Ralf Schmerberg in conversation with Jana Duda

RALF SCHMERBERG (*1965) is a self-taught filmmaker and artist. He manifested an unconventional stance from a young age and has since consistently gone his own way. Schmerberg dropped out of school at the age of 17 to live at the Indian philosopher Bhagwan’s ashram in Poona (India) and in Oregon for five years.
In 2008, Schmerberg founded the art collective Mindpirates, which has become a staple in the cultural life of Berlin with their active presence and community-oriented projects. Over the course of his career, Schmerberg has increasingly invested his creative enthusiasm to mobilise large groups of people and turn them into modern forms of participatory art events that combine social exchange and action. Projects like Dropping Knowledge or The Table of Free Voices; films, such as Problema or Poem are just a few examples of his work and like all of his projects, they opened up a comprehensive dialogue and continous reflection.

JANA DUDA is an art historian and is currently doing her PhD about the estate of photographer Albrecht Kunkel. Before focussing on her PhD she worked for the House of Photography, in Hamburg and the photographic collection of the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin.