overton window – Häselburg Gera
This work was developed in context of overton window – an exhibiton project of HGB students at Häselburg Gera.
performance / real theater on four stages (public space, news media, social media, field of politics)
Between April 1st and May 31th, a local empty shop was rented. The shop was located right next to a AfD constituency office.
In time of the project, the local mayoral elections were held.
The main topic was the public opinion and discourses on the migration movement. The quesstions about »Where was I born and where is it allowed to me to live?«
In this context, a unclear theatrical game of weird actions took place.
Anouncement of the exhibition project in Gera
first visits in the city of Gera
idea to work cooperational with Saou Tanaka in the public space with the local monuments and maped light projections on it
idea changed as an empty shop was found next to the local AfD party office, and the information appeared that the next mayoral elections would take place during the exhibition.
idea anouncement to the exhibition group – new idea: real theater ala Christoph Schlingensief's Container – Asylanten raus!
idea concreted – I: declaration of the AfD mayoral candidate to a refugee for economic reasons with concealment of his origin and collecting signs for his deportation to his place of birth. II: acting on 4 stages, in public space, in news media, in social media and the field of politics.
the AfD mayoral cadidate published a interview and declared the city of Gera to his place of birth
informational preparation meeting with other exhibition participants to build up a collective
the AfD mayoral cadidate published a interview and declared the area of Röhn to his place of birth
inspection of the empty shop and negotiation of the rental agreement
verbalization of the claim: I: If a German person lives for reasons of economic advantage in a different municipality than where this person was born, the person have go back and live in their home community. II: A border fence is to be built around the city of Gera to protect it from further refugees.
signing the contract of the rental agreement for the empty shop
building up a web presentation under the url »altentfernen.de« and a facebook page to document and control the future happenings
preparation of the first chapter – the (fake) exhibiton »the trojan horse«
preparation of the second chapter – »spreading the claim«
opening of »the trojan horse«
first local press articles
anonymous spreading of stickers and letters with the claim and a reference to the altentfernen project
preparation of the third chapter – »the claim«
completion of the exhibition "The Trojan Horse" and conversion of the shop into an office for inner-German deportation affairs.
official and anounced actings of »build a border fence« and »sign the petiton« in various public places.
two requests from taz and arte to make an article/reportage
the shop changed to »Heimat unter Palmen«, project based on an idea of Fabian Lehmann
preparation of chapter IV – »the great popular poll« in cooperation with Manuel Wagner
manipulation of social media through the purchase of 500 Facebook likes and the sending of a spam mail to about 250,000 German e-mail addresses with the request to participate in the movement and/or to sign the petition in cooperation
actings of »the great popular poll« in various public places.
View onto the Rudolf-Dienser-Str in Gera.In the upper part of the street is the constituency office of the AfD. Three doors down is a restaurant run by an AfD politician. There, usually every day, a prosecutor, a judge and another AfD politician meet for a meal. An empty office was situated in between. At the end of the street there is the court center with the county court, labor court and magistrates' court. At last there are varios memorials. Also a memorial stone for Rudolf Diener, an anti-fascist resistance fighter murdered by the Nazi regime.
After recognizing this special situation, we remembered Schlingensief's project Foreigners out! Schlingensiefs Container and thought about whether we can not do something similar
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Some random google photos of wooden sculptures.We thought about how to rent this empty store. For this we took the google photos and made a pfd file from them. With this new portfolio we contacted the homeowner and told him that we are interested in renting the store for three months to open a temporary exhibition space for our wooden sculptures. He agreed and we signed a lease agreement with the start on April the 1st.
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View of some research notes.After an first investigation, Dieter Laudenbach became our point of interest. The office next door was not his. But he ran a restaurant 20 meters down the street. He also wanted to become the next mayor of Gera. In his election campaign, he was campaigning against economic refugees. We found two different newspaper articles in which he veiled his origins by giving different places and dates of birth.
The strange thing about it: After we had made our plan according to the initial research to declare him as an economic refugee, concealing his own origin, and to rent the store, a second newspaper article appeared afterwards, in which he then actually stated a different place of birth than before.
