Supermarkt | Wedding's Bubbling Creative Hub

At this characteristic example for 70's west German architecture, you'll notice a lot of concrete and a lot of gray. You might also marvel at the utter lack of taste of the building and want to look away. But you'd miss out on “ a place, where all kinds of different paths cross, where you can communicate and kick back.” At least according to Ela Kagel, who discovered the abandoned supermarket on Brunnenstraße last year and decided to set up a creative center on the premises with her friends and fellow artists Zsolt Szentirmai and David Farine.

The trio's first step was to convince the Degewo housing association of their concept. A discreet renovation was followed by fire prevention and climate control measures and even a first round of events – cooking sessions and concerts. Kagel and her friends are also planning to install a small stage as well as spaces for workshops and a sort of marketplace for ideas, products and prototypes. Special things, things you can't just go out and buy at any old store, says Kagel, who also plans to set up an information desk that is supposed to function sort of like the Brunnenviertel's front desk.

The adjacent studio will play host to working spaces, showrooms and conference rooms that can be leased by companies, artists or free lancers with Ela Kagel's team providing professional infrastructure for free lancers with workshops and catering, as well as seminars about dealing with creativity economically. In return, Kagel expects active participation in local community matters. She wants to create a meeting point in the Brunnenviertel district that centers around events and a small café. “It's not supposed to be like a UFO that everyone's afraid to approach” says Kagel, but rather a place where people from the area like to drop by for a cup of coffee.

Right now, everyone is just getting to know the massive space, which even has an entire basement floor with supermarket remnants like former cooling chambers and a kitchen that have already hosted video art installations and small club events.

The Supermarkt will slide open its doors once interior renovations are completed around mid October.

(su)