Helen Turner is the joint Artistic Director of E-WERK Luckenwalde. Turner holds an MA in Psychosocial studies from Birkbeck University of London under Slavoj Žižek and a BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art, London. Previously Helen was the Chief Curator at Cass Sculpture Foundation and has worked for Artangel, Kinman Ltd and ran her own curatorial platform AGENCY AGENCY.

E-WERK was built in 1913 as a coal power station. For over 60 years the power station produced and supplied coal-powered energy to the city of Luckenwalde and beyond. In 2019, Performance Electrics transformed E-WERK Luckenwalde into a renewable Kunststrom power station and contemporary art centre.

Describe the nature around you at the moment.

Lush but gently crusting. We have a gorgeous outdoor space at E-WERK, with a geodesic dome and TRAFO - our outdoor bar and kitchen, so we really relish the summer months when the whole team takes up office in the garden.

Where do you feel most at ease?

With my fam. My partner and I live and work in the power station with our two kids and Italian Mastiff, so we really are the Gesamtkunstwerk. This can be both exhilarating and overwhelming, so the days off when we are closed to the public and my kids and dog can run around in our massive outdoor space is a dream. Pablo has a kid's seat on the forklift truck, so we take the kids with us to work, which sometimes makes it feel like a farm.

What rituals do you practice to keep you grounded and connected to the outer world?

Moon gazing with my son. We look for the rabbit in the moon, after artist Lindsay Seers told us this is what the Japanese see.

What inspires you every day?

Potential for systemic change. On 1 - 2 July we will host Burn Out: a weekend of talks, events and live music that will address human sustainability and systemic institutional change. The art world can be an exhausting place to work, with unregulated hours and terrible protection of artists and employees, so we felt it was pertinent to address this issue and bring some of the most exciting voices working at the forefront of systemic change together at E-WERK.

What kind of ancestor would you like to be?

One who urgently slowed down.

What lessons have you learned from E-WERK Luckenwalde?

To accept the institution as a living organism and move away from the slick, sterile environment to view art, so prevalent in the art world. The atmosphere the curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung is cultivating at Haus der Kulturen der Welt of inclusion, celebration and rhizomatic hierarchy is incredibly inspiring and urgently needed.

Which song, book or poem nurtured your relationship with nature?

Hey Moon by John Maus.

How well do you know your water - can you name your nearest body of water and how well it’s doing? (question from #TheNatureKind interview with by Easkey Britton)

The canals in the Flaming Skate, Luckenwalde - but my favourite is Siethener See. It’s unfortunately declining.

What question would you like to ask to the next person on #TNK?

How can we inspire others to take more responsibility?

And could you suggest someone else or other organisations you admire that we could approach for #TheNatureKind

Aoife Fannin at Gallery Climate Coalition. Misha Curson, Senior Curator, Eden Project and Eden International. Stefanie Hessler at Swiss Institute.

You can find out more about E-WERK Luckenwalde here.