SUPERMARKT was founded in 2010 by Ela Kagel, David Farine and Zsolt Szentirmai as a platform for digital culture, collaborative economies and new forms of work. SUPERMARKT found its first homebase in an abandoned grocery store in Berlin-Wedding in the year 2011. For years later, the team moved on to the current SUPERMARKT location at Mehringplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg. This new location is a site for workshops, conferences, community gatherings and collaborative work.
SUPERMARKT’s program increasingly focuses on the intersection of technology, money and society. The Free Culture Incubator program, which was developed in conjunction with the transmediale Festival for Arts and Digital Culture, was the starting point for an ongoing exploration of the price and value of freelance creative work and the increasing financialisation of our culture.
The conference series WORKAROUND has put a highlight on new forms of work and self-organisation of freelancers and artists. The workshop series Arts & Commons triggered a widespread debate on emerging finance technologies, peer to peer-economies and digital networking within the arts.
SUPERMARKT is an independent project space. If you are interested in collaborating with us or if you are planning an event which fits to our programme please get in touch.
Our current activities are be based around these following program strands:
GAMECHANGER: GameChanger is a research and mediation project about contemporary mindsets and practices of self-organisation in the arts. The GameChanger.Land website serves as a living archive and is designed as a gamified virtual space. It contains commissioned pieces by practitioners and theoreticians reflecting on the artists’ residencies and thematics of the project as well as links to sister projects and events. The project is framed by a Telegram group that functions as a moderated performative space in which tarot readings, late night reading clubs, gatherings with GameChanger commentators, curators and involved artists take place. It is also a communication interface for everyone who is interested in actively participating and co-conspiring.
MONEYLAB Berlin: This online conference and discussion format features experts on alternative money systems, community currencies and collaborative economies. Participants get the chance to learn more about the role and functions of money. Please find more infos here.
PLATFORM COOPS BERLIN: An event series based on new cooperatives and the link to the digital economy. We’ll learn about new governance models, shared ownership and democratic control. More infos here.
FACILITATE CHANGE! invites coaches, curators and everyone interested in collaborative group work to get a deeper understanding of the methodologies of group facilitation. Please find more infos here.
Please find an overview of all our events in the calendar!
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The story of the SUPERMARKT project:
The first SUPERMARKT site was located in Berlin-Wedding and consisted of four former retail studios which were converted into coworking facilities and an abandoned Maier’s supermarket. This former grocery store was turned into a big event space with café and coworking areas. Here are a few impressions of the previous SUPERMARKT location:
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 finallly found a new home at the southern end of Friedrichstrasse. This current space at Mehringlatz in Kreuzberg is smaller, but much better to maintain.There is no coworking any more, but a stronger focus on self-curated events and many collaborative projects with diverse communities in Berlin.
SUPERMARKT is independent, self-organised and still curated by its founding team. A few program strands are supported with public funds every now and then, but most of what we do is financed independently or directly through the communities that make use of the space.
It is possible to rent the workshop space. This location is ideal to work with up to 25 people. For conferences, we can host a maximum of 80 people in the space.
Are you interested in running your own workshop or event in our space? Then write us a mail to info (at) supermarkt-berlin.net and we can sort out dates and conditions.