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View of a photo collageA first possible layout for our new store window. The idea followed the main concept of turning around the AfD's own demands. We did not realize this idea
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View of the window of our space after we arrived.Instead of a direct confrontation, we started witch some friendly moves and did a minimal setup for the first act of the first chapter – the opening of the exhibition The troyan horse. While that we came in first verbal contact with AfD politicians. We told them about our plans to open a store for traditional wooden sculptures.
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View on the window of our space, with a minimal setup for our first act – the exhibition opening of The Trojan Horse-
View through the window of our space, with a minimal setup for our first act – the exhibition opening of The Trojan Horse-
Detailed view through the window of our space, with a minimal setup for our first act – the exhibition opening of The Trojan Horse-
The opening of The Trojan Horse.
The two professors of the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig - Basic Studies and the project group around the exhibition in the Häselburg Gera visited our opening. Some locals from Gera joined us. In the end we performed a successful vernissage.
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A video collage of long term photo shoots taken during the days of the setup and of the first chapter The Trojan Horse
During the time of set up, we rearranged until we had a good looking exhibition space. We installed some pieces of wood that we had collected nearby, some individual experiments of our own with sculptures, and added various video works.
The exhibition was open six hours a day for a week. During that time, people just walked by and took a quick look, some looked at the window longer, trying to understand what they were seeing. And some also entered the space to start conversations. There we steered the conversation in the direction of inclusion and exclusion, borders in general, and the randomness of a birthplace. We introduced our vague plans for the next weeks.
In the time without visitors we started to prepar the second chapter of our project.
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During the time of set up, we rearranged until we had a good looking exhibition space. We installed some pieces of wood that we had collected nearby, some individual experiments of our own with sculptures, and added various video works.
The exhibition was open six hours a day for a week. During that time, people just walked by and took a quick look, some looked at the window longer, trying to understand what they were seeing. And some also entered the space to start conversations. There we steered the conversation in the direction of inclusion and exclusion, borders in general, and the randomness of a birthplace. We introduced our vague plans for the next weeks.
In the time without visitors we started to prepar the second chapter of our project.
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View from inside of the exhibition space at night.Some indirect lighting and video loops projected on the walls or running on screens made the exhibition visible 24/7.
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View through the window of the exhibition space at night.-
Detailed view through the window of the exhibition space at night. In the background you can see the video work »Grenzzaun«-
Detailed view through the window of the exhibition space at night.-
The video »Grenzzaun« was produced to be shown in our exhibition, while the first chapter The Trojan Horse
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The video »Rauschen 2« was produced to be shown in our exhibition, while the first chapter The Trojan Horse
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Our efforts on the stage of news media have had their first successes. Here is an article in the Ostthüringer Zeitung, one of the two local newspapers.-
Second ActIn preparations for chapter II we set up our own social media account to be able to act actively there as well. There we searched for audience, documented what happened and also began to slowly reveal our real purpose.
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In a third and this time hidden Act, we designed small stickers and we had them printed and then distributed them.-
A few days before the mayoral election, we have also specified and worded our claim in a final draft.-
View of our own webisteTo complete the second act of the first chapter, we launched a simple website with the basic information about our real demand and the possibility to sign our petition.
Here is a link to the original website (final version at the end of project): altentfernen.de
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We were looking for a free way to print our petition on a large scale. After we told our story to the owner of a copyshop, he wanted to support our project and gave us free prints.
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Last actions of Act IIIIn order to start the second chapter, we did one more hidden action. We took our petition to the people's homes. We have chosen different neighborhoods to meet different social milieus as well.
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View of an installation as result of the last hidden operation of Act III.
We have heard that Gregor Gysi is coming to Gera to speak as part of the mayoral elections. For this event we have placed some of our printed petitions on site.
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View from the stage of Gysi to the installation.-
View of an e-mail answer of Gregor Gysi.
Shortly before he arrived in Gera, the local politicians from die Linke, the hosts of this event, uninstalled our installation and removed all petitions. We were disappointed about this, because we had also talked to two of them and got an unofficial promise. So we wrote to Gysi and he tried to connect us with another politician.
