Peter Funken Text from "Art Reviews" "Interview with Christian Hasucha" www.art-on.de, Berlin 2000 art-on: A typical aspect of your artistic practice is intervention in urban space. You're planning several projects this year for the Berlin-Neukölln district, where you live and work. May we ask what kind of interventions you'll be undertaking in Neukölln? Hasucha: Intervention is a term that, unlike installation, describes a dynamic process. Unlike the more static spatial arrangements, interventions initiate processes that often affect everyday structures. This can, of course, also happen in a museum, where, for example, administrative processes are processed or restructured. This can have far-reaching consequences and requires a strong relationship of trust between the interventionist and the museum director. In an everyday context, however, one is far less restricted and doesn't have to meet visitor quotas if the funds are available for independent projects. In Neukölln, a working-class district with a reputation for being largely devoid of art, the harsh realities of everyday life and alcohol abuse are very much present. This offers a natural potential for contrast, allowing me to subtly initiate unusual processes that could serve as model constellations. Therefore, I contacted the Neukölln Cultural Office and have so far secured a subsidized job creation position to raise funds. art-on: What do you intend to achieve with these interventions? Do you have any experience regarding the public's reactions? Hasucha: The interventions, which, incidentally, are not only to be realized by me but primarily by other artists, offer the opportunity to provide a counterpoint to the prevailing Disneyland-style art. It's not about organizing crowd-pleasing tours of the art installations, but rather about the appropriate implementation of artistic projects that correspond with the surroundings and their appearances and structures. There's very little experience with this in Neukölln so far, as there has been hardly any intervention art here. Therefore, the potential for reaction on the street remains largely untapped. art-on: You've been working in and for public space since the early 1980s. In your opinion, has the concept of the public sphere changed significantly since then? Hasucha: The concept of the public sphere has changed dramatically since the 1980s. While back then it was only possible to vaguely imagine that electronic networking could lead to a global information overload, today it's necessary to channel the electronic public sphere. The electronic public sphere now competes with the non-virtual public sphere and offers opportunities for fictional self-presentation as well as fictional reactions to it. I call this the "softened world." In contrast, I've just emphasized the more direct version of direct encounters by arranging blind dates between strangers. art-on: In the years since reunification, art and the art market settled in Berlin-Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg, increasingly leaving the West Berlin districts of Charlottenburg and Kreuzberg. What's the situation like in Neukölln, the city's most populous district? Hasucha: According to recent reports, the trend is shifting away from Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg again, due to the growing loss of authentic atmosphere (whatever that may mean). Neukölln has the reputation of being the Bronx of Berlin, not least because of extremely negative portrayals in national news magazines. On the other hand, many artists live here because of the affordable rents and low cost of living, though they officially want nothing to do with the district. I think the district is underestimated. As soon as artists and students move in, which is conceivable, for example, due to the relative proximity to the emerging university campus in Adlershof, a scene would develop here as well, or, to put it more cautiously, the fragile beginnings that are emerging, for example, in the area of pub culture would be reinforced. Providing some impetus here and exploring possibilities for artistic production, for which the environment has already been gentrified elsewhere, is conceivable. However, this requires that politicians in a district with a larger population than Kassel or Karlsruhe maintain their openness.