Spring School: Plants in Cityscapes
March 11–16
We often take plants in the urban landscape for granted: we see them on a daily basis but don’t really look. We usually cannot name them, nor do we know whether they’re edible or have healing properties. It’s typically only when nature becomes a nuisance, for example during allergy season, that we take note of plants in the city.
Forecast alumni cartoonist Ulli Lust and artist Markus Hoffmann are joined by LINA Architecture Platform Fellow Neo Futuristic Walks (consisting of Aušra Česnauskytė and Goda Verikaitė) in offering a rich program of three distinct multi-day workshops that will examine plants in the city from different perspectives. The Spring School will also feature a digital talk from LUMA Arles.
The Spring School is organized by Forecast as contribution to LINA Architecture Platform
in cooperation with Living Summer School and LUMA Arles / Atelier LUMA
Workshop by Ulli Lust
Spazieren: 1. to go for a walk, 2. to walk around in a carefree and cheerful manner.
In the etymological dictionary, the German term “Spazieren” is found under the word “spatio” for space or in-between space. It describes the activity of being in-between, whose sole purpose is remaining in movement outdoors and engaging in contemplative observation. The sensory system is alert and registers the smallest pattern deviations. No phenomenon is too ephemeral to be ignored. Every millimeter of urban space can become the occasion for a far-reaching excursion.
In this workshop, we will study everyday space with the attitude of researchers, reading the city and its signs. Our reflections will be translated into black-and-white sequential pictorial narratives on paper. These drawn comic reportages or essays are then reproduced as small-format zines using a photocopier.
About Ulli Lust
Ulli Lust is a cartoonist and the author of several award-winning graphic novels. Her published work also includes comic journalism featuring observations on contemporary life. Her most celebrated graphic novel, Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life, is an autobiographical work which revisits the trials and tribulations of her rebellious seventeen-year-old self, hitchhiking through Italy. The novel has been translated into twelve languages and won several awards, including the 2011 Prix révélation [jj1] at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. Her most recent novel, How I Tried to Be a Good Person, was shortlisted for the Fauve d’Or at Angoulême in 2018. She currently teaches on the BA Visual Communication at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover.
ullilust.de
Workshop by Markus Hoffmann: Urban Alchemy
Together, we will forage plants in the city. We will share knowledge about the healing potential of the plants and them in urban areas. The process of collecting plants will become a performative act of moving through the city.
Over the course of the workshop, we will transform the herbs and foraged plants into teas and fermented products that can also take sculptural forms.
About Markus Hoffmann
Markus Hoffmann received his fine arts education at the Universität der Künste Berlin, studying at the Institute für Raumexperimente founded by Prof. Olafur Eliasson. In his art, he delves into concepts of time, place, personal history, and collective memory, examining viewers’ abilities to connect with their surroundings and the limitations that come with these connections. His work spans a varied spectrum of media, including conceptual photography, time-based sculptures, sculptural performances, and installations. His approach merges scientific methods and the creation of new realities to produce works that allow for spatial or individual projection.
markushoffmann.art
Workshop by Neo-futuristic Walks
Neo-futurists are coming to Berlin and invite you to join a three-day “walkshop” around Radialsystem!
We will look at the city from a neo-futuristic perspective: attempting to translate our urban endeavors and speculations into a collective walkable narrative. Together, we will drift along the River Spree and become city inspectors by analyzing urban imperfections, accidents, glitches, rumors, memories, and legends. In three day-long sessions, we will experiment with the concept of degrowth and envision how it could relate to the micro-scale situations in situ. At the end, we will collect our findings and ideas into one communal chimera of neo-futuristic stories and invite the public to a walk in the area surrounding Radialsystem, leading to the opening of the second day of Forecast Festival 8.
About Neo-futuristic Walks
The project was initiated in 2020 by the Lithuanian spatial designers Aušra Česnauskytė and Goda Verikaitė, currently based in The Netherlands. They started the project as a collective laboratory to combine architectural and speculative design with performative practices. As a series of walkshops, Neo-futuristic Walks has already traveled to cities such as London, Vilnius, Brussels, Amsterdam, New York, Rotterdam, and Antwerp. The project was also presented in multiple design festivals and events, including Dutch Design Week (2021), Eindhoven; London Festival of Architecture (2021); Politics of Space symposium, Vilnius (2022); Walking as Research Practice conference, Amsterdam (2022); WantedDesign Manhattan, New York (2023); and DesignTo festival, Toronto (2024).
neofuturisticwalks.com
Program & Tickets
Tickets for each of the three-day workshops are available for 40 euros. This includes full-day workshops over three days (Mon, March 11–Wed, March 13, 2024), light lunches, and admission to the Forecast Festival (March 15-16, 2023).
Workshop Days with Ulli Lust, Markus Hoffmann, or Neo Futuristic Walks:
Monday, March 11, 2024, 11am–6pm
Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 10am–5pm
Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 10am–6pm
Public Walk in the framework of the Forecast Festival (March 15–16, Radialsystem, Berlin):
Saturday, March 16, 2pm
