Where do we find the untapped potential in public space? How might this potential be maximised to create new situations that reclaim this space for democratic use?

Kunsthalle3000 is an institution as intervention by German artist Thomas Geiger that seeks to answer these questions by engaging directly with public space. Kunsthalle3000 follows this principle by literally declaring specific spots within public space as Kunsthalle – where like-minded artists join forces to create an intensive, yet temporary locale for performance, discussion, confrontation and interchange. To date, Kunsthalle3000 has taken place in Vienna, Johannesburg and Geneva.

Upon the invitation of Goethe-Institut Lebanon, Kunsthalle3000 is happy to announce that it will be opening its doors in Beirut for a period of three weeks during May 2017. Moving into the ruins of an old house on Dalieh of Raouche, Kunsthalle3000 joins with local artists in an invitation to excavate the possibilities that lurk unseen within a place. The peninsula of Dalieh of Raouche is one of the last natural spots left on the city’s coastline, combining a rich social life with a diversity of topographical and geological features. Here, visitors enter a wild and hilly area that brings them directly to the sea. For a select few the attributes of this place have translated into an understanding of its value that is purely economic, leading to its systematic privatisation through dubious means. While private parties continue to propose urban and commercial development for the area, activists such as the The Civil Campaign To Protect Dalieh Of Raouche continue in turn to fight for Dalieh’s long tradition of public access, and to preserve the site as natural and cultural asset to the city of Beirut. In 2016 the World Monuments Fund’s World Monuments Watch addedits voice to the community campaign to call for the protection of the Dalieh of Raouche.

The ruin of the house can be considered as an allegory for this conflict of interests: an intermediate moment and a fragile equilibrium between persistence and change. While remaining part of a symbolic gesture and subtle offer to both the place and it’s visitors, actions carried out as part of the Kunsthalle’s stay will pose the possibility of the ruin’s existence as an ‘effectively enacted utopia’.

What will begin here with a series of small interventions during the beginning of May, will gradually transform into an audience-based programme as part the Dalieh Watch Week (May 18–21) that is organized by Temporary Art Platform and The Civil Campaign To Protect Dalieh Of Raouche.

With Hashem Adnan (Zoukak Theatre Company), Caline Aoun, Omaya Malaeb, Bianca Pedrina, Rani al Rajji, Stéphanie Saadé, Petra Serhal and Christian Zahr. Additionally, Raafat Majzoub is commissioned to design its surrounding garden.

For further information: www.kunsthalle3000.com