Isabel Lewis & Dirk Bell: Kantine

Isabel Lewis and Dirk Bell have, in their respective artistic practices, been active in creating formats within exhibitions and theaters for hosting situations that generate affective bodily experience. Lewis and Bell have created a hosting place in the Kantine made by rearranging, repurposing, and transforming material found on site at Sophiensæle as well as materials and artworks from friends and their personal archives.

Exploring the historic function that Kantine would have served for the Berliner Handwerkerverein (Berlin Craftsmen's Association) and the House of Arts and Crafts at the beginning of the 20th century, they re-imagine and rehearse the ways this place could serve the city as a transdisciplinary cultural space in today’s Berlin-Mitte.

The hosting place is open daily between December 7–17 and can be found in a gradual yet continuous state of transformation, like a slowly developing recipe, where guests can linger, listen, eat, rest, dance, and converse. Butterbrot & Brühe (Buttered-bread and broth) will be served daily at the 3 pm opening time and periodically throughout the day until 10 pm before, during and after periods of ambient and atmospheric sound, listening sessions, informal performances, readings and structured improvisations that engage a multi-generational group of co-hosts and practitioners from the fields of dance, performance, contemporary art, theater, club, literature, and music. Hosting in these ten days is considered a form of artistic mediation, a way to welcome guests and provide orientation, as well as tease out generative tensions and instant compositions in the overall dramaturgy of the days.

Hosting is conducted daily by Isabel Lewis, Dirk Bell, Yann Slattery, and Juli Frodermann (aka Jiji Hopelezz). They are joined by different guests every day.

Full program Kantine

Hosts‘ Bios

Additional Notes: Isabel Lewis – Thoughts on Kantine