The video of the community mosaic “Möckernkiez” is here! A document of the creative work of a house community.
” I would not have thought that my neighbors could produce such beautiful designs. Now I see some of them with a whole new set of eyes.”
a resident and participant in the Mosaik project told me during the opening of the first part of the Community Mosaik for House 1 in the Möckernkiez in Berlin Kreuzberg.
32 residents from the 22 apartments that use Staircase A on a daily basis each designed a mosaic tile. On May 5, the mosaic tiles were installed by me and 3 other helpers from the house in the entrance area as a frieze.
Installation preparation – a team lays out the tiles and decides on their arrangement
Final design of the mosaic frieze
Saturday, May 6, was scheduled for joint grouting. Unfortunately, no one had signed the list of helpers. We “installers”, still tired from the previous day’s concentration and physical exertion, were worried. Would we manage to grout and clean the mosaic before the inauguration which was scheduled for 3pm?
We started to mix the grout. And lo and behold, one neighbor came, then a second, and by 11 o’clock I didn’t have enough gloves and spatulas so that everyone could join in at the same time. It was wonderful! One team scraped out overcrowded joints while immersed in conversation. Some children grouted with their mothers, others checked the grout lines for small holes that still existed, and the prudent ones immediately cleaned up and swept the floor to quickly remove unavoidable dirt with grout. It was a wonderful togetherness!
And suddenly there were the helpers …..
Promptly at 3 p.m. the champagne corks could be popped and the mosaic and the effort of the house community could be celebrated.
Admiring the joint effort and the shape of the mosaic
We started in January 2023 with a job walk to the two spaces that should be decorated with mosaic with representatives of the residents association. The decision fell to a fries made from different mosaic tiles each produced by participants from each residential unit.
In an interesting process we decided collectively with 3 representatives and me on the colors of the tiles that we would offer to be used.
On Feb 21 Dagmar came to the studio to learn the Trencadis (broken tile) technique, that was developed by Antonio Gaudi and his workers.
