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Tour Berlin

The Money Tree

"The Money Tree - Producing Currents", Jack Wolf, Video, 9:19 min, Camera: Arne Büttner

As part of The Driving Factor, the tour "The Money Tree" addressed the complex history of electricity as a commodity. The tour led from the production sites of the former industrial giant AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft) in Berlin's Oberschöneweide district, to Tesla's fourth Gigafactory in Grünheide in Brandenburg. It offered insights into historical and current economies of electricity and their sociomaterial conditions, connecting two high times of e-mobility (NAG - Neue Automobil Gesellschaft in Oberschöneweide and Tesla). Material flows, corporate strategies and working conditions came to the fore, and prevailing narratives about sustainability and innovation as drivers of economic growth were problematised. "The Money Tree" gathered stories of cables, power grids, fences, real estate investors, workers, activists and scientists, contaminated soil, missing groundwater and cleared forest, as well as the dreams and demands from Manono, the other end of a global electro-mobility supply chain.
Jack Wolf's film links these many highlights with new contexts.

With: Bürgerinitiative Grünheide, Alison Darby, Aurora Castillo, Oscar Choque (Ayni, Verein für Ressourcengerechtigkeit e.V.), Perpeto Dyese Wabanza, Sonja Hornung, Uwe Metzler, Esther Kasongo Muntwabene, Éric Mutombo, Susanne Reumschüssel (Industriesalon Schöneweide), Angela Thomas, Thomas Turnbull (Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte), Jack Wolf, The Driving Factor, und Tour-Teilnehmer*innen.