Über uns / about T&E

 Kulturlabor Trial&Error e.V. ist ein Berliner Kollektiv von Pädagogen, Designern, Medien-Aktivisten, Künstlern und Gärtnern, die sich für eine kreative und nachhaltige Zukunft einsetzen.

Ob Upcyling oder Permakultur, kreativer Aktivismus oder Nachbarschaftsarbeit, Basteln oder Reparieren, Tausch-Ökonomie oder urbaner Gartenbau; Trial&Error hat professionelle Erfahrung mit internationalen Workshops, Bildungsaktivitäten in Schulen, Jugendzentren, Künstlerzentren und anderen Einrichtungen.

Wir bieten eine Vielfalt an Workshops an! Besucht uns oder organisiert eure eigenen Workshops bei uns!

 

 

 Kulturlabor Trial & Error e.V. is a Berlin based multicultural collective of designers, media-activists, artists, pedagogues, gardeners striving for a creative and sustainable future.

We are active in creative activism, environmental awareness, neighbourhood work, education and and community building.

Trial&Error is experienced in international Workshops, non-formal education in schools and youth centres, activities in art centres and other places.

We offer a variety of workshops! Visit us or organize your own workshops with us!

 



Kulturlabor T&E team


Ruta Vimba

 

Ruta is holding the hand on the pulse of Trial&Error e.V. since its birth. Bringing experience and knowledge on media work, non-formal education, project management, crafts and cultural heritage, she is currently engaged with coordinating the volunteers and interns, working as a trainer for training courses and workshop sessions on community building and creative activism, coordinating the Recyclingbotschaft Richardkiez project, urban bee keeping, working on social inclusion with newcommers or gardening. Find her at swap shop, making a publication or networking or in the garden!

 

 Jule / Julia Kohnen

 

For 6 years Jule has been part of our collective, now coordinating and responsible for Textillabor, Zusammenleben mit Platz, Lebensmittelpunkte and Swap Shop. With a lot of passion, she also builds up our network of volunteers, so if you want to support our Swap Shop, Foodsharing Actions or you want to do an internship or Bundesfreiwilligendienst, she will be your contact person.

Apart from that, Jule loves to discover and reflect on the Utopias of society.

She also offers workshops for children and adults in the field of creative environmental Education, Textile upcycling and Natural Cosmetics. She especially loves the aspect of self- efficacy & empowerment about these topics.

 


Elene Nikoleishvili

 

Eager to learn, curious and awake, Elene has been our last incorporation to the team directly from Tblisi. Overcoming real estate inclemencies and the hard winter, she is finding her ways by being present not only in our SwapShop and TextilLabor workshops, but already in some international projects.

 


 

 Beka Gavasheli

 

is our new volunteer from Georgia.

He is dedicated, and open-minded. He get across to people and adjust to changes with ease. He believes that a person should work on developing their professional skills and learning new things all the time.  He was volunteering as social worker in France and was an active member of Georgian organisation "Georgian Youth for Europe". Background of studies in economics and management.

 


 

 

Birgit Haase

Birgit came to us around two years ago. Since that time she is in charge of running the swap shop, knows about plants, takes care of some administrative tasks and can be found here and there on many occasions...

 


 

 Masha / Mariia Servetnyk

 

Masha takes care of upcycling, natural cosmetics and soap workshops, neighbourhood projects, networking, creating visuals and designing printed materials for T&E. Project writing, fundraising and implementations keep her up all night, as well as helping with in- and outgoing EVS. She started as an EVS volunteer from October, 2014 to September, 2015.


 

Sandra Wiesthal

Chairwoman aka. Big Boss, Social Responsible Trash&Graphic Designer.

