2021,

ABA

Air Berlin Alexanderplatz

2009

Haus der Statistik, Haus D

Otto-Braun-Straße

70–72

Berlin

10178

airberlinalexanderplatz.de

Funken zu Flammen, 10 Jahre ABA, 2020

Lisette Smits, The Applicant, The Embassy of the Netherlands, 2016

In the early years, we were not thinking so much about accessibility to our exhibitions and events in a physical sense of venues without elevators or events without translation, but also in a digital sense. For many years, our online magazine hadn’t been accessible for screen-readers for people with poor vision or the blind, or keyboard navigation for people with mobility issues, for example. Getting there was a journey, and I think we would now start from a more accessible place. I would want local politicians to make their funding applications more accessible, not only in terms of able-ism, but also in terms of all forms of discrimination, e.g. proof of citizenship, applications having to be written in German. I wish that they would give a universal basic income to everyone (not just citizens), open their borders, and make healthcare free, free for everyone.I wish that politicians would realize how important funding structures are and how much these can shape an art scene – shape a city.… Still nowadays, the more and more international “g-local” Berliner independent cultural scene has been able to grow, interconnect, and continue to establish strategies to be a political protagonist of this long debate, also representing an impressive cultural resource to profit from.