The artistic-research project Raumtausch by Dorothea Nold and Magdalena Kallenberger focuses on religious movements and communities from different christian backgrounds that founded dependancies in Berlin within the last years. These groups are celebrating their service either in secular spaces (café, cinema, nightclub etc.) or as temporary guests in spaces that belong to other communities and churches. All of them are involved in national and global networks and interacting locally with Berlin based social projects.

Mapping the community
How become  these new religious practices manifest in urban space? How are these communities implemented in the social space? How do they interact with other networks and communities?

Exploring the sacred
On video we are documenting how a secular space immerse into a religious space. Which transformation can be experienced during the process of appropriation? Which means and methods are used to stage the religious? Which interventions can be observed? Which elements and objects are used? 

Raumtausch
The hypothetical initiation of the performance Raumtausch serves as starting point to get in touch with the communities. In interviews and personal conversations with our contact persons we investigate how the experience of the Holy can be constructed. We want to know where the encountering of God takes place and which role does architecture, music, rituals, and the concept of community play for the believers. 

Documenting the undocumentable
We collect and we observe. We document our observations and reflections with video and sound. Questioning the role of the artist as a researcher, we are leaving the path of scientific measurability and category-analysis by transforming our research material into a mixed-media installation.  

Project Partners: Every Nation Church, Berlinprojekt, ICF Berlin, Taizé Gebetskreis, Jesus Freaks Berlin