Apple. An Introduction. (Over and over and once again)

2019, however, is a peculiar year. And Berlin is a peculiar city. 2019 is a year in which people are beginning to describe climate change as a climate catastrophe, in which movements such as Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion are gaining influence, in which cities and states worldwide are acknowledging the climate’s state of emergency, in which environmental political challenges are discussed with a new sense of urgency, in which political parties that, over previous decades, failed to realise a sensible climate policy, are now attempting to run election campaigns on the question. 2019 is a year in which we are talking about the death of forests, about bark beetle plagues and spruce tree monocultures, about deforestation and CO2 reservoirs. It is a year in which those forests that we call the lungs of the earth are burning. It is a year of humility.

The artistic gesture of tree-planting has a number of prominent antecedents. But in the light of current events, its meaning has shifted. Today, above all, what type of tree is planted is decisive. A cultivated apple tree, if it stays healthy and is well-looked after, can produce fruit for many generations. This makes it a key resource. But not every type of apple is resistant to the same degree against the changes in the micro-climate predicted for the coming decades. And each species has a preference for specific sites and soils. In a city such as Berlin, the search for a suitable, publicly accessible and stable site for the planting of a cultivated tree is no trivial matter. Public space is dense, and is often interlaced with conflicting interests and needs. Even planting a single tree is an important act. Every tree is a gift: not only in and of itself, but through the fact that it tests how we might structure urban resilience; how we might make our cities sustainable into the future. What priority do places of natureculture, or urban gardens, have in this context? What possibilities for action do we have as citizens to structure urban space, and how can we grow beyond our role as consumers in this task? Because the climate catastrophe and the ensuing ecological crisis demand of us not only conscious consumer decisions, but also an active engagement and concern for our environment, understood in a positive sense.

Alongside the central theme of the apple itself – and the planting of apple trees – questions of biodiversity and the maintenance of species also play a key role in the exhibition. In her series of paintings of ancient apple varieties, Antje Majewski took as a point of departure the photographic still lives of Eckart Brandt. The pomologist maintains an orchard of fruit tress in Helmste, Niedersachsen, where he already has gathered hundreds of different sorts of apple. Brandt also appears in Majewski’s documentary film Wilde Äpfel (‘Wild Apples’), which can be understood as a critique on the conditions of contemporary apple production. In conversation with producers, wholesalers and pomologists in China, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Poland and Germany, Majewski draws a sketch of which varieties are currently overrepresented on the market, and why it is simpler to market a smaller range, restricting biodiversity. In a comparison between large-scale apple plantations and smaller orchards, topics such as differing approaches to pesticides and herbicides are addressed. A broad spectrum is opened out between new, highly cultivated varieties and industrial production versus wild apples in – as far as is possible – untouched forest regions. Also addressed is the question of how, in a context of advancing climate change, to provide adequate nutrition via – in the best case – sustainably produced food, while preserving ancient species of cultivated and wild apples at the same time.

Events

3/9/19 | 7–9pm
Panel discussion | Commons
with Eckart Brandt, Marco Clausen and Friederike Habermann, moderated by Maike Majewski (in German language)
The event takes place at alte feuerwache – studiobühne as part of KGB-Kunstwoche

15/9/19 | 11am–4pm
Harvesting with Apfelschätze on overgrown plantations in Potsdam-Grube

6/10/19 | 1–6pm
Apple Festival at Galerie im Turm with a juice cycle by Maike Majewski, pomologist Hans-Georg Kosel, a selection of apple cakes by Helen Russell Brown, and live music by Gal Liraz and Tobias Meyer

20/10/19 | 12–2pm
Apple tree planting and workshop for adoptive tree-parents with Konstantin Schroth

1/9–30/10/19
Apple tree plantings and programmes in schools, organized by Apfelschätze and Konstantin Schroth in collaboration with Kulturagenten für kreative Schulen

3.9. | 19–21 Uhr

Panel discussion: Commons

with Eckart Brandt, Marco Clausen and Friederike Habermann, moderated by Maike Majewski (in German language)

an event by Galerie im Turm as part of KGB-art week

The exhibition project Apple. An Introduction. (Over and over and once again) offers occasion for a conversation on the Commons – and the act of Commoning – as strategies for structuring open spaces in the urban environment. In particular in a city such as Berlin, public space forms through the overlapping nature of various interests and forms of use, which in part exist in contradiction to one another. How might places of nature-culture be structured within this conflict-ridden field? Under the growing pressure of climatic mutations and ecological crisis, questions of biodiversity are increasingly important as a central component for resilient natural-cultural systems. How might the Commons and Commoning, as frameworks for action and shared economies, contribute to increased resilience, biodiversity and justice: both between and for future generations? What implications might this have both for private and economic interests and for administrative structures? Eckart Brandt (pomologist, Boomgarden-Projekt for the collection of old varieties of fruits), Marco Clausen (Prinzessinnengarten) and Friederike Habermann (economist, Commons researcher and activist) discuss their perspectives on biodiversity, urban use and the economy of the Commons.

