Frank O'Hara's poem 'Walking to Work' evokes themes of pride and dislocation, resonating with Berlin's summer festival 'Kunst im Untergrund 2024/25.' This event transforms U-Bahn stations along the U2 line into vibrant canvases that map queer histories and futures. The intervention seeks to disrupt traditional urban planning that catered to privileged groups, allowing marginalized voices to reshape the city's narrative. Originating in 1958, 'Kunst im Untergrund' represents a long-standing commitment to showcasing alternative perspectives in public spaces, beginning with peace posters at U Alexanderplatz.
This summer in Berlin, O'Hara's sentiment hums again, low and electric, harmonizing with the underground's looping murmur.
As the curators note, the modern metropolis was largely designed around the single archetype of a "man in a company car on his way to work."
'Mapping the queer city' reimagines Berlin's transit map in conversation with its queer nuclei, drawing on the lineages of dissenting spatial practices.
Kunst im Untergrund began as a competition around posters for peace that were shown on platform billboards at U Alexanderplatz.
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