Mein Hamburg! Tell us your story?

“Mein Hamburg! Tell us your story?” is a long-term participatory project initiated by the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte to expand the representation of Hamburg’s diverse urban society within the museum’s future exhibitions and collections. Through temporary meeting spaces, mobile media formats, and neighbourhood-based encounters, the project invites residents to share personal histories that have previously remained unheard within institutional narratives.

As part of the core project team, Javi Acevedo contributes to the development of communication strategies, participatory media formats, and on-site documentation processes. Central to the project is the FUNKFAHRRAD — a mobile recording device combining an electric cargo bike with a battery-powered studio — which enables conversations and podcast recordings to take place directly within public space, independent of fixed infrastructure.

The project unfolds through recurring pop-up presences across different districts of Hamburg. Over several weeks at a time, temporary meeting points are established to create familiarity and trust within local communities, allowing encounters to emerge organically. Through this extended presence, residents are invited to share stories that reflect everyday realities, personal memories, and diverse perspectives on urban life.

Beyond documentation, Acevedo’s role includes the co-development of new media formats that will later become part of the exhibition Hamburg Heute at the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte. The project positions participatory storytelling as an evolving process — one that connects civic engagement, mobile technology, and museum practice to rethink how contemporary urban histories are collected and represented.