Haus der Jugend Mitte

The Children, Youth and Family Centre on Nauener Platz is a place where people of different ages and backgrounds come together, meet, and then go their separate ways. Yet, as the artist Susanne Bosch writes, they always form “a temporary second home” in this space. She took this as the starting point for her work “coming and going | lingering”, which was developed specifically for this location. The architectural art was realised in conjunction with the refurbishment of the Children’s, Youth and Family Centre in accordance with the Building Regulations (ABau).

For kommen und gehen | verweilen, “five selected cartographies (age ratio in the area, world languages, sports, favourite foods, global movement) [are] used as a basis to […] visualise the invisible currents of togetherness. [For] cartographies serve as a journalistic genre and form of expression, deconstructing and reconstructing information from which the world and the structures of power that inhabit it can be understood. Data can be understood as a means for social awareness and engagement. Maps are carriers of information and offer a perspective on the world through their visual presentation.” (Excerpt from the artistic concept “kommen und gehen | verweilen”)

Together with the users of the Family and Youth Centre, the artist created various cartographies and subsequently used these as the basis for the design of walls, floors and table surfaces in the neighbourhood café of the Children’s, Youth and Family Centre.

The Artist
As an artist working at the interface of disciplines, Susanne Bosch explores concepts of democracy and sustainable futures. She sees art as a starting point for engaging in dialogue about social, political and historical events. Her work spans artworks, publications, texts, methods and discourses.

The Nauener Platz complex was built in 1953 as a youth centre, comprising a girls’ hostel and a nursery. Youth centres were established in every district of West Berlin. The driving force behind this was the Allies’ vision of creating a meeting place that would serve to promote the democratisation of young people. The Youth Centre on Nauener Platz has therefore been run as a leisure facility for children and young people for 64 years. Here, people aged 5 to 90 take part in theatre groups, mothers from different backgrounds organise cooking sessions, and children, young people and parents receive support from the Regional Social Education Service when facing family problems.