Play with us VESTITOPOLY at Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek

by barbara caveng | Jan 8, 2024

Play with us VESTITOPOLY at Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek

Until 4 February 2024, the themed room in the Amerika-Gedenk-Bibliothek is dedicated to fashion. The presentation was curated by /span>Aïcha Abbadi, who accompanied us scientifically as a critical fashion researcher in 2021.
On Sunday, 14 January 2024 from 2.30 - 4.30 pm, STREETWARE invites you to VESTITOPOLY in the themed room of the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek

With the VESTITOPLOY VESTITOPOLY game, we critically scrutinise the global production conditions of clothing and their impact on humans and our environment. At the same time, we discuss fair and sustainable ideas for the fashion industry. Our best saved items of discarded clothing – will be given as the game prizes!!

The STREETWARE saved item art project challenges fast fashion fordert die fast fashion transforms discarded textiles into prêt-à-porter and creates social sculpture.

all photographs © Paolo Gallo

Vestitopoly@48hrs Neukölln ©Paolo Gallo | Abgebildet u.a. Lotti Seebeck und Aïcha Abbadi & Festivalbesucher:innen

We played VESTITOPOLY in the cultural summer programme of DRAUSSENSTADT / Supported by the Stiftung für Kulturelle Weiterbildung und Kulturberatung / Stiftung öffentlichen Rechts / Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt

VESTITOPLOY

by barbara caveng | Jun 29, 2023

VESTITOPLOY

Vestitopoly@48hrs Neukölln ©Paolo Gallo | Abgebildet u.a. Lotti Seebeck und Aïcha Abbadi & Festivalbesucher:innen

VESTITOPOLY @ 48 Stunden Neukölln, Saturday, 24th June 2023

In front of a branch of a well-known second hand store chain. The planet is burning under the midday sun. The pouring rain from the evening before has disappeared, the air is hot and the streets are filling up. On Alfred-Scholz-Platz, the VESTITOPOLY playing field is already spread out, the rolling clotheshorses ready in their starting blocks and the oversized dice made from used clothing is attracting the first players.

Es berichtet die kritsche Modeforscherin Aïcha Abbadi

Es kommen: Nachbar*innen jeden Alters, Tourist*innen, Feiernde und Aktivist*innen, Juror*innen und Freund*innen auf Abifahrt: alle bereiten sie sich erwartungsvoll vor auf ihre erste Runde. Im bunten Gewusel erhaschen wir Blicke auf bunte selbst gehäkelte Tops und selbstgemachten Schmuck, Crop Tops und Cargohosen, Seidenröcke und Stickereien – auch ein Turban ist dabei. Inspiriert von der Hitze wird eine Spielerin zum spontanen Kleidertausch verleitet: ein luftiges STREETWARE-Kleid für das eigene Outfit, für die nächste Person am Spielfeldrand gelassen. Mit Sonnenschirmen in der Hand wir die Umrundung der Fragen- und Aufgaben-Felder zum lässigen sommerlichen Flanieren auf dem Neuköllner Boulevard.

Meanwhile, the first STREETSHOPPING tour is already back and has collected: fittingly, a t-shirt from “ON TOUR” with a label reading “made in Europe”, various sportswear items “Made in Syria”, a delicate floral prayer dress, a collection of shoes and much more. Freshly laundered, the latest collection is won by a new round of players. During VESTITOPOLY, they learn from one another, clothing stories, swap store tips and styling ideas. For each other, they put togehter: an opera outfit with a work apron, an elegant shell for the first ever drag show with crystal-embroidered red underwear and an offwhite long jacket, a birthday look with a sequined floor-length dress and rubber boots.

Few steps further: a group adorned in satin slip dresses with lace trims, draped over sweatpants and trekking sandals is conspiring about the latest repair workshops. Nostalgic memories come up about the dressy streets of Kinshasa, wishing a simultaneous transmission to the public squares of Neukölln. But look over there! The wishes have been heard and already the crowd is dressing up and everybody strikes a pose. Too soon, the playing round is over, but the players are not yet ready to move on. Skipped fields are caught up to test out every challenge.

all photographs © Paolo Gallo

In the meantime, the garments are accumulating on the world map in the centre of the playing field, sorted by production country. As expected, they pile up highest in Asia, but Europe is filling up as well. The USA and Ethiopia are represented, too. They do not stay there long, however, as they have already caught the eye of new players, who roll the dice until the last minute. Faster than expected, the sidewalks are rolled up. Disappointed faces and longing looks – the DB-Shirt is already gone, the BVG one too – but the game will go on tomorrow! Who knows what new wares the streets will bring?

We played VESTITOPOLY in the cultural summer programme of DRAUSSENSTADT / Supported by the Stiftung für Kulturelle Weiterbildung und Kulturberatung / Stiftung öffentlichen Rechts / Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt

Magazine SOZIOKultur on the topic of ENERGY.

by barbara caveng | Feb 24, 2023

Magazine SOZIOKultur on the topic of ENERGY.

We are delighted that Alice Fassina has been named STREETWARE cover girl by the editorial team of SOZIOkultur!
he cover photo is taken from our performance SCHURF and was photographed by Paolo Gallo.

You can download the magazin here or download the magazin here.

