Photos by Gloria JuradoSound Installation
The Value of a m2
Berlin-based artists Gloria Jurado and Samuel Perea-Díaz converge in a collaborative project and present them in the container of Co-Making Matters at Haus der Statistik. Their work proposes a dialogue in the form of artistic research and site-specific installation that interrogates the role of global issues—such as climate crisis and overproduction—on a local scale. By working together, the two artists voice the process of real estate speculation by pointing to the value of the land today. How does the value of the square meter resonate with, and intertwine the complexities of Berlin's land debt, speculative strategies, the dynamics of gentrification, and the broader climate crisis? Through their collaborative exploration, the artists pose thought-provoking questions that invite visitors to ponder these interconnected threads. To understand the phenomenon of land speculation in Berlin, it is necessary to contextualize its situation in the real estate sector. To do this, we must start with the fact that since 2001, more than half of Berlin's state-owned buildings have been privatized. To reduce the city's debt, the Berlin state has sold its properties to real estate speculators, creating an unsustainable real estate situation.
Added to this fact is a capitalist system based on consumption and profit, which establishes the useful life of buildings on amortization and short-term profit interests, leading to devastating social and ecological impacts. In Germany, construction and demolition waste make up about half of the total waste volume — with more than 7 tons of construction waste generated every second. These global phenomena of capitalist production and climate crisis, manifested locally, are what the artistic intervention seeks to reflect.
The audience hears a generative piece that produces a constant noise designed from the number of tons per second generated in Germany due to building construction left. The exponential increase shown by the statistics has been transferred to audible whistles that sonically trace those peaks of the vertical slope of inflation of the price of the square meter taking data from different neighbourhoods of Berlin. By using exciter speakers attached to the different surfaces, the sound vibrates within the architecture of the container while diffusing sound across the space.
In the middle of the room, concrete rubble from the construction site of Haus der Statistik has been reorganized into a square meter using a construction structure that usually creates concrete slabs and walls. This piece aims to highlight the life cycle of buildings, pressed and strained by processes of speculation and gentrification, where the profit interest in new construction leads to an unsustainable eagerness for demolition. The installation offers an immersive showcase of both tangible and intangible processes, rendering data visible and audible. The focus is on translating complex technical narratives into a more creative and imaginative language, which allows a critical debate that raises awareness of the challenges of the climate crisis concerning the built environment.
Co-Making / Haus der Statistik
Otto Braun Str. 70-72, 10178 Berlin
12.04.204-14.04.204