Baumschule Kulturforum
The Baumschule Kulturforum is a free and accessible artistic and horticultural installation in Berlin’s Kulturforum, initiated under the artistic direction of Klaus Biesenbach and realized by the landscape architects from atelier le balto.
The Baumschule Kulturforum is a free and accessible artistic and horticultural installation in Berlin’s Kulturforum, initiated under the artistic direction of Klaus Biesenbach and realized by the landscape architects from atelier le balto. It is made up of several green young tree groves, which have now occupied the stone-paved, open space on the Piazzetta and Scharounplatz, as well as the grassy roundabout in front of St. Matthew's Church, since July 2023.
With a total of almost 200 trees which were chosen from species tolerant of the urban climate, the Baumschule Kulturforum is helping to revitalise, enhance and develop this public space: the green oases provide much-needed shade in the otherwise uncovered area and offer a habitat for insects and birds. The mobile seating invites visitors to come together and linger under the shady canopies of leaves. The Baumschule Kulturforum also offers a diverse programme of events to encourage reflection on the transformation of urban spaces in times of climate change and to tell of visions of a green cultural forum for the future.
Klaus Biesenbach - Artistic Director
Klaus Biesenbach is director of the Neue Nationalgalerie. As Chief Curator at Large at the MoMA in New York and as Director of the MOCA in Los Angeles, he has already conceived ecologically and socially sustainable interventions and helped to realise them in collaborations. Biesenbach is the initiator of the Baumschule Kulturforum, which he developed and curated together with atelier le balto.
atelier le balto - Artists
The landscape architecture studio atelier le balto was founded in Berlin in 2001 and today its partners are Véronique Faucheur, Nil Lachkareff, Marc Pouzol, Lilith Unverzagt and Marc Vatinel (Le Havre). The focus of atelier le balto's work is on recognising, visualising and transforming unnoticed or neglected urban spaces.
Fanny Brandauer - Production management and mediation
Fanny Brandauer is a landscape architect based in Berlin and Munich. Her work is characterised by transdisciplinarity at the interface of landscape architecture, visual arts and curatorial practice. She researches and reflects on how landscape can be represented, sensually perceived and communicated in exhibition spaces, art and cultural spaces.
Holger Lindmüller - craftsman and long-time accomplice of atelier le balto
St Matthew's Foundation - project executing organisation
The St Matthew's Foundation is the cultural foundation of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. Its main place of activity is St Matthew's Church, the oldest building in Berlin's Kulturforum and as such a symbol of the old Tiergarten district. The St. Matthäus Foundation promotes dialogue between contemporary art and the church and has for many years been committed to a historical reappraisal of the history of the Kulturforum and the interaction between the neighbouring residents.
