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

For many decades Berlin has developed a lively, diverse, and independent way of producing culture and counteracting government decisions, based on, local, generous, and enthusiastic, but also worried, social communities that exchanged resources and ideas within a larger political debate. The city became a “natural” shelter and fertile environment for dissidents, artists, political refugees, and immigrants with any background also due to the need to overcome a traumatic past full of human generated atrocities that are still present in people memories and behaviour.Wir wünschen uns von der Politik, dass sie sich für leistbare Mieten und die Absicherung von freien Projekträumen über temporäre Zuschüsse hinaus einsetzt. Die zweijährige Basisförderung für Projekträume und -initiativen ist ein wichtiger Schritt in diese Richtung und wir hoffen, dass sich dieser politische Trend − weg von einer „Einzelfallfinanzierung“ hin zu Strukturförderung − fortsetzt und verstetigt.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.