In 2024 BERLIN celebrates its twentieth anniversary. The ideal moment to revisit the vast database of film recordings it has collected over the years, both material used in the performances and unreleased footage. For many of the performances made within the city cycle, including Iqaluit, Jerusalem, Moscow, Tagfish(filmed in the Ruhr area) and Zvizdal, a total of about 700 hours of footage was shot at locations that capture the imagination.

YouTurn gives film and visual arts students as well as fellow artists access to a large part of this archive and encourages them to work on new artistic projects based on the material they come across. The project will run for five years (2023–27) and will be a collaboration with various partners worldwide. It is divided into two categories, with roughly 100 hours of footage going to schools (mostly to film and visual arts students) and on the other hand fellow artists working on the material.

Starting in 24-25, together with schools, we will get mostly young people (at the start of their careers within the arts) to cast a fresh perspective on the material. Students will create new artistic work using the archival footage. The creative outcome can vary in terms of form (short film, video installation, online experiment, etc.). Students can deviate from the original context in which the footage they use was shown. Being familiar with BERLIN's work is optional. However, talks with or masterclasses by BERLIN are possible. Several profiles are eligible for this project: film students, visual arts courses, etc. Together with the partners and regional organizations, we are also looking at the best way to show the artistic result: online, in an exhibition space, a black box, projection room, publication, etc. BERLIN will follow and occasionally highlight projects. How this happens – collected during a presentation, online, or in tandem with its own work at specific theatres – will always be studied with the local partner and school/training.

Not only students but also fellow artists will get access to the BERLIN archive (next to the film material, also set objects, scripts, music, etc. can serve as a source of inspiration for new artistic work). Three projects are already in the making: On Boat Sides, One Day I Will Make The Onion Cry and Sehnsucht. BERLIN itself is initiating the first project - On Boat Sides - inspired by Swiss author Max Frisch's poetical/philosophical questions (published in Fragenbogen).

YouTurn wants to advocate a new way of storytelling, building on each other's experiences and visions, de-privatizing an archive, and exploring the notion of repertoire and how to deal with it. YouTurn aims to facilitate (artistic, intercultural and intergenerational) dialogue by bringing different artistic languages into dialogue with each other.