Schwarzwaldstraße 18. A two-kilometer trail will follow, featuring locations both well-known and little-known, as well as numerous stories and anecdotes. In all, it will take about 2 hours to reach the tour’s destination: the Autonomous Center in the Im Grün neighborhood.

Text by Michael Koltan

In the PFLASTER series, the Biennale für Freiburg 2 invites experts from different fields to examine the circumstances and stories of specific urban contexts during guided walks. While walking through Freiburg, the street talks open up a space to reflect together on the potentials of social movements: how, for example, does feminist representation manifest itself in public space? Furthermore, the conversations will critically reflect upon aspects of Freiburg’s colonial urban history and examine the current realities of life on the street. Using existing resources and expert knowledge from within the city, PFLASTER aims to sharpen the focus on the historical and contemporary layers of meaning, (in)visibility and (in)accessibility of urban space. Participation in the street talks is free of charge.

The PFLASTER series is spart of the prologue of the Biennale für Freiburg 2, taking place from February to May 2023. The prologue events, including a film program, street talks, performative interventions, and workshops set impulses for the exhibition, which will be on view at various locations in Freiburg from June 16 to July 30, 2023.

Performative Intervention:
Maximiliane Baumgartner x Otto Hofmann

25.02.2023 / 14:00 / Former Studio of Eva Eisenlohr

PERFORMATIVE INTERVENTION:
WITH THE WHEELBARROW: MAXIMILIANE BAUMGARTNER X OTTO HOFMANN
Saturday, February 25, 2023, 2 p.m.
Meeting point: Former studio of Eva Eisenlohr, Elsässer Straße 17, 79110 Freiburg

1957: From her studio, artist Eva Eisenlohr sets off eastward. Eisenlohr walks on for 2.8 kilometers, just over half an hour. In her hands, a wheelbarrow loaded with her sculpture—a memorial stone for Joseph von Auffenberg. For his 100th birthday, Eisenlohr wants to install a monument to the poet and playwright at the site of his grave. The artist’s mission was one she assigned herself. Nothing and no one could stop her. Her sculpture stands there to this day.

In her performative intervention WITH THE WHEELBARROW, artist Maximiliane Baumgartner, joined by Paula Kommoss, commemorates the work of Eva Eisenlohr (1891–1977) by activating the path from the Freiburg artist’s studio to the Old Cemetery. A closer look at Eisenlohr’s works in various public places provided insights into her working methods. A focus is placed on artistic work in the contradictory space between commission and self-commissioning as a self-empowering gesture, which also informs Maximiliane Baumgartner’s practice. Otto Hofmann, whose research has provided a foundational insight into Eisenlohr’s work, expanded on the intervention with a reading.

In her work, Maximiliane Baumgartner (born 1986, Lindenberg) engages broadly with the fields of painting and site-specificity in outdoor spaces, realized within free pedagogical action-settings, installation paintings, and publication projects. The negotiation of social and public space and accesses to it are important concerns for Baumgartner. Across varying collaborations and action spaces, she conceived and directed Fahrender Raum from 2015 to 2019. The project encouraged art mediation and artistic action in the urban context of Munich. She will equally employ her concept of action spaces for the Biennale für Freiburg 2: Taking Freiburg artist and art educator Eva Eisenlohr as a starting point, Baumgartner will develop an action space consisting of multi-part, painterly interventions in Freiburg’s urban space, in which the boundaries between the production, presentation, and mediation of art dissolve and new perspectives become possible.

The PERFORMATIVE INTERVENTION series is part of the prologue of the Biennale für Freiburg 2, which will take place from February to May 2023. The events comprise a film program, street talks, and workshops, intended to set impulses for the exhibition, which will be on view at various locations in Freiburg from June 16 to July 30, 2023.