Zum Inhalt von [ Heft 1/2023 ] schreibt der Bundesverband SOZIOkultur:

To have or not to have energy - this is the burning question that socioculture is currently facing on many levels in its own way: artistically, creatively, inventively and cooperatively, almost making us forget how much the current crises with all their consequences cost. It does so in its own way: artistically, creatively, inventively and cooperatively, almost making us forget how much the current crises with all their consequences cost. But even if it sometimes seems as if socioculture is a perpetual motion machine that, once set in motion, remains in motion without further energy supply - it is not. It is all the more remarkable, therefore, how time and again - thanks to the tireless power of those active and the support of sponsors - it draws strength from imaginative and collaborative action and drives sustainable change by generating positive social energy.

Kulturszene 22 des Fonds Soziokultur

by barbara caveng | Feb 9, 2023

Kulturszene 22 des Fonds Soziokultur

Soziokultur in Zeiten gesellschaftlicher Herausforderungen

Kulturszene 22 des Fonds Soziokultur erschienen

„Die Jahre 2021/22 waren nicht nur gesamtgesellschaftlich, sondern auch für die Soziokultur eine herausfordernde Zeit. Die Auswirkungen der zahlreichen Krisen treffen insbesondere Initiativen und Einrichtungen in freier Trägerschaft auf vielerlei Ebenen und machen die Notwendigkeit von zuverlässiger Unterstützung für die Soziokultur deutlich….[…]38 Projektbeispiele aus allen Förderprogrammen veranschaulichen: Soziokultur gestaltet Gesellschaft mit, setzt sich kreativ mit dem Zeitgeschehen auseinander und bringt Menschen jeden Alters und Hintergrundes zusammen. Ob in Stadt oder Land, hybrid oder digital – den Krisen und Restriktionen zum Trotz entwickeln Akteur*innen über alle Bundesländer und künstlerischen Sparten hinweg neue partizipative Formate. Hinter jedem Projekt stehen zahlreiche engagierte Kulturschaffende und Bürger*innen, die Geschichten der Menschen und Orte erzählen. “ (Auszug aus dre Pressemitteilung des Fonds Soziokultur) Wir freuen uns, dass STREETWARE saved item eines der Projekte ist, die in der Jahresausgabe 22 berücksichtigt werden.

Den Jahresbericht 21_22 gibt es online als Blätterkatalog oder als PDF zum download.
STREETWARE findet ihr auf Seite 10.

Laudatio

by barbara caveng | Oct 24, 2022

Laudatio

on the occasion of the awarding of the 2nd Innovation Prize to STREETWARE saved item
By Stefanie Duncker on October 20,, 22 at the Kulturzentrum Pumpe, Berlin

LUMPENSAMMLEREI, WASCHSALON, TEXTILE FORENSIK, HAUPTWÄSCHE, FILIALEN, PROGRAMME, STÄRKESTOP

Anyone who has visited the website of the project 'STREETWARE - saved item' will get an idea of how many fibres and connections, strands of searching and storytelling this project consists of.

The starting point of the project are discarded clothes on the streets of Berlin. STREETWARE, directed by barbara caveng, understands the found objects as branches for textiles and equally for stories of local and global entanglement. Saved item - the rescued piece of fashion and clothing in this project stands for abundance and deprivation at the same time; but it also stands for quasi unread stories connected to these textiles. Which of the modern rags will be included in a new collection is therefore decided by the collectors: Is there something interesting in it or not? In their own shop, the garments are processed, made into a brand with logo patches, commercial bluff that is given away and sustainable use all in one. But this is only one part of the extremely comprehensive overall project: In the middle of Corona time, a 24-hour performance starts on a huge garment dump behind glass, branches of shops are also created in the district library, the collection is presented highly professionally with many amateurs on Tempelhofer Feld as a cat walk, numerous laundry stands on wheels form a kind of laundry sculpture in the park, homeless people advise the actors as they walk through 'the big flat' of the city, and Ugandan designers* and start-ups join in the discussion at a conference on culture and politics in the context of sustainability.

The makers of STREETWARE seem to follow every thread they find and develop their own action from it within the project. People from all contexts and from very different professions contribute with their knowledge of the cycles of textiles and with their ability to shape the STREETWARE collection as fashion, but also as a way of thinking. It is about resources of knowledge, material and visionary phantasy to think things further and make them visible.

The project is unique in its diversity. It is outstanding in terms of translating social, cultural and economic contexts into an artistic expression. STREETWARE - Saved item proves how branched and how connected society and unknown stories about clothing and textiles are. Artistically translated and with the participation of very different people, it exposes the use of resources using the example of clothing. It does so in a fun and integrative way that is also highly political.

Kunstasyl under the team leadership of barbara caveng has followed the ever-changing questions within the project without regard for its own resources. This is a dilemma in cultural work: one cannot avoid the questions that always arise anew and differently in the project. Kunstasyl does not evade, that is particularly impressive. We hope there is strength again or still for future projects.

We would like to support that a little.

The jury awards the second "Innovation Prize Socioculture" on the theme of sustainability with great fascination to the project "STREETWARE - Saved item" by the

Kunstasyl e.V. - with its Team leadership barbara caveng.

Stefanie Duncker is a board member of the Fonds SozioKultur and director of the Muggenhof Cultural Office of the City of Nuremberg, , responsible for general programme work and projects.