07 Dec 2009

NGBK Berlin presents: U10 - from here to the imaginary and back again

Kronos-Projekt by Roland Boden:

The Kronos-Projekt, also known as the Steglitz Deceleration Train, is an experiment with time travel which began in 1926. A transformed Underground train coach with 8 passengers is moving extremely slowly on the Berlin Underground network. Believed to be somewhere north of Rathaus Steglitz station, the coach has advanced 317 meters in 83 years. For the time machine's passengers, that time span has felt like only 7 hours.

After the attempt in mid-November in Innsbrucker Platz station to reconstruct the Kronos-Machine as an animation and to contact the passengers acoustically, U10 nows presents a comprehensive documention and a 1:10 scale model of the Kronos-Machine on the U2 line platform in Potsdamer Platz station.

From 10.12.09 to 17.01.2010, accessible during station opening hours

More at www.kronos-projekt.de and on Berliner Fenster (in-train TV programme) from 05. to 11.12.09 and from 19. to 25.12.09

Construction Time Again – Phase 1 by Katharina Heilein:

Installation and discussion with the Berlin artist Katharina Heilein and Udo Dittfurth (town planer and head of Berlin's S-Bahn Museum), Christfried Tschepe (town planer und Berlin Transport Assoc. 'IGEB'), Erhard Hübner-Kosney and Rüdiger Lemnitz (both Dept. of Transport, City Planning Office), Dieter Müller (former S-Bahn driver and participant in the film 'Berliner Stadtbahnbilder') and Alfred Behrens (filmmaker and scriptwriter). Audio installation by the artist Brigitte Krämer.

In 1983, negotiations between West Berlin City Council, East Berlin/DDR and the Allies led to a change of ownership of the S-Bahn (local trains) in West Berlin. The DDR passed ownership over to the West Berlin Underground Company (BVG). As a result, the BVG cancelled its plans to build Underground lines parallel to the previously DDR-owned S-Bahn line. The construction of the U10 line was therefore abandoned at this point, leaving various incompleted stations and tunnels. 26 years later, Katharina Heilein has invited witnesses of these developments to recall the curiosities of the DDR-owned, run-down S-Bahn lines in West Berlin and to reimagine the potential of the abandoned U10 line.

In 2010, her project 'Construction Time Again - Phase 2' will invite the public to help her build a model of the imaginary U10 line.

Time & Location:

7:30 p.m.
Kronos-Projekt by Roland Boden
in Potsdamer Platz U-Bahnhof (Underground), in staff room on the U2 Line platform.

8:30 p.m.
Construction Time Again – Phase 1 by Katharina Heilein
in Potsdamer Platz S-Bahnhof (local railway), in the shell of an incompleted U10 line station, abandoned since the part-reunification of Berlin's transport systems in 1983. Entrance in the staircase of the S-Bahn exit 'Leipziger Platz und Bundesrat', next to Müller chemists. Below Café Caras, Leipziger Platz 1.
One-off free access to this historic site made possible by the generous support of „U3 Events'. Doors open at 8 p.m.

Free Entrance

More info at www.U10-berlin.de

U10 - from here to the imaginary and back again is an NGBK Berlin project, initiated and run by Sofia Bempeza, Ania Corcilius, Jacopo Gallico, Eva Hertzsch and Adam Page. U10 is funded by the Senatskanzlei - Kulturelle Angelegenheiten / Kunst im Stadtraum and supported by BVG and the Berliner Fenster.