In this project I undertook a series of ‘actions’ – interventions – during a week-long residency in an apartment in Gropiusstadt, Berlin. During my stay I became interested in the strong ‘ghostly collectivity’ that emanates from Gropiusstadt’s architecture and its influence on my subjectivity.

I researched Walter Gropius’s initial concepts for the residential area. After much negotiation and the influence of political interests, the final results of Gropiusstadt grew radically distant from his initial ideas. He was interested in a holistic approach that embraced not only the practical, but also the spiritual needs of daily life. Within this approach the circular buildings in his plan had special relevance. Gropius referred to them as symbols of his holistic conception of the residential complex. In the end only one was built.

I decided to work around this semicircular building as a kind of symbol of the undone idea, absence, unaccomplished social utopia… etc. I undertook spontaneous actions, quixotic attempts to ‘posses’ the place. These were imperfect, homemade, temporal, absurd and improvised. A personal logic of small gestures emerged pointing out the hyperbolic, totalitarian logic of Gropiusstadt.

The actions were:

Action 1: To measure the area of the frontal square/garden of the semicircular building with my steps.

Action 2: To make semicircular chocolate crepes with the message: “The Utopia of collectivity is only possible in soccer” and distribute them to people watching the soccer Eurochampions semifinals in the local bars, snack cafes.

Action 3: To make a cake of the semicircular building in its original plan for the 125th birthday of Gropius and offer to people around.