Chiara Faggionato & Lina Mazenett
The Future Is Not Yet Carved in Stone: Public Memory as Speculative Practice
Intensive workshop, English/Deutsch, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Saturdays & Sundays, each 10-18 h, 21./22.11.2026 and 30./31.1.2027
Hardenbergstr. 33, room 004

Anmeldung auf Moodle ab / Registration on Moodle begins 12.10.2026: https://moodle.udk-berlin.de/moodle/course/view.php?id=3318
Einschreibeschlüssel / Enrollment Key:nostonefuture

Look up. Who gets the pedestal, and will they still be there in 100 years?
Our cities are mostly inhabited by figures from the past. These statues and monuments are not innocent: they carry narratives about power related to gender, nature, culture, class and beyond, that shape how we see the present and imagine the future. During the course we will look closely at how power structures and stereotypes are represented in public statues and ask ourselves: what worldview do these figures carry? What stories do they tell? Whose bodies are glorified, and whose are dominated or absent? What futures were these artworks imagining?
In the first block we will engage with these questions through critical readings, site visits, collective discussions and somatic practices. We will explore the public statues of the Museumsinsel, one of the most symbolically charged public spaces in Berlin. We will then move into the Altes Museum, where we will trace the visual language of the Western classical tradition and its narratives of heroism, conquest and power — visual forms that later reappeared in bronze and equestrian monuments erected across colonial territories around the world. We will also visit the ‘Alternatives Denkmal für Deutschland’ (ADfD), a participatory digital counter-monument commemorating migration that was created collectively by artists, researchers, activists and cultural practitioners in Berlin in 2024.
In the second block we will shift from analysis to imagination: what statues, narratives, and forms of public memory do we need in order to imagine more just, relational, and ecological futures? Each student brings their own reference — a statue or a monument from their own city, culture or tradition — and applies this critical lens to their context. Together we enter a futurity studio: a space for speculative artistic practices for the public memory of our cities. Students are encouraged to develop their own proposals in response to their research, individually or in small groups. This could take any form: a proposal for a counter-monument, a sound piece, a video, a performance, a temporary intervention, a speculative fiction, a concept for a multispecies memorial, or any other artistic practice. Students are invited to question not only the content of monuments but the form itself — many indigenous cultures never needed to carve heroes in stone: memory lived in rivers, plants, rituals and oral traditions. Together we will imagine: what stories could inhabit our cities? What forms might public memory take? The future is not yet carved in stone.

Literaturhinweise und mediale Referenzen / Readings & media:
- Haraway, Donna. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press, 2016.
- Hicks, Dan. Every Monument Will Fall. 2025.
- Krenak, Aílton. Ancestral Future. 2024.
- Rozas-Krause, Valentina & Shanken, Andrew Michael, eds. Breaking the Bronze Ceiling: Women, Memory, and Public Space. Fordham University Press, 2024.
- ‘Alternatives Denkmal für Deutschland’ (ADFD): adfd.info
- Decolonize Berlin: decolonize-berlin.de

Leistungsanforderungen für den unbenoteten Schein / Fulfilment criteria for ungraded accreditation: Active participation in site visits and collective discussions. Engagement with suggested readings. Individual or collaborative research on a statue or monument. Development and presentation of an artistic proposal in response to this research.

Amazonen in Berlin is an art collective founded by Chiara Faggionato and Lina Mazenett. The collective develops artistic, community-oriented and educational projects with an ecofeminist and decolonial approach. Their work centres on the critical reading of statues and monuments in urban space and museum collections — exploring the narratives and mythologies they embody and the power structures they perpetuate. Their practice unfolds through different participatory formats such as artistic walks, workshops and experimental tours. They collaborate with FLINTA* associations, curatorial initiatives and cultural spaces across Berlin, like Urbane Praxis, ReRouting and Barazani, and work in ongoing dialogue with the Altes Museum Berlin. Their projects have been funded by European and Berlin-based cultural grants, such as the EU Ecofeminist Movement Building Fund (WECF) and the Berliner Projektfonds Kulturelle Bildung.

Chiara Faggionato (she/her) is an interdisciplinary visual artist, researcher, and educator based between Berlin and Vicenza. Her practice weaves together experimental film, art in public space and socially engaged art to explore ecology, mythology and feminism through a transversal lens. She holds an MA in Art in Context from the UdK Berlin and her artworks have been presented internationally in exhibitions and festivals, including Ocean Space, Vorspiel transmediale, Salon Suisse at the 16th Biennale di Venezia and the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, among others.

Lina Mazenett (she/her) is a Colombian visual artist and researcher based in Berlin. She works across different media, focusing on ecology, decolonial perspectives and non-Western cosmologies. She holds a postgraduate degree in Amazonian Studies from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, as well as an M.A. in Art in Context from the UdK Berlin. Her work includes participation in the 'Alternatives Denkmal für Deutschland' (ADfD) and the creation of site-specific artistic proposals for Kunst am Bau. Recent exhibitions include TERRA DIASPORA Active Terrain N°2 at Kunstverein Göttingen, Wametisé: Ideas for an Amazofuturism at ARCO Madrid, and the MUNCH Triennale: Almost Unreal at the Munch Museum Oslo.