Feature Film:
La Strada

02.02.2023 / 20:00 / GHS Biologie

BFF 2 X AKA-FILMCLUB PRESENT: FEDERICO FELLINI
Thursday, February 2, 2023, 8 p.m.
Location: Faculty of Biology large lecture hall, Institute for Biology II/III, Schänzlestraße 1, 79104 Freiburg

LA STRADA
Director: Federico Fellini, 1954, 108 min., Italian with German subtitles

The Biennale für Freiburg 2 film program opens with Federico Fellini’s LA STRADA (1954). In this classic, the street provides the characters’ lived environment. Moreover, it becomes the story’s central setting as well as a symbol of the path to finding one’s self. The film follows strongman Zampano on his journey through Italy. He seeks an assistant for his performances and buys a poor widow’s daughter, Gelsomina. Zampano’s brutal ways come to face Gelsomina’s Chaplinesque innocence. Together, the mismatched duo endure the reality of a life on Italy’s country roads. While briefly guest-performing with a circus, the pair meet the acrobat Matto. In Fellini’s characteristic style, this encounter leads to a rupture in the delicate balance between the characters, who are forced once again to fend for themselves.

Introduction by Paula Kommoss, Artistic Director of the Biennale für Freiburg 2

The collaboration between the Biennale für Freiburg 2 and the aka-Filmclub forms the cinematic prologue to the Biennale exhibition taking place in summer 2023. Across five dates, the curated series comprises screenings of selected films surrounding the thematic focus of the Biennale, accompanied by introductory lectures. The films will be shown in chronological order, providing insight into the history of cinematic explorations of the street as motif, backdrop, and metaphor from the 1950s to the present day.

The Night

26.01.2023 / 19:00 / Bertoldsbrunnen / DELPHI_space/gvbk

THE NIGHT: KICK-OFF AND BFF 2-FRIENDS EVENT
Thursday, January 26, 2023, 7 p.m.
Meeting point: Bertoldsbrunnen, 79098 Freiburg
From 7:30 p.m. at DELPHI_space/gvbk, Bismarckallee 20, 79098 Freiburg

The Biennale für Freiburg 2 invites you to an informal kick-off and BFF 2-Friends event, co-hosted by DELPHI_space/gvbk. you’re. All BFF participants, supporters, and the public are invited to get together and set the mood for the upcoming Biennial. The event will begin with a walk from Bertoldsbrunnen to DELPHI_space/gvbk, followed by a screening of films that give an insight into the themes and perspectives of the Biennale: the aka-Filmclub production DEMONSTRATION AM BERTOLDSBRUNNEN (1968), Ulrike Ottinger’s COUNTDOWN (1990) and Tsai Ming-liang’s THE NIGHT (2021).

DEMONSTRATION AM BERTOLDSBRUNNEN
Production: aka-Filmclub, 1968, 3 min., silent
Freiburg has a rich history of negotiating societal designs and utopias, which often resulted in an occupation of the street by means of resistant bodies and practices. In February 1968, for example, in response to a drastic increase in public transport fares, Freiburg students occupied the central transportation interchange at Bertoldsbrunnen with the slogan “Gleich wird’s grün” (“It’s turning green”). They sat on the ground—a radical and punishable action at the time, which was met with the first use of a water cannon in Baden-Württemberg.

COUNTDOWN
Director: Ulrike Ottinger, 1990, 188 min., German
The film COUNTDOWN documents the chronological sequence of the last ten days leading up to the Economic and Monetary Union on July 1, 1990, which initiated the first stage of German reunification. Starting from Potsdam, the film approaches Berlin, capturing important places and sections of streets, such as the former Berlin Wall and “death strips,” being repurposed already by cyclists and pedestrians. Construction sites can be seen everywhere—Berlin is in upheaval. The markets tell the same story, spreading across different parts of the city over the course of the day. People of different backgrounds gesticulate and communicate with each other at the stalls. Homeless people wander through the city in search of a place to stay or a little money. Day by day, the money traders at Bahnhof Zoo become increasingly nervous. The lines at the ATMs grow longer and longer.

LIANG YE BU NENG LIU (THE NIGHT)
Director: Tsai Ming-liang, 2021, 19 min., Taiwanese with English subtitles
The title of the film is inspired by an old Chinese lullaby from the 1940s (in English “The beautiful night is slipping away”). Towards the end of 2019, Tsai Ming-liang was invited to Hong Kong to share and perform a selection of popular songs. As the director describes, it was a turbulent time, when the landscape of the city’s day to day life was changing unexpectedly. In THE NIGHT, he roams the nighttime streets of Hong Kong, documenting their rhythm and atmosphere.