The New Patrons of Wietstock

Patrons:
Phase I: Nana Abel, Jürgen Bigalke, Rosemarie Bigalke, Petra Bunke, Sascha Dorp, Ursula Dorp (†), Stefanie Kaul, Martin Müller-Butz, Tina Netzband, Gudrun Peschel, Bernd Rohleder, Heinz Schünemann
Phase II: Constanze Gatz, Dörte Kummer-Lüßken, Anja Ludolph, Tina Netzband, Katrin Peter, Sieglinde Priem, Franziska Reek-Siewert, Birgit Prasdorf, Bernd Rohleder, Heidrun Wurm 

Commission: We want our commission to create a lasting place of encounter for people of different generations and backgrounds – both within the village and beyond. It should highlight what makes Wietstock unique: the use and preservation of its surrounding natural landscape, and the freedom it offers for diverse ways of life. The people who live here should be actively involved in the creation process, and even after its completion, the artwork should continue to offer opportunities for participation in shaping village life.

Mediator: Susanne Burmester

Artist: Antje Majewski

Duration: 2019 ongoing

Partners: Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation), Fondation de France, Creative Europe, Concomitentes (Spain) Association for Interdisciplinary & Intercultural Research (Croatia), Kunstverein Rügen e. V., RIA Foundation (Spain)

Wietstock is a typical village in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the early 21st century. About a hundred people from all walks of life come together in the village: former agricultural farm employees, Berlin weekend residents, drop-outs, young families who love nature. A heterogeneous mixture of different lifestyles, origins, generations and interests.

Here, a New Patrons process has taken an unusual course: from an initial commission, a new group of patrons has emerged. They aim to further develop the ideas of the first commission – and to overcome a conflict.

At the beginning of the events in Wietstock stands a question about community itself: despite the renovation of the village hall and a cultural program that is well received even in neighboring villages, people in Wietstock still struggle to come together. Out of this situation, a group of twelve residents developed the idea of commissioning an artwork that would create opportunities for exchange and encounter at a central place in the village. The patrons are not seeking something finished or a solution to a problem, but rather something open and ongoing – a framework that can be filled with future activity.

With mediator Susanne Burmester, a group of 12 people begins a process of self-assessment: Who are we, who are the others? What is going well in the village, what is not? What should we use the village hall for? Conflicts become visible. Many voices are heard, some louder than others, not everyone agrees on everything. Of course not. But there is a one recurring common denominator - nature. Whether because of agricultural work, ecological awareness, or out of pure love for greenery or their own garden, everyone resonates in their relationship to nature. 

“The use and preservation of the natural environment surrounding the village as a living space for both long-time and new residents, as well as the use of open spaces within the village as a ‘playground’ or ‘field of experimentation’ for individual ways of living and working, should be of particular importance for the artwork.”

The group commissioned Berlin-based artist Antje Majewski to create the artwork. Her practice grows from painting, she thinks in images, and often integrates community processes and nature to her work. Majewski’s proposal envisions the transformation of the area around the village hall through three interconnected components:

1. A pavilion with an arcade roofed with photovoltaic panels, designed as a place of leisure and gathering, a multifunctional event space, and a symbolic gesture toward technological transformation in times of climate change.

2. The mosaic Tiere und Pflanzen in Wietstock (Animals and Plants of Wietstock), inaugurated in October 2022, which will be integrated into the pavilion. In this dreamlike landscape composition, Majewski brings together the wishes, imaginations, and personally significant animals and plants of the patrons. The mosaic connects to the centuries-old art of mosaic-making—popular in the GDR—but also symbolically links Wietstock to Ravenna, Athens, Constantinople, and Cairo.

3. A community garden with orchards, herb and perennial beds, and plants contributed by villagers, preserving and passing on local knowledge and experience.

The garden invites harvesting and celebration—but also care. The solar panels power the village hall—but require maintenance. Together, Majewski’s project becomes a long-term portrait of Wietstock and its citizens—commissioned and continuously shaped by themselves, evolving with the engagement of the community and, hopefully, growing ever more beautiful over time.

That is the idea. At the inauguration of the mosaic in autumn 2022, everyone is still united. But over time, old fault lines in the village resurface: Who has a say over the land around the village hall? Who gets left out? Who does the work, and who only talks a lot? The process comes to a standstill. Since then, the mosaic stands behind the village hall—as an unfinished part of the planned pavilion.

Now, a group of villagers wants to move forward by rethinking the idea of the community garden. How can a garden reopen dialogue? What might a garden look like that fosters exchange rather than representation? How can it reflect both local knowledge and the newly discovered appreciation for wild and migratory plants—while addressing the scarcity of natural resources such as water? 

Originally conceived as a portrait of Wietstock’s residents, the garden will now also incorporate the community’s experiences with climate change and local ecological knowledge and practices dealing with it. The concept of village gardens as sites of knowledge production and resistance to industrial agriculture and climate impacts forms the new starting point. The joint European project Art Living Lab to Repair the Land, connecting New Patrons initiatives in Germany, Spain, and Croatia since early 2025, provides the ideal framework for this second phase of the Wietstock commission.