Moderation and Direction

Dr. Lorena Juan is the artistic director of the third edition of the Biennale für Freiburg, which will take place in 2025. She was curator of the transmedia festival and from 2020 to 2024 co-curator of “Kunst im Untergrund”, an art project in public space. In 2023 she received the curatorial research grant from the Berlin Senate. She is co-founder of COVEN BERLIN, a queer-feminist collective for embodied affect research at the intersections of environment, racialization, migration, class and gender. She has curated exhibitions and events at HKW, AdK, Schwules Museum Berlin, nGbK and Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, among others. She has also taught at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Dr. Nora Winsky works as a postdoc at the Institute for Environmental Social Sciences and Geography at the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg. Her research focuses on tourism research, social geography, age(ing) research as well as qualitative and ethnographic methods. She is interested in artistic-geographical methods that focus on and represent the lifeworlds of marginalized people.

With the 1⭐Review Tour, the !Mediengruppe Bitnik will present a performative guided tour as well as a contribution to the symposium, making the effects of rating systems on urban spaces tangible.

1⭐Review Tour examines how online rating systems shape our perception and experience of places. In a data-driven world, star ratings, credit scores and social ranking systems influence our decisions - be it when choosing a restaurant, a doctor or a product. The five-star system in particular is widely used, as it creates seemingly objective ratings by aggregating many opinions. However, although reviews are often only subjective assessments, they have an immense impact on the tourism and service industries as well as many other sectors of the economy. Businesses fear bad reviews, while public spaces have no way of resisting or influencing reviews. Not all places meet common expectations of consumption and experience. If you want to get five stars, you have to be “instagrammable”, easy to consume or impressive.

The symposium is organized by Dr. Nora Winsky and the Biennale für Freiburg 3.

It is a cooperation between the Institute for Environmental Social Sciences and Geography at the University of Freiburg, the FWTM Freiburg and the Biennale für Freiburg 3.

Freiburg is caught between the poles of everyday life and tourist attractiveness. How can coexistence be shaped in such a way that Freiburg remains liveable for everyone? Experts from various fields discuss the social, economic and cultural impact of tourism. Together, they will develop feminist and post-colonial utopias for a solidary coexistence in the city.

Moderation and Direction

Speakers

Dr. Marion Mangelsdorf teaches inter- and transdisciplinary (natural) science studies as managing director of Gender Studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. She is a cultural scientist and science and technology studies researcher specializing in the body, media and environmental humanities. In her research, she is interested in art- and media-based modes of expression. She recently gave a TEDx Freiburg Talk on March 8, 2025 on the topic “My City Dream - Let's move our Cities” at the Konzerthaus Freiburg.

Mirko Winkel is an artist, curator and head of the transdisciplinary laboratory mLAB at the Institute of Geography at the University of Bern. He studied fine arts, performance art and choreography. The spectrum of his research-based and context-sensitive work includes performances, videos, lectures, discussion formats and suggestions for improvement. As head of the mLAB, he encourages scientists to integrate artistic work into their research and to explore new ways of communicating knowledge.

Dr. Nora Küttel is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Geography at the University of Bremen. In her doctoral thesis entitled "When Art and Space meet ... An ethnographic approach to the relationship of artistic practices and space in the city of Detroit", she used creative-artistic approaches for a power-critical spatial research.

Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe GmbH & Co. KG (FWTM) is the central company for business development, city marketing, tourism and trade fairs in Freiburg. It supports companies, develops the business location and organizes numerous events - from trade fairs to cultural and major events to the marketing of the city to tourists.

The FWTM representative or speaker will be announced shortly.

Artistic Contribution

With the 1⭐Review Tour, the !Mediengruppe Bitnik will present a performative guided tour as well as a contribution to the symposium, making the effects of rating systems on urban spaces tangible.

1⭐Review Tour examines how online rating systems shape our perception and experience of places. In a data-driven world, star ratings, credit scores and social ranking systems influence our decisions - be it when choosing a restaurant, a doctor or a product. The five-star system in particular is widely used, as it creates seemingly objective ratings by aggregating many opinions. However, although reviews are often only subjective assessments, they have an immense impact on the tourism and service industries as well as many other sectors of the economy. Businesses fear bad reviews, while public spaces have no way of resisting or influencing reviews. Not all places meet common expectations of consumption and experience. If you want to get five stars, you have to be “instagrammable”, easy to consume or impressive.

The symposium is organized by Dr. Nora Winsky and the Biennale für Freiburg 3.

It is a cooperation between the Institute for Environmental Social Sciences and Geography at the University of Freiburg, the FWTM Freiburg and the Biennale für Freiburg 3.