Zucker - a concrete jumping castle

For five years a big group of local creative art workers has been looking for a new home. A home as the ZUCKER CLUB was with its connected studious from 2007 till 2012. Around 60 sighted properties, a few bitter setbacks and a lot of persuasion work later it seems that we have reached our goal: A NEW ZUCKER CAN OPEN!

How is that? We have the opportunity to buy the high-rise bunker/air raid shelter on the Hans-Böckler Straße in the Überseestadt Bremen! With a total area of ca. 1500m2 over eight floors, the bunker has enough place for rehearsal rooms, studious and workshops. But not just that, the bunker would also facilitate enough space for exhibitions, concerts and a club over several floors. So - there is a lot of concrete space to fill with good life!
We are also planning a permanent exhibition dealing with the NS History of the building.

But first the grey block needs to be converted in some places. The wiring needs to be done, the ventilation system needs to be attached, walls and ceilings need to get out and so on and on and on...
The amount for purchase, renovation and furnishing is around 700.000€.

We already received a commitment for a loan of 500.000€ from the GLS Bank and a sponsoring from the City Bremen of 100.000€. The missing sum of 100.000€ should get together over this crowdfunding project and grant applications on foundations. You see: the ZUCKER needs your support! And obviously every cent that brings us further in this matter is appreciated!

For further information: www.zucker-club.de

We finally want to go back into a location where we can lead a self-determined life, where we can work and celebrate. We want DIY without greed for profit, we want techno and queerfeminism, we want art and we want discourse. We want to counterbalance the daily discrimination. We want magical moments in which creative energy meets the good heart. We want to reclaim all the beautiful people in Berlin and Leipzig so build Bremen up.

We want to give our cultural form a room and develop further. We want to set against the common mechanism of the (cultural) markets. We want to hold up a mirror to the cultural scene and ourselves. We want to redirect the old horrible history of this Nazi-building to an anti-authoritarian and critical thinking. We want to fill the concrete with a passion for culture, dance and music with solidary, emphatic acting.

So we are one of many culture projects looking for room and financial support. That’s nothing new. Unusual is though, that we have never given up on this idea, no matter how many throwbacks we received. On the one hand, this is due to the idealism of many Individuals. One the other hand it is based on a special sort of dynamics. We have been looking for many years for an appropriate definition but we haven’t found the right words. Most of the times it sounded too pathetic or too dissatisfying. For example:

Question: Why do you participate in the Zucker?
Answer: Because somehow the Zucker is about the people.

Doesn’t say anything – but at the same time it’s true. We try to hear the silent people. We criticize ourselves as much as we criticize the art- and music market, the scene and the system. We think that self-reflection is sexy. We have developed an understatement to oppose the addiction of profiling. We try to get through this and to provide space, free of discrimination, competition and the pressure to perform.

Because of all that. Maybe.

Exactly like the resources from the cultural funding and the loan, all the money from the crowdfunding project will go 100% into the rebuilding of the Bunker. We will pay bills, such as construction material, tools, and works we cannot, or are not allowed to do ourselves. We need a car to get cheap material. We will rent those construction materials which are necessary. We need a ventilator system for the club business. We want to reassure barrier-free access in five floors. All the existing wires do not match with the safety regulations and must therefore be replaced. We have to pay for the disposal of many cubic meters of concrete. As you can see, the list is long. Our work and all the helpers are totally voluntary and without any payment. But we would like to spend some of the money also on food and drinks for the workers.