By Marina Klimchuk
Like a monument, he stands in the centre of the Wittenberg’s Arsenalplatz, what feels like a half tonne heavy. Torn away from the other glass palaces for one day, the REFUGIUM_PALAST has a strenuous journey to the Arsenalplatz behind it. Empty spray paint cans are piled up around it and smell of not yet dried paint hangs in the air. The young people of Wittenberg had asked for a wall for spraying, and now they have it. When the palace was located at the arsenal overnight, the work was completed with subversive phrases.
The REFUGIUM_PALAST has undergone a process of transformation. Originally conceived as a static retreat and embedded in the middle of the mobile glass cubes, it offered respite from the bustle of the city. It’s new design opens up new perspectives on borders. The concrete casing became a colourful projection surface, and an expression of local graffiti and subversive youth texts. In a broader sense, it raises questions that are relevant for a deeper understanding of the World Reformation exhibition: Who owns the urban space of Wittenberg in the course of the World Reformation exhibition? Is there a border between festivalization and the marginalization of certain social groups, or can festivalization also have an integrative function? GLASPALÄSTE, by inviting the young people to participate in the REFUGIUM_PALAST, offered them (even as a part of the exhibition) a visible area for the tension between local lives and the representatives of the World Reformation exhibition. The young people are part of the urban space, marginalized and firmly integrated into the image of the city.
According to the American urban researcher Richard Sennett, public space is characterized by prestigious-boosting surface design in order to gain admiration and recognition, through distinguishing itself from the adjoining spaces, and by focussing attention on emotional experiences. In addition, the “narcissistic city” emphasizes the openness to all social groups, but over estimates its social integration qualities.
“We are just sitting around here on the ‘Arse’ (Arsenalplatz) because we are not allowed to go anywhere else. We’ve been chucked out of everywhere the exhibition is, and no matter where we go, we only get in the way. All this is going to be demolished again in a year, and hardly anyone is interested in the needs of the young people in Wittenberg,” says Kurt, who has been working in construction during the week. The nearest legal area for graffiti is in Leipzig, and there is little in the way of local leisure provision. Whether and to what extent many young people perceive the “spectacular installations that transform Lutherstadt Wittenberg into an open-air world of experience”, as claimed on the Internet site of the Reformation, can not be determined from their accounts.
In the project GLASPALÄSTE, the young people of the Arsenalplatz have made their stamp on the city with their headstrong contribution on the walls of the REFUGIUM_PALAST.
Sources
Jonas, Uwe; Schumacher, B. (2006): Öffentlicher Stadtraum. Wandel und Okkupation. http://www.okkupation.com/theorie/link_1.htm aufgerufen am 31.7.2017
Tore der Freiheit. Weltausstellung Reformation. https://r2017.org/weltausstellung/ aufgerufen am 31.7.2017
