2023,

DOOM SPA

2023,

2015

Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee

83

Berlin

10589

doomspa.org

Der Projektraum DOOM SPA wurde 2015 von Roseline Rannoch gegründet. DOOM SPA nimmt sich bestehende oder schafft neue Räume und entwickelt in Zusammenarbeit mit befreundeten und ein- geladenen Künstler:- und Kurator:innen ästhetische und diskursive Formate. DOOM SPA verortet sich sowohl digital als auch physisch. Seit 2019 ist DOOM SPA vor allem im Berliner Westen aktiv, aktuell im 13. Stock eines Hochhauses am Wittenbergplatz. DOOM SPA legt Wert auf Gastfreundschaft und betreibt eine Bar. DOOM SPA ist ein Raum für Kunst und ihre Subjekte (Künstler:innen). Widersprüche gilt es auszuhalten. Es gibt keine Widersprüche.

It’s hard to look back on the last ten years and not get distracted by Co-Vid and the massive interruption that has caused in all aspects of life. But generally, Berlin is getting more expensive, no news there: There are less store fronts perhaps to rent for a project space than there used to be. Facebook is no longer used as an announcement tool. Do young people still flock to Berlin?The commercialization of the contemporary art scene in the last decade has created alienation and dissociation from the audience. The social filters at the established exhibition spaces, the sterilization of methods of presentation, and over-professionalism have created an image and perception of inaccessibility. In that respect, project spaces and art initiatives that resist these dynamics and strive for keeping direct social contact maintain the political potential of artistic practice. We don’t promote the conventional star system in selecting the artists we are collaborating with; we don’t pursue a hierarchical method by employing an omnipotent curator; we value the critical content and formal experimentalism of the artworks rather than the conditions of their presentation, and we don’t sell any artworks in our space; we don’t invest our energy in commercial speculation. We put an emphasis on the collective and on the social. We keep contact with our immediate neighborhood (in Neukölln), and we prioritize the knowledge about and the cultural accumulation of a particular geography. Hence, we engage in a counter-position against the dominant dynamics that have shaped the field of the contemporary art scene in the last decade. The pandemic condition has also been a drastic element that forced actors in the field to reconsider methods of presentation and social contact.Art has the unique ability to help us expand our imagination and the way we think about the world. By bending the lines of logic and rational approaches, it offers a gateway to our collective unconscious and provides a terrain where everything is possible, hence pushing our thinking process forward. We see art and artists as seismographs for changes in society. There is also great freedom in art, addressing big and timeless questions that are independent of current economic and political realities and interests. Art can be a space for utopias, or for histories outside of history books. Art is important because it keeps us going through the difficult and dark times. Art keeps us alive.