About

A virtual museum of parks and public spaces in Berlin and beyond.

Portraits of parks, the people who use them, the artifacts you find there, and the stories they tell.

Park Project Berlin is a place to get quiet, reflect and feel grounded. It is a series about finding the beauty in stillness and struggle. It is about listening. Listening to nature. Listening to traces of history. Listening to the trees. Listening to the self. And listening to our fellow humans, both dead and alive.

I invite you to slow down, listen to the parks and the people of Berlin and appreciate nature found here.

And if you are brave, find a moment to hug a tree.

Press mentions:

CREATIVE TEAM

Laura J. Lukitsch
Creator of Park Project Berlin,
Filmmaker, Curator

In 2017 I was new to Berlin. I had been exploring Berlin by bicycle. My solo explorations were always accompanied by parks. As I rode past them, they gave different impressions, sharing different personalities. Some were wild, some were manicured, some had large playgrounds and others wide open spaces.

I was captivated by their variety but I was also thinking about the importance of public space, the impact of economic and political shifts which was privatizing parks in other countries, and the fragility of nature in a warming world.

This is a virtual archive of a year of filming the parks of Berlin, every week, from September 2017 – November 2018. It includes new works after 2018 as the project has expanded within Berlin and beyond.

Filmmaker, Video Artist, Story Consultant, Laura J. Lukitsch, Global Performance Media

COLLABORATORS

Gundula Friese
Photographer

DIE LUST AM FLIEGEN | the desire to fly & TRÄUMEN VON EINEM BESSER ORT | dreaming of a better place

Winston Lau
Performing Artist

TEGELER FORST | listen to the trees

Amy Klement
Performance Artist

ALEXANDER PLATZ | taking a line for a walk

Marion Ruault
Musician, Double Bass Player

MONUMENTS | war and peace

Ross Wheeler
Photographer, Writer

FLUSHING MEADOWS | new beginnings

Leander Reininghaus
Musician

BOTANISCHER GARTEN | other worlds

Laura J. Lukitsch
Filmmaker, Video Artist, Story Consultant

Laura J Lukitsch is a filmmaker, video artist and story consultant. Her work creates spaces for audiences to experience different perspectives of our collective stories. Her first feature documentary, Beard Club (2013) is a film about the social politics of facial hair. Park Project Berlin (2017-ongoing) examines our public realm. Laura’s interest includes social change, the power of intersectional narratives, and ways we can bring new voices into mainstream consciousness. She helps artists struggling to tell their stories reframe their inner and outer narratives and get their work seen.

Laura J. Lukitsch, Filmmaker, Video Artist, Story Consultant
Founder, Global Performance Media, Find your voice, share your story

Gundula Friese
Photographer

Ich komme gerade aus Kanada. Drei Monaten lang fotografierte ich Walforscher bei ihrer Arbeit auf dem Ocean. Eine tiefgreifende Erfahrung.

Wie verwandelt stürze ich mich jetzt in Grünflächen. Berlin lebt von einer Kombination aus Stadt und Wildnis. Die Frage, wie ich in Zukunft leben möchte bedeutet vielmehr, wie wollen wir in Zukunft leben?

Mein Blick aus dem Flieger zeigt Berlin in sattem Grün und ich lande beinahe zärtlich, wie in einer riesige Salatschüssel. Ich kenne Berlin wie keine andere Stadt, weiss um ihre unterschiedlichen Gesichter und um ihre Vergangenheit. Im Osten aufgewachsen, habe ich zwei Gesellschaftssysteme kennengelernt. Das Haus, in dem ich wohne, die Strassen und Parks ringsumher gehörten einmal zu einem anderen Land.

Die einst geteilte Stadt mit dem großen Herzen verändert sich ständig. How we can create an expanded vision for a better future is a theme I’d like to explore with this project. What ideas can we learn from the people coming to the city now? And what ideas are people already living here sharing in public spaces. The portraits of parks and places are also portraits of our inner self.

Photographer Gundula Friese, Gundula Friese

Winston Lau
Performing Artist

A freelance artist who loves to explore the possibility of art and enjoy its chemistry with life. Knowing that some feelings and thoughts cannot be thoroughly communicated through words, Winston uses his art as an expression of his heart and state of mind. His interdisciplinary work overlaps medium from painting, installation to performance. Participated in numerous art exhibitions, he is recently investigating the conscious and subconscious connection among life, art & self.

Born in Hong Kong, Winston graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA in 2003. Found W Studio at Jockey Club Creative Art Centre in Hong Kong with two partners in 2008, he went on an artistic expedition in Europe from 2011-12 and continue the creative journey in Taiwan since 2014.

He likes to laugh at himself & lip sing as he travels in the city.

Performing artist Winston Lau, Winston Lau

Amy Klement
Performing Artist

The work of the concept and performance artist Amy J. Klement (born in NJ, USA, in 1968, in Berlin, Germany, since 1997) is inspired by myths, mathematics, external shells, and handwork, and executed to a great extent with a sense of irony and humor. Performing patience, particularly in open space, is also a central concept, especially in connection with her crocheted creations.

She has presented solo performances and collaborative performances with the Open Space Performunion at festivals and events in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Asia since 2000. She is also the founder of the “Kraft durch Häkeln” (Strength thru Crochet) Anarchic Crochet Circle, an initiator of large-format, cooperative, crochet-based social sculptures in open space.

Performing artist Amy Klement, Amy Klement

Marion Ruault
Musician, Contrabass Player

Marion Ruault is a French contrabass player, a musician, improviser and composer. She studied jazz, classical music and world music at the National Conservatory of Lyon in France and is currently enrolled at Le Centre des Musiques Didier Lockwood in Paris. Navigating between several styles of music, she collaborates with prestigious artists and improvisers such as Scott Hamilton, William Galison (Baghdad Coffee / Sting), Sandy Patton (Lionel Hampton ensemble), Daniel Huck (Eddy Louis), Marc Thomas (Claude Bowling Big Band) and performs in many venues and festivals in different countries. Since 2018, she maintains a strong link with the Berlin scene where she regularly performs, mostly jazz and improvised music. She recently launched a project to interact with artists from different backgrounds, mixing performance, theater, dance, music, immersion and improvisation.

“As a musician, I play various forms of music but I am drawn to interdisciplinary collaborations and improvised music. For me, improvisation is a form of meditation. In working with others, I am confronted with the question of how to listen to others yet be myself. Improvisation is a process of putting my ego aside to be in the service of the present moment, dedicated to something bigger than myself. “

Leander Reininghaus
Musician, Composer

Leander Reininghaus worked as composer, producer and instrumentalist for CD-, movie-, dance- and theatre productions as well as for exhibitions and multimedia events. His music can be heard on more than 40 CDs.

He was founder of World Music band MOKA EFTI, with which he performed live in most European countries over a period of 10 years and recorded three albums.

His interest in livelooping (on stage since 1986) and textural music led to the recordings and solo performances of "STARSCAPES - Music Inspired By Views Of Space".

Always a wanderer between improvisation and conceptual music, he works currently as a soloist, as well as in several bands, duos and performance groups in and outside of Berlin.