 

Sandra is freelancing in trash, arts and diverse design projects and involved in various creative, social and environmental projects. Also working with youth, non-formal education and strives to realize social and economic responsibility by using her creative skills to make the world a better, more sustainable place. Sandra loves paper, teabags, building furniture from random wood, turquise, birdcages, stamping, hanging garden, compost boxes, her pink motorbike and raw cakes. 

http://sandrawiesthal.jimdo.com/ or sandra [[ @ ]] trial-error.org

 


Juli / Juliane Meißner

 

Juli is the soul of Kulturlabor, the founder of the Swap Shop. With background of pedagogy and social work, interest in natural materials, colours and processes, Juli has inspired and co-developed maost of our upcyling, zero waste and nature material workshops. Currently on maternity leave.


 

 Jenny Nina Weber

 

Jenny loves swap shop, gardening and decorating. Playing with money from time to time, she keeps big jars of coins under her mattress as a perfect bookkeeping board member. Interested in social equality, she think that taking care of people, environment and fair economy are necessary to create a better world. She studied yoga and sociology and has founded her own upcycling fashion label in 2012. Collecting every kind of stuff, she can improvise out of everything, loves to be creative and never forgetting color in it. She has one artistic seed inside which is only waiting to grow! 

jenny@trial-error.org

 


Julie* Cotsaftis

Trial&Error's ökosägerin. Open for every opportunity to learn new skills.

Very much into all creative post capitalistic solutions, has been joyfully digging her way along Eco.nstruction – Inclusive Design – Circular Economy – Foodsharing – Do It With Others – Resiliency – Sustainability – Slow movements – Degrowth – Eco.Feminism – Upcycle – No waste – Recycle – Nobsolescence – Reuse – Organic – Reclaim your city – Seasonal – Towns in transitions – Fermentation –Local – Fair – no Plastic ... since ages, and there is always more to dig !

julie@trial-error.org


Workshop TEam


 

TURBANTRULLAS

 

The small fashion label TURBANTRULLAS upcycles old clothes into trendy turbans and headbands for both young and old. The TURBANTRULLAS (Elisa, Maria and Vika) also offer a variety of different upcycling workshops in Neukölln. This creates awareness for textile recycling and slow fashion. Because the most sustainable fabric is the one that has been around for a long time.


LELEKTRA

 

My name is Elektra Moschopoulou and I am self-taught fashion desinger with my

label LELEKTRA since 2010. From the beginning of my Work with Textiles of any kind my

focus lies on upcycling and sustainable production ever since.

 

As a small disgression follow me to my studio in Schönleinstr. 26 10067 Berlin.

 

https.//www.instagram.com/lelektra.berlin

 

 

 


RENATA

 

I am Renata Faccenda, graphic designer and visual artist, mother of a 12-year-old girl. Since 2012 I have offered in my atelier in Schillerkiez, Neukölln and local schools, creative workshops for adults and children from 4 years old. Mostly influenced by modern art, I try to experiment with paper, create and publish homemade books, illustrations through collage, tape art, drawings or painting. Sharing new skills, but also offering the possibility of self-expression and social exchange, through fun, poetic thinking and experimentation.


Wall of fame - Exerrorists

 

Maayan

 

Zero-waster, crafter and designer that enjoys most working with reclaimed materials (What others call "trash").

Explores how our society can use the abundance we have in a fair and sustainable way. For this we need creativity, flexibility, care, solidarity and education. We are building together the networks and infrastructures that allow and welcome the change we want to see.

 

Maayan is managing the Foodsharing Fair-teiler, active at the swap-shop, hosting groups, upcycling workshops, skill-sharing, networking and swapping events, as well as street intervantions such as #trashmandala actions. Also responsible for some of trial&errors graphic materials and keeping our plants alive.

 


Sandy

 

Professional project manager with extensive experience in cultural management, event planning and academic research. Main interests include consumption culture, the impact of the capitalistic system on environmental issues, deconstructing social constructs and exploring ways to oppose imposed binary gender roles. Education in intercultural relations, background in curatorial studies, liberal arts and philology (Dutch). Part of the Kulturlabor Trial&Error e.V. team focusing on fundraising, project management, coordination and documentation within international projects. 


