Our Dates

Repairing the Earth Sessions: Repair the Land

The “Repair the Land” conference brings together researchers, mediators, local residents, and artists on May 24 and 25, 2025, in Ponferrada and Barruelo de Santullán, Spain, as part of the project "Art Living Lab to Repair the Land" by European New Patrons organizations. The conference focuses on the role of participatory art as a tool for repair in territories marked by industrial legacy, extractivism and abandonment. From Germany, Susanne Burmester — mediator and chair of the Society for Citizen-Commissioned Art and Mediation — will participate.

 

Information on program and registration

artlivinglab.eu/blog/repairing-the-earth-session

Art Living Lab Journal about the conference

artlivinglab.eu/blog/this-is-how-the-repairing-the-earth-sessions-went

Partners

Gesellschaft für Kunst und Mediation im Bürgerauftrag e. V., Die Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber – GNA gGmbH, Concomitentes (Spain)

This event is part of Art Living Lab to Repair the Land. The project is not just about fixing what’s broken, but about rethinking, reclaiming, and reimagining damaged territories. It deploys three projects on damaged territories: Energy Aftermath in Barruelo de Santullán (Spain), Agriculture Aftermath in Wietstock (Germany), and Electricity Aftermath in Šibenik (Croatia). The project is co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, coordinated by Concomitentes (Spain) and developed together with Association for Interdisciplinary & Intercultural Research (Croatia), Kunstverein Rügen e. V. (Germany) and RIA Foundation (Spain).

The project has received funding from the European Union’s Creative Europe programme under grant agreement No 101173701. Co-funded by Daniel and Nina Carasso foundation (Spain), Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Kultur, Bundes- und Europaangelegenheiten Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), and Ministry for Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb - Office for Culture and Civil Society (Croatia).

Further Information: artlivinglab.eu

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Many people stand around the artwork the Monster of Tours and interact

Discourse
In German 

With Susanne Burmester, Denis Bury, Holger Friese, Gerrit Gohlke, Kathrin Jentjens, Alexander Koch and Lena Ziese
Presented by Antje Stahl

1st event: 19.02.19, 19:00 , Ticket: 5 Euro

Around 500 projects have already been commissioned in Europe. For this opening evening, we will discuss the motivations behind them, the topics that top people's lists, and how artists come up with answers to the challenges on-site. How do the projects work? How does one become a patron? Who pays for it? And how might art be able to assert itself in the midst of life as a contribution to democratic cohesion? On this first of six evenings in the “Whatever You Want!” event series in the Grüner Salon, mediators for the New Patrons report on civic projects with international artists.

2nd…

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Berlin's Best is an award by KREATIV KULTUR BERLIN, the advisory centre for cultural funding and creative industries in Berlin. Awards are given to actors who offer solutions, networks that move things forward or companies that create added value for others - and the Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber is there as a best practice example. In an interview with Berlin's Best, Alexander Koch, Gerrit Gohlke and Karola Matschke reveal more about the New Patrons and the idea behind them.

Read here

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On 18.11.2018, Alexander Koch will give a lecture at the Athens Biennale as co-founder of the New Clients Movement in Germany. He will present particularly exciting projects from all over Europe and put them up for debate.

More info (in English)

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From 26 to 27 October 2018, the artistic management team of the Berlin Bärenzwinger is organising a symposium in Neukölln. This event aims to bring together artistic, academic and urban policy positions to discuss the past, present and future use, function and significance of this place together. Alexander Koch is invited as a guest and will present Die Neuen Auftraggeber as a structural model for a contemporary culture on behalf of the citizens.

Further info and participation

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Editorial of the magazine #31 of the Federal Cultural Foundation with the title Your commission please!

"Tobias Asmuth retells a recent episode from the history of the small village of Blessey in the French province, how the collaboration with the world-renowned Swiss artist Rémy Zaugg changed the village and the self-confidence of its inhabitants. It is an outstanding example of the lasting effects that the NEUE AUFTRAGGEBER, which have also been funded in Germany by the Federal Cultural Foundation since spring 2017, can have." from the editorial of the magazine #31 of the Federal Cultural Foundation.

Read the article here

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