Public Art: Wahlfamilie [Chosen Family] 2022

is a commission celebrating the community who dreamed the RuT Lesbian and Queer Senior Living Facility and Community Center into existence and the gift they are passing down to future generations. It celebrates notions of chosen home, those with walls and those without; and notions of chosen family, whether tied by blood or by love. Through the common language of food, the project models the forms of community building that will take place within the home and demonstrate to its neighbors the hospitality and openness the community espouses.

Context

The RuT Lesbian and Queer Senior Living Facility and Community Center will be built in the heart of Berlin, near Alexanderplatz in the Karl-Marx-Allee neighborhood. Ground is set to be broken in early 2023 with the expectation that the space will be occupied by 2025.

The Karl-Marx-Allee neighborhood was created in the 1960s and marked a paradigm shift in urban development during the GDR. The original character of an open, spacious and green city has been preserved to this day. However, after reunification, the social and cultural infrastructure has been almost completely lost. Social meeting places, affordable gastronomy, (cultural) educational places, and health care are missing. The RuT house, which will have a multifunctional event hall, several consultation rooms, and a neighborhood café, will make a significant contribution to building and maintaining a lively neighborhood culture. As a queer organization, RuT will bring sensitivity and experience in intersectional cultural work to make the neighborhood culture flourish in richness and diversity.

*Collaboration*

*The community is invited to cook for each other and share memories.*

Process and Intervention

Members of the RuT community, particularly community elders, were invited to recall a recipe which evokes a memory or feeling of “chosen home” or “chosen family;” and to write the recipe on a piece of paper along with a description of the memory that dish evokes. On September 16th, these collaborators cooked the dish and brought it to a community celebration at the future site of the RuT home.

All members of the RuT community were invited as well as future neighbors. The dishes, recipes, and stories were be shared with those in attendance. In the home, the hand-written recipes can be displayed and become part of a cookbook used at the community center.

This piece celebrates the community who dreamed this home and community center into existence and the gift they are passing down to future generations. It celebrates notions of chosen home, those with walls and those without; and notions of chosen family, whether tied by blood or by love. Through the common language of food, we will model the forms of community building that will take place within RuT home and demonstrate to our neighbors the hospitality and openness our community espouses.