This week we are taking a look inside some of Berlin’s art collectives – where artists live and work together, sharing pivotal moments on and off the canvas. Yesterday we took a look at the Homebase Project and today we travel south and present an inner look into Agora. Join photographer Fede Graciano and BAPS writer Morgan Meaker as they delve into Berlin’s Agora art collective.  

 

“The city is blooming” says Caique Tizzi, a bearded Brazilian donned in a checkered shirt, obscured by a suede and stylish bomber jacket. Marcela Donato lounges in his lap.

These uninhibited displays of friendly affection and the puppy that bounds with excitement from one end of the room to another makes an easy, inviting atmosphere. Caique and Marcela are two of the six figures that have developed Agora into the “project space” that the building finds itself being today. What’s endearing about the pair is that they refuse to adopt a position of superiority, describing the project’s “flat hierarchy” and expressing a frustration at their own “lack of education,” apparently hoping to grow and learn alongside those who come to them seeking something similar. They proclaim that Agora is a “manifestation of what our generation is about;” and perhaps, as a static swarm of people stare into their mac-books in the downstairs cafe, they could be onto something.

Our generation is however much more than that and Agora is fully equipped to cater to its needs. They offer an easily accessible network, acknowledging the presence of a young clientele, unstable and whimsical, seeking a quick fix in terms of building connections for both work and play. They describe the project as an “organic organism” from which “strange bodies are expelled,” sparing them the necessity to ever ask anyone to leave and allowing them to embrace the more proactive inhabitants. We met with one of the latter; Renata Har, who works and lives within the borders of Agora. With feeling, Renata declares “I would never stop coming back, it’s like a home.” 

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