POLIDROM, together with Rena Rädle & Vladan Jeremić, Nihad Nino Pušija, Delaine Le Bas, KollektivPlusX, Magdeburg, 2023-2024

video made by Rena Rädle

POLIDROM is a place of encounter and activity that international artists and local residents have created on a wasteland in Magdeburg’s Neue Neustadt neighbour- hood. The objects standing there today were built on site by the artists with children and young people from the neighbourhood.

In the early summer of 2023 ZIP group mapped the derelict site at Umfassungs- weg with the One Mile of Rope campaign.

With coils of rope on their backs, the children from the neighbourhood marked their paths across the site and put up self-made signs with their ideas for the POLIDROM.

ZIP created a blue neighbour- hood table, several metres long, from an old stage. The construction sign was turned into a mobile workbench on which the children cut the beams for the Polidrom bus stop.

The first construction campaign began in August 2023 with the unloading of granite kerbstones provided by the city to serve as foundations for the various objects. The motto was to reuse as many materials as possible instead of buying new ones.

The craft and design collective KollektivPlusX transformed old cable reels into floating platforms that can be fitted with parasols.

In spring 2024, further objects were added and designed by ZIP and Rena at the suggestion of POLIDROM users. ZIP built two benches with poles that can be used as a football goal or for other ball games. The sphinx was created and given a mysterious face.

A rainproof roof was mounted on top of the Polidrom bus stop. Finally, a banner prepared by Rena & Vladan with a transparent cloud was hoisted, a reference to the mural that was to be painted on a nearby façade in the summer.

The mural is based on a drawing by Damian Le Bas, who is considered one of the leading artists of the contemporary Traveller and Roma art scene in the UK.

The motif was transferred by Magdeburg artist Christoph Ackermann; the lower part of the façade was designed by children and young people in collaboration with Laura Lindemann. The technical realisation of the mural brought together various stakeholders from the neighbourhood, who set themselves the goal of creating more murals in the district.

On 24 August 2024, the many people who fill POLIDROM with life day by day with their initiatives and activities gathered for the ceremonial opening of the mural. It was inaugu- rated with a touching performance by Delaine Le Bas. She recited a poetic text describing her journey to Magdeburg and her impressions of the POLIDROM. She spoke about her feelings in the face of the general indifference to war and the destruction of life, about her personal pain and about the unshakeable hope that Damian Le Bas expresses with his cloud paintings. The opening ceremony included the subsequent procession towards the Moritzhof, for which ZIP and the children had built the Kids’ Power Car, which could only be moved forward with combined forces.

Rena Rädle & Vladan Jeremić conceived the POLIDROM and accompanied the artists they invited in the realisation of their works. The artist duo lives in Berlin and Belgrade and has been working at the interface between art, politics and education since 2002. Their works are created as artistic research into social and political issues, which they realise in drawings, installations, public actions and interdisciplinary projects, public actions and interdisciplinary projects.

Nihad Nino Pušija, born in Sarajevo, has lived in Berlin as an artist and photographer since 1992. His work focusses on documentary and portrait photography with an emphasis on using photography as a means of self-expression for Roma and Sinti. His photographic research deals with topics such as struggles for representation, minority positions in art, south-east Europe, refugees and integration. He installed an open-air photo studio at POLIDROM and during his numerous visits he took portraits of people who live and work in the quarter.

Delaine Le Bas lives in Great Britain. She combines visual, per- formative and literary practices to create an artistic oeuvre that incorporates all aspects of life. Her work explores many facets, both political, personal and emo- tional, of belonging to the Travellers and Roma people, their history and their rich cultural heritage. Delaine Le Bas opened the mural for POLIDROM, based on a drawing by Damian Le Bas, with a performance of a text written for the occasion. Damian Le Bas (1961-2017) is known for his drawings and collages, with which he covered maps, globes and other objects. He used his art to campaign for the rights of Travellers and Roma throughout Europe.

KollektivPlusX is a collective from Leipzig and Halle. With urban interventions that see public space as a stage, they stand up for a vibrant urban culture. At POLIDROM, they erected floating plateaus and created solar-powered lighting with young people.

ZIP group was founded in Russia in 2009 and consists of Evgeny Rimkevich, Vasily Subbotin and Stepan Subbotin. The artists currently live in exile in Berlin and Yerevan. In their works, they deal with themes such as work, community and self-organisation and transform their installations into utopian spaces for work, rest and interaction. For POLIDROM, ZIP group developed a series of objects made of wood and stone, which they realised with children from the neighbourhood.

The POLIDROM was realized by the cultural centre Moritzhof in Magdeburg and initiated by its director Katrin Gellrich.

Our thanks go to the many energetic supporters of the work at POLIDROM, especially Alexander Rönisch, Evgeniia Skvortsova and Sibylle Hofter.

Text and graphics: Rena Rädle Photos: Vladan & Rena, unless otherwise stated.