CASINO
From April to July 2024, the Martin Gropius Bau Museum’s parking lot transformed into a (Radical) Playground, a curated fun fair featuring art pieces on/about/to play.
In this context, we became playworkers, a funny title for an unclear role, charged with bringing the playground come to life. Just meters from the Abgeordnetenhaus, under a storm of pollen and amid a whirlwind of children’s energy, we chose to address a different kind of game, one that seems to shape Berlin’s urban development yet is rarely played out in the open: a casino.
An exclusive game where only a few players are invited to sit at the table, while the stakes are nothing less than the city’s affordability, its inhabitants, and its most precious asset: space.
The CASINO emerged as a triple tool:
First, as a mobile frame, it designated expensive skyscrapers and columned porticos as what they truly are: gambling halls of “Power.”
Second, the CASINO transformed into a protest sign, joining the Mietenwahnsinn demonstration which conveniently started at Potsdamer Platz, an icon of profit driven urban development.
Lastly, the structure became a roulette table, but for once, the players were the city’s residents themselves. Testing their luck, they faced the concepts of profit, loss, privilege, and capitalization in Berlin.
Thanks to all our co(play)workers for playing with us!