An amusement park that once provided an unusual form of fun and happiness to the Soviet controlled East Berlin citizens, now sits frozen in time, hidden among a fast growing forest of trees and vegetation. Nearby residents familiar with the site have often wandered over the fence to explore the hidden jungle that laid within.
The Kulturpark Plänterwald, built in 1969 in the Treptower Park forest, continued to operate after the fall of the Berlin wall until it closed its doors in 2001. 11 years later, in June of this year, the park will once again be opened, but as a public art scene that will act as a “magical landscape… for cultural imagination and creative exchange,” and be a place to connect and share the stories and memories from the sites past. Kulturpark is a fitting concept in the already artistic city of Berlin and artists from around the world are getting involved in this one of a kind project.
The team of artists behind the Kulturpark project are still working to secure all the necessary funding through Kickstarter, the Kultur-Exchange program, scholarships, and concessions. Kulturpark’s longterm future is still not known, but the team has stated that the “ruins contain reminders and remainders of invention, leisure, and progress. Their memories and collective fantasies create space for new visions for culture and install surpluses and slippages in the passage of public time.”
Source: Kulturpark, Kickstarter Campaign
Photos © Kulturpark
