The female producer and artist collective Monika Werkstatt was founded in 2015 by Gudrun Gut in reference to free jazz label FMP’s tradition of unorthodox workshops that originated in the 1960s. Dedicated to an exchange of practices, experiences and ideas in a largely individualised music culture, Monika Werkstatt aims at providing a practice-oriented forum and a (partly international) infrastructure specifically for female artists to present and discuss their work, and create something new together. The intention is to increase the presence of female artists, expanding the physical and ideal space they occupy in the music industry. With this overall goal in mind, Monika Werkstatt is not to be thought of as a fixed structure: the collective and its activities change with every experience. After the 2017 release of the studio album ›Monika Werkstatt‹, which gathered the collaborative output of ten renowned artists and producers (AGF, Barbara Morgenstern, Beate Bartel, Danielle de Picciotto, Gudrun Gut, Islaja, Lucrecia Dalt, Pilocka Krach, Sonae, Natalie Beridze), Monika Werkstatt will once again return to the studio in 2020.
For 2020, Monika Werkstatt is receiving a grant in the amount of 7.000 euros for the joint studio project ›M_Dokumente‹, focusing on artistic productions of women in the Berlin underground music culture of the 1980s.