Jessica Joyce Sidon

JESSICA-JOYCE SIDON: I think that art can foster social change. Art is long lasting. So I think, if you want to communicate something, you can definitely do it through art. Such as, art must be accessible, it has to be seen and offered to a wide public.

Art is and should be provocative. Art – even political – shall be the expression of a free mind.

For instance, the work of Maltes Zenses that is hang here (editor’s note. on the concrete walls of Baldon’s)look super abstract at first sight, but it encompasses figurative figures that are highly political: the little floating boats and swimming bodies over there are actually migrants crossing the sea.

Another exemple is the French street artist JR, who placed a monumental photograph of mexican child Kikito at the border fence in a Mexican city, just behind the border with California (editor’s note. Tecate, 2017). This is super political. So yes, as an artist, you can definitely help to change the world.

JJS: I mean, right now, all is very black. But I think there’s always hope.

What we should do now, is really starting to educate. In my perspective, in my work, I know that I can’t change the world alone, but I try to ask myself the question on how to make it sustainable, what do we eat, how do we consume, how to be more attentive?

At Baldon, we do not work with products that come from oversees. This is how our future should look like: concentrate on how our economical system work. And how to change – at least – our own small future. If you think and act local, and stop with this fast living and the wish to be everywhere. I believe it is time to slowdown. Every fields, every branches, from the creative ones, to gastronomy, politics, and IT, we shall be able to educate both ourselves and the new generations.

Though, of course, it is a luxury vision – as most of the people cannot afford local food. But it tends to become more and more affordable now, I guess. This is where we have to build a bridge with others.

That’s how „narrative“ is definitely about talking to people, and showing the food as well. That’s why we call Baldon „a space for creative experiences“. We use the space for live events.

So maybe the idea behind is about feeling the present more than changing the future?

In the gastronomy in Berlin – at Otto for instance, as well – people have a similar approach: that is not about money making but about a true interest for local and seasonal food, finally spreading the word on how nice it is to enjoy the present moment.

JJS: How do we work with different experts from diverse branches? We work exclusively with local producers, we try to understand how different cultures prepare their food. That’s how we often invite guest chefs at Baldon: they show us their cooking techniques. Also, we often ask our guests to eat with hands: it just taste better, then the experience turns totally new. I guess it’s a way to combine traditional table settings, exotic cuisine, and a diversity of guests.It is a way to expand the experience with all our senses.

Thinking of, it is something that I would definitely like to push more, the combination of food experience with other experiences, the use of the space as a sort of canvas to create unprecedented events, and trying to be somehow provocative.

That’s why I invited so many young artists to show their work at Baldon. Amongst the past events, I can mention: “Artists against plastic pollution”, Berlin minimal artist Kim Bartelt x Yellownose Studio – 2019, German sculptor Britta Wiesenthal. This is our way to get people “in dialogue with”.

JJS: It’s quite poetic to say this but personnaly, I don‘t want to build a new world upon the old one. I wish to be realistic, to make the best out of the world we have, with all the diversity of people around.

JJS: I am a spontaneous kind of person. When a new project arrise, I don’t go and meditate anything. It is more about the people involved. When you think of the Baldon project, I remember the initiator of Lobe Block (editor’s note. Olivia Reynolds who, in 2013, acquired the property and developed the Lobe Block with architect Arno Brandlhuber) who offered us the place when there was still nothing but a dusty field here, it was weird but I had somehow a good feeling and it happened to be right. I must confess that I love risks and uncertainty, my life would be so borring otherwise.

New project launched in 2024.

In close collaboration with Grün Berlin, responsible for Spreepark development and the new art institution Spreepark Artspace, founder Jessica-Joyce Sidon together with her team are drawing on the history of the space in the opening of the restaurant Ei-12437-B and the beer garden „Anleger zum Eierhäuschen, combining elements of the traditional aesthetic and function of the destination with a contemporary approach and sensibility towards the preservation of historical monuments and sustainability on all levels.