2019,

The Institute for Endotic Research

2019,

2015

Donaustraße

84

Berlin

12043

theinstituteforendoticresearch.org

Pol Merchan, Pirate Boys, featuring Del LaGrace Volcano, 2021, Ana Alenso, green and yellow, boom and bust, 2018, Foto: Benjamin Busch

Sofia Lomba, Bondage Bodies, 2021, Serie Maintenance! Domestics as Institutional Becomings, Foto: Benjamin Busch

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.The pandemic gave us a pause and became a forced hiatus. For us, it didn’t make sense to organize events or to move into the digital space during the last year. A willingness to think outside the box, to implement short-term funding, and to listen to the needs of the community. Not everyone requires long term investments; others would like to apply for EUR 500 to develop a project for next month. These quick, low-cost funding opportunities are not clearly available yet. When implementing initiatives, first think about the places and the people you are trying to serve. Requiring project spaces to have a program mapped out six months in advance, or ask for only German-language applications is not responding to the community.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.