SUPERMARKT was founded in 2010 by Ela Kagel, David Farine, and Zsolt Szentirmai and remained a vibrant meeting place for Digital Culture and Alternative Economy in Berlin until 2023. Since 2024, SUPERMARKT continues to exist as an archive – a space full of traces, ideas, and materials from more than a decade of collective work. For the curious, it offers insights into how debates, projects, and visions of an alternative economy have been documented and further developed.

The history of SUPERMARKT:
Starting in 2010, the platform for digital culture and collaborative economies found its first home in Berlin-Wedding. In September 2015, SUPERMARKT moved into its space at Mehringplatz in Kreuzberg. From here, the team worked on projects and regularly organized workshops, conferences, and community meetups.

The thematic focus of SUPERMARKT lies at the intersection of technology, money, and society. With the Free Culture Incubator, the team explored the value and price of free creative work. The conference series WORKAROUND dealt with new forms of work and the self-organization of freelancers. The workshop series Arts & Commons presented new financial technologies, peer-to-peer economies, digital networks, and their impact on artistic practice.

Over the past 15 years, various project series emerged that were closely interwoven in content:

• GAMECHANGER: A collaboration with the Curatorial Collective for Public Art (CCPA), June 2022–March 2023. GameChanger is a research and mediation project on contemporary approaches and practices of self-organization in the arts. The website GameChanger.Land serves as a living archive and playful virtual space. It features commissioned works by practitioners and theorists as well as links to projects and events. The project is framed by a Telegram group that functions as a moderated performative space and a communication hub for those interested in active participation and co-creation.

• MONEYLAB: A three-day online conference in March 2021. An international community of finance experts, activists, and artists worked on new models of value creation and alternative forms of funding. More information at MoneyLab Berlin.

• PLATFORM COOPS BERLIN: This series focused on cooperative, sustainable economies – in connection with the digital economy. At the bi-monthly Platform Coop Meetups, participants received regular input on governance, founding models, or collaborative financial decision-making. More information here. Out of this series, today’s Platform Coops eG eventually emerged.

• FACILITATE CHANGE!: A workshop series co-curated by Ela Kagel and Thomas Dönnebrink (OuiShare). It addressed everyone actively involved in transformation processes through consulting, coaching, curating events, or facilitation. More information here.

• WORKAROUND: Self-Employment, Self-Organization & New Forms of Work – a three-day symposium, workshop & community meeting, held from October 18–20, 2013, curated by Ela Kagel and Kate Martin. More information here: https://supermarkt-berlin.net/event/workaround/

• DEADLINE SPRINTS: Between 2014 and 2016 we conducted a total of five Deadline Sprints. They were an emergency format for chronic procrastinators who finally wanted to tackle everything that had been gathering dust on their desks for months. To make sure not a single unfinished task was left behind, procrastinators subjected themselves to the social control of like-minded people – and did not leave the room until everything was done.

• DIY MASTERCLASS: The DIY Masterclasses were open knowledge workshops accessible to everyone interested. Their aim was to make specific knowledge, which could not easily be acquired in university studies or conventional workshops, available to the community. From the very beginning, DIY Masterclasses were a core part of SUPERMARKT’s program. Over a period of about 10 years, around 50 masterclasses were held – covering topics related to digital life, freelancer know-how, design, and cultural practices. Highlights included: “Getting Back on Track – Strategies for Time Management” with Karla Montasser, Graphic Recording with Katharina Kosak, Online Security – Encrypting Emails with Kristian Kißling, Sonic Explorations into Electronic Textiles with the eCrafts Collective, Art Interaction Design Workshop with Taishi Kamya (organized by Berlin Sessions / Andrzej Raszyk), and the Serendipity Lab with Yulia Kryazheva & Sebastian Olma.

• ARTS & COMMONS: Arts & Commons was a six-part event series exploring financial technologies, peer-to-peer economies, digital networking, and their influence on artistic practice. The workshops took place between 2016 and 2017 at SUPERMARKT, Forum Factory, and Agora. The program was financially supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture. In total, 46 artists and experts from around the world presented the current state of their work and contributed to an exciting discourse and knowledge transfer that continues to this day.

Impressions from typical SUPERMARKT workshops:
Very often, they revolved around money, economic utopias, and alternative economies.

The first SUPERMARKT was established in 2011 in Berlin’s Wedding district. Covering a total of around 1,000 m², four former retail offices housed the SUPERMARKT Studios as coworking spaces, while right next door – in a former Maier’s supermarket – the event space with café and workshop areas was located. Here are some memories of this unforgettable place:

Between 2011-2015, SUPERMARKT hostet more than 70 coworkers and over 300 events: DIY Masterclasses, freelancer-meetups, exhibitions, Deadline Sprints, conferences, seminars and workshops, as well as hackathons und maker fairs. In 2015, only four years after the project has moved into the premises, the rent contract expired and the team was not able to negotiate for feasible conditions of a renewed lease. So they decided to move out.

In September 2015, SUPERMARKT finally found a new home at the southern end of Friedrichstrasse. The space at Mehringlatz in Kreuzberg was smaller, but much better to maintain. There was no coworking any more, but a stronger focus on self-curated events and many collaborative projects with diverse communities in Berlin.

In 2023, also this rent contract ended and SUPERMARKT had to move yet again.