KN

KN: Raum für Kunst in Kontext was a non-commercial project space and artists’ collective operating at the intersection of contemporary art and its social and political contexts. From 2014 through 2018, KN produced 61 events involving over 80 artists and approximately 2,000 visitors and audience members, all without external funding or support.

Founded in 2014 in Schöneberg, Berlin, KN moved to Kreuzberg and became ein offiziell eingetragener Kunstverein in 2015. Carleen Coulter became KN’s director that same year. From its inception, KN sought to bring different viewpoints and mediums together. Its programming included a Berlin taxi driver’s 1980s-era Polaroid collection, an audience-partipation performance of early American song, a collaboration between a local street musician and a fine-arts animator, and many group and solo shows featuring work by established and emerging artists. KN also pursued collaborations with activists and institutions outside the contemporary art community. In January 2017, KN donated its space for a 18-person group show curated by Das Frauenmuseum Berlin.

KN hosted book release events and readings (Tony Tolathimutte, Jenny Zhang, V.V. Ganeshananthan, Vauhini Vara, Dan Poppick), experimental jazz concerts, choral recitals, and, in 2015, a piano recital by classical contemporary soloist Jade Conlee. KN members have hosted activism and writing workshops, a Hannah Arendt reading group, and projects to support feminist communities. KN has worked with established artists such as Wolfgang Müller as well as emerging artists and experimental projects such as The Night Library, which investigates the fluctuating status of libraries and non-electronic learning. On the strength this programming, KN was selected to participate in the 2016 Berlin Project Space Festival.

As an experimental project space, KN’s primary mission is to foster a meeting place where people can work outside of Berlin’s traditional culture industry to share their knowledge and experiences. At KN, artists become curators, curators become musicians, writers makes movies, and community members experiment with new forms of expression.

In 2018, after three years at its home inside a former frame factory in Kreuzberg, KN went on indefinite hiatus. A curated selection from its programming archives can be explored in the site menu.