Eckart Brandt, pomologist (expert in fruit tree science) and writer, has been active as a fruit tree farmer since 1983. In 1985, he called the Boomgarden Projekt into being, and has since collected hundreds of ancient fruit species. His “living collection” was initially planted on rented land, before being brought long-term to land provided by Judith Bernhard, Eckart Brand’s wife. As genetic resources and living witnesses to agricultural heritage, the trees are now hosted at the 3.85 hectare-large Boomgarden Park Helmste – which is currently being secured under a not-for-profit foundation. Since 1993, Brandt has been a member of the Pomologist’s Association, which acknowledged his significant engagement in 2001 with the Oberdieck Prize. At the Expo 2015 in Milan, which took place under the motto Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, Brandt acted as Idea Ambassador for Species Diversity for the German Pavillon.

Marco Clausen is co-founder of Prinzessinnengarten (2009) and the Nachbarschaftsakademie (2015). He organises events, workshops, programs for international visitors, and study and research projects on topics such as food sovereignty, rural-urban relationships, robust social and ecological urban development, the Commons and social-economic transformation, with a special focus on self-organised forms of collective learning. In 2012, Clausen initiated a campaign that was signed by 30,147 people called Wachsen lassen! (“Let it grow!”), which successfully prevented the planned privatisation of Prinzessinnengarten. Together with the Initiative Prinzessinnengarten Kreuzberg, Clausen is currently campaigning to secure the open urban space at Moritzplatz for the next 99 years. In 2018, together with Kerstin Meyer, he formulated a plan for a “permanent garden in Berlin”, and is currently part of the working group for the exhibition and educational project Licht Luft Scheisse. Perspektiven auf Ökologie und Moderne (“Light Air Shit. Perspectives on Ecology and Modernism”).

Dr. Friederike Habermann, economist, historian and writer, has been active in social movements since 1980. Her particular focus lies in the relationship between the economy and other power relationships. In 1998, Habermann took on the press coordination for global networking of the grassroots movement People’s Global Action (PGA). Since this point, she works as a researcher and activist with the notion of the Commons, through, among others, the Commons-Institut. She has been living in Commons-based projects for the last 15 years, and participates in the networking of solidary economies beyond the logic of exchange. In her book Ecommony. UmCARE zum Miteinander (2016) she teases out the question of how a commons-based society could become a reality. Her first favourite song was In meinem kleinen Apfel (“In my little apple”).

Maike Majewski, environmental educator, translator and writer, is since 2012 the coordinator of Transition Town Pankow, a neighbourhood sustainability project that is part of the international transition movement. As of 2016, she is active in the Berlin Ernährungsrat (“Nutrition Advisory Board”), a coalition of actors from civil society working for the ecologically sustainable and socially just production and distribution of food in Berlin. In the framework of the Open Source Circular Economy Days, Majewski is engaged in topics relating to the nutrition and nutrient cycle. For the exhibition Apple. An Introduction. (Over and over and once again), she has developed the experiential and pedagogical project Der Saftkreislauf’ (“The Juice Cycle”), which she will introduce at the Apple Festival in cooperation with Apfelschätze and Kulturagenten für kreative Schulen.

Credits

Translations: Sonja Hornung
Project assistance: Luzie Naters
Assistance public programme: Felix Brieden, Helen-Sophie Mayr
Technical team: Carolina Redondo, Claudio Aguirre, Johann Hackspiel

The artists and the curator wish to thank the team of Galerie im Turm and Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, namely: Stéphane Bauer, Ferdinand Gieschke, Daniel Noack, Nadia Pilchowski and Sylvia Sadzinski, as well as the team of exhibition guards and mediators; neugerriemschneider, Berlin, for the loans; all participating adoptive tree-parents and supporters of the project.

The project is realised in collaboration with the faculty of green areas in the municipal office of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Turgut Altuğ (Grüne Fraktion, Berlin).

Supported by the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection; the Senate Department for Culture and Europe: Exhibition fund for municipal galleries and fund for artist remuneration, as well as the project fund of the district Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. Galerie im Turm is an institution of the municipality Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.