Mapping the In-Between. Floating Poetry on the Neukölln Shipping Canal

The Neukölln shipping canal is not a neutral reflection of the landscape, but the result of deliberate interventions and decisions regarding how space should be used and understood. Starting from the Rixdorf Wiesengraben in a marshy landscape, the area was transformed into usable land through drainage in the 19th century and, with the construction of the canal around 1914, specifically designed as infrastructure for industry and urban growth. During the division of Berlin, it became a strictly controlled border – seemingly clear-cut, but in reality a contradictory in-between space. Today, the canal is once again undergoing change: as a hybrid space between residual industry, leisure and artistic appropriation.
Thus, the canal represents a living map on which different interpretations of space overlap. With the Backdecker DYLAN, we are re-measuring this space. This type of boat was developed in the 19th century at the Engelbrecht shipyard in Berlin-Köpenick. As true Berliners, these boats represent the city’s maritime history. As part of 48h Neukölln, the DYLAN becomes a stage.
The artistic reading programme by beier+wellach projekte, “kaboom” & The Poetry Project explores the multifaceted meanings of in-between spaces and boundaries, which the authors examine. It also addresses questions of identity, shaped by shifts, ruptures and overlaps.

It is precisely on the water – a place that knows no fixed boundaries – that a literary space unfolds, in which new cartographies emerge: tentative, fluid and open to unfamiliar perspectives. It is about setting sail and letting go, about new beginnings and longing, about community and homecoming.
We invite you to observe Neukölln from the water. On shifting ground, yet within a sheltered space. To listen to the atmospheres, the voices, the stories. And to see boundaries as the beginning of new narratives; on a canal that has significantly shaped its surroundings and will continue to do so.