2015,

MEINBLAU e. V.

2015,

1997

Christinenstraße

18/19

Berlin

10119

meinblau.de

Charlotte Menin, Les Enfants de la Frontière Sud, 2020, Foto: Charlotte Menin

Facing North Korea, 2018, Foto: Bernhard Draz

Every hour one puts into the project will be missed in your own practice. Project spaces are significant to counter the institutions and their market-oriented curated productions. They still have the capacity to foster artistic practices and communities, but also to be resistant to general tendencies and trends. Perhaps project spaces are now what once were the underground and the avant-garde.To run a space is a form of appreciation of other artists, it is an outcome of friendship and mutual understanding; it is an indication of trust between all involved. To run a space means to take responsibility. To run a space is not only self-organization – money may not be vital to put up a show – but it is for sure necessary to animate a space and keep it alive. The prize comes due to hard and merited work, but maybe a grant would be more befitting than a prize? Maybe an iron scaffold holding up a structure in advance is better suited than a gold star for accomplishments? To run a space is a full time job. A group of artists who share their enthusiasm, interests, time, and skills would impart a project with a larger circulation of assignments between the makers. I am convinced that the longevity and success of a space relies on a horizontally organized (net) work.I have never really been a friend of these kinds of networks, but from what I can see, you have done a pretty good job for the visibility of and necessity for free spaces.