 

Julia Vernersson


Co-founder. Passionate about facilitating creative processes, open source ideas, collaborative working methods and new media. Has been busy with international projects related to youth, freedom of speech, media and do-it-yourself culture since 2006. Now Julia is juggling work and parenthood and still doing hear projects whenever there is a slot in her life.

 

 


Ricardo Valdivia

 

Ricardo used his experience in legal consulting and founder of a Peruvian NGO for the inclusion of children and young people with disadvantages obtaining skills and knowledge in project management. Consultant in social entrepreneurship and supporting core member of Kulturlabor Trial&Error e.V. for several years, working in projects related with urban gardening and youth workers. Also, music producer and DJ based in Berlin. His superpowers are planning, event organizer, music freak, networking, strategic partnerships.


 Naomi

 

 „The Kulturlabor Trial & Error community is my family.“

Naomi is a real Berliner and her favourite project is the Tauschladen/Swap Shop – a good place to meet friends, neighbours and new people. Naomi is supporting at the swap shop every tuesday and thursday afternoon, welcoming people and keeping order.

Moreover Naomi regularly helps our foodsharing team.

 


Sarah

 

Sara loves crafts and design, especially working with textiles. She shares her sewing skills in workshops and classes taking place at Kulturlabor T&E since 2016. Apart from that, she has shared her love for hand craft and wood with our community, building the Garten during years, sharing her passion for soil and compost and always eager to work and push projects forward.

 


Tau Pibernat

 

Nowadays a textile and surface designer, cocreated the foundation of Trial & Error at the early prehistoric times in 2011. Back then we used to make upcycling experiments, trash parties and actions in public spaces. A strong supporter of the swap shop since the start, took on its coordination and development for some years. She also created the visual identity of the Kulturlabor with her creative and vivid pictures and contributed to the research about reusing materials and natural cosmetics. Interested in circular design projects and social integration, contact her if you'd like to cooperate in a project in these field. tau@trial-error.org  and taupibernat.com


Alexis

A scavenger, gleaner, upcycler and printmaker, she is most commonly known as the 'Bacteria Barista'. Alexis is the co-founder of Edible Alchemy CoLaboratory, in which she gives DIY workshops on fermentation, bacteria, yeast and probiotics - often using saved vegetables, fruits, foods and recycled vessels. Be sure not to miss her fermentation workshops! alexis@ediblealchemy.co


Seema Sanghi aka MamaTrashBags

Seema stayed with us for about 2 years, kicking asses (coordinating events/workshops/PR/Recycled Creativity Festival), doing crazy workshops and presentations (PopUps, SoliKon, QM meetings) and upcycling all around, but will stay with us in our hearts for her kind, loving and smiling soul.

She came to us, begging to be rescued from Hausfrau duties, a Jill of all trades, mistress of none, limited choice works for her - swapping and sharing are her skills - she’s adept at making the best of what she lands with/gets/finds, from food to clothes to transforming junk/trash into useful or just spunky things. She hangs out with textiles, words and stories (tall tales and short ones), colours, people (big and small) and papery bits, she’s a patron of contemplation and contradiction, when she finds a new-to-her outfit that fits just right, it makes her day.

 


Louis-Marie Degez

 

Our woodworker. Louis is such a big fan of wood work, that he simply set up the T&E basement as a wood workshop (one must not mention how much cleaning had to happen before being able to do so :) )  and is our number one when it comes to working with building and fixing!

 


European solidarity corps (ex EVS)

 

Andrea Echeverría

From the warm lands of Spain Andrea brought good vibes with her shiny personality and strong attitude. Gave us workshops on mental health for community workers and took part in mostly all projects during 2021 despite some health issues. With an intersectional approach from her communications background, she kept updated our community by creating our telegram channel (t.me/TrialErrorBerlin) and taking care of our newsletter. 


