Universale – Neue Felder – Neue Dörfer

Universale – New Fields – New Villages

What do we see when we look at a landscape, walk through it on foot, drive through it, observe it from above, or follow the traces of living beings and architectures that have found a place within it?

In a multidisciplinary symposium over four days, we will uncover the geological, ecological, social, historical, and aesthetic layers of the Uckermark landscape and explore them through joint thinking-walks. In addition to excursions, the symposium includes lectures and discussion rounds, as well as landscape workshops and artistic contributions.

From the Ice Age to the agrarian-industrially shaped cultural landscape, to the repurposing of a former LPG residential block, we trace the human and non-human actors who shape, use, maintain, inhabit, explore, and disrupt this landscape – engaging collectively with the geological, political, and artistic processes and dynamics present in the surroundings.

The former LPG residential block in Böckenberg near Gerswalde, now hosting Libken e.V. as a space for thinking and production, serves as the starting point for these observations and as accommodation for participants.

Contributions by: Dr. Jan von Brevern (FU Berlin), Dr. Andreas Dix (University of Bamberg), Dr. Ulrich Hartung (Architectural Historian, Berlin), Dr. Stefan Höhne (TU Berlin), Dr. Alexander Klose (Curator and Cultural Scholar, Berlin), Martin Schmitz (Art Academy Kassel), Dr. Steffen Trinks (TU Berlin), Bettina Wilkening (Behavioral Biologist, Angermünde), Maren Wolff (Land Reclamation Engineer, Dedelow), among others.