 

Elvita Rakstite

Joining us during the terrible Corona year, Elvita brought from the Baltics not only her undeniable style but an absolute attitude of hands-on work. She was our muscle and tech specialist without whom so many actions and projects would have gone to nothing. Elvita is a  printing and postering enthusiast as well as infamous in the community for handling bikes. She developed design skills during our grandiose Membership campaign as well as taking over the Panke Klima social media platforms.

Apart from all this, and taking part with Swap Shop, GartenLabor and LastenLabor (where she has been the master of Welding) she also took and still takes responsibility, with a lot of courage, for the international project Price and Freedom of Democracy, who herself is coordinating. She proudly took part in Karneval for die Zukunft with a self-made trash costume called "Miss Global Katastrophe". 


Iveta Lipiņa

 

Joining on the eve of the pandemics, Iveta brough team spirit and good mood, supporting Trial &Error in brainstorm, logistics and organisation of events and actions in the neighbourhood, boosted the social media and got into such business as bookeeping, reporting and fundrising. Power!


Jekaterina Ratobilska

 

Straight from Free Riga Swap Shop Katja entered the "Berlin swap shop sister" - Kulturlabor Trial & Error project space. Katja supported community activities and Kulturlabor with her talent for logistics, organisation and structuring things and ideas.


Karina Khramtsova

 

The good soul of Kulturlabor project space, taking care of plants, materials, people, ideas. Karina joined the project with her background of architecture studies and was part of the SwapShop, Foodsharing, various upcycling workshops and crafting initiatives, Reclaim The Crafts and Reclaim the Neighbourhood project.


Jason Pereira Garcia "Shine like a diamond"

 

Community spirit, generous soul, crafty enthusiast with talent for facilitation, theatre and great team spirit. Joined our team in the hot summer of 2019 to garden, swap, take photos, co-facilitate, brainstorm, transport things with cargo bike (obviously), promote, support and inspire.


Vlad Belkin 

aka Human Printer or generally Techno Malchik (nothing to do with the music genre)

 

Another ex EVS-er of Kulturlabor from Siberia. Challenged himself to learn sustainable lifestyle and therefore ended up in T&E. Vlad loves Project Management and everything that comes alongside. He helped to implement a couple of T&E major projects like Reclaim The Crafts, Swapping Culture and Urban Remedy. Also known for his passion for any kind of media and.. cleanness. Rescued a moldy freezer once and still very proud of it. Literally left his mark on the Kulturlabor's history (check the wall in the backroom). 

 


Joana De Melo Sampaio

 

Not your normal EVSr-Artist, Trainer and Facilitator! Specialized in enviromental and participatory art, expressive art therapy, DIY and a permaculture activist, co-funder of NEW LOOPS, transdisciplinary association. Joana has been involved in multiple projects visioning sustainability and environmental awareness, active citizenship, minorities integration and empowerment.

joana@trial-error.org              https://www.facebook.com/JoanaDeMeloSampaio/

 


Maureen Burkner

 

Nature lover, she went out of the woods to do her EVS in Trial&Error. Waiting for sunbeams to ride again around the european cycle (or not) paths. Meanwhile, bikes are never out of her mind and she build the new Trial&Error cargobike in order to go around the city picking up trash, spreading material and ideas.

maureen@trial-error.org

 


Zita Nikolett Balogh-Auer

 

Worked together with Kulturlabor Trial&Error team via ERASMUS+ European Voluntary Service from October 2014 until September 2015.

PR, internal communication, social media, DIY workshops, networking activities, volunteer management. Set up this awesome website on jimdo! Find the precious hand-embrouded postcards from Zita in Kulturlabor T&E treasure box!


Vasi

One of our first EVSer, stayed for one year and is occasionally still giving workshops with us or supporting the RC Festival.

I put my hands on what I consider a "useful art", be that bookbinding, lino- or screen printing. Motto "DIY-not-buy" moves through many activities of my life and enthusiastically occupies more and more space there, hoping for better self-sustainability in communities we create with others alike.