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View onto a screen capture video
A recorded social media discussion as a result of Chapter I Act II and III. The people inspired by our obscure demand started talking and exchanging ideas about politics and satire, about inclusion and exclusion and at last about Laudenbach and the upcoming mayoral elections.
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A recorded social media discussion as a result of Chapter I Act II and III. The people inspired by our obscure demand started talking and exchanging ideas about politics and satire, about inclusion and exclusion and at last about Laudenbach and the upcoming mayoral elections.
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View of a post in the social medias.
Laudenbauch also noticed our stickers and posted an article about them.
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Chapter II – Act I.In the following days we performed spontaneous shows at various places. The concept was to block people's walkways and perform conversations about a border construction around the town. To better reveal the authorship of the petition, we put one of the stickers on our costumes.
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View of the stage set-up for a »Grenzzaun« performance.-
View of the performative conversation about the pros and cons of installing a border fence around the city.-
L102.artPrize
Büro für innerdeutsche Abschiebe-
angelegenheiten
An analog and interactive documentary work with a performance about the Altentfernen project in Gera city (April - May 2018).
Kunstverein L102 · Aufgang C · Lützowstraße 102-104 · 10785 Berlin
exhibited from June 15 - 30, 2018 with a performance on June 15 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
reliques, sketches, notes, emails, letters, photos, printed facebook timelines, protocols
This work was made for the L102.artPrize exhibition –moments of change taken place in Berlin form June 15-30, 2018. The performance was about the daily work in Gera city. The installation documents minds, actions, reactions and everything else what happened in Gera.
installation view
performance
residences and conferences
functionally installation
possible futures
August 27 - September 9, Lovinac/Croatia
residences and conferences – curated by Stefan Ribel and Kruno Jost
putting togehter collected material
palets, robe, tarpaulin, wooden sticks, stones, bones, blankets, sleeping bag, clothes, plastic waste
Artists from Zagrab and Leipzig, meeted up in a residency in order to devote themselves to the topics of man and technology, ie the absence of technology.
Through a personal world that separates itself from technology and approaches us "towards us".
The topics are classified under the common denominator of "sacred places", of our inner self belonging to us.
During the conference the participants together will discuss some of the themes through collaborative work on the form of moving sculptures, installations and performances.
Here you see a improvised place to rest and sleep.
Questioning myself about nessesary things to survive in nature let me build up this construction.
My package for the journey to the residency was only – next to artistic untensils and clothes – a sleeping bag and some robes. On the drive from Leipzig to Croatia via Viena we collected some old palets. In the camp i found some unused tarpaulin. This 4 basic components were used to construct a shelter that protected me of the local cold nights, viper snakes, scorpions and bears.
In the first days of residence i discovered the surrounding area and colected some stones, wooden sticks and bones. With parts of this i build up some kind of altar. In that way i expanded my shelter with some decorative elements.
whole view from west
whole view from east
whole view from north
detailed view from west
detail view from north
occupyed space
intervention / conceptual installation
September 12, main station Leipzig
exhibition for homeless people in occupyed buildings – curated by Tawahinga Butt
Different objects and utensils
found on this area
putted together to a shelter.
This work was realized for a one day exhibition in occupyed buildings next to the mainstation of Leipzig.
The exhibition was opend from 12 am - 12 pm for the more than 50 homeless people who occupies the abandond buildings at this old loading station since 2-3 years and also for other interested people.
For this work i collected different material and searched in the area for eatable things to build up a sculptural altar and some kind of shelter around it. The shelder was symbolically expanded by a growing field.
overview
sideview
detailed view
altar
altar at night
theater festival
installation / performance in cooperation with Elisa Schmitz
12am - 6pm, October 7, 2018 at Leipzig – Eisenbahnstraße / Ost-Passage Theater
This was part of the trans-inter-culty weekend festival organized by the Ost-Passage Theater Leipzig.
For this work Elisa and me collected objects and utensils form the surrounding area and used them to build up a shelter with some kind of altar.
Elisa constructed the altar and i sticked up the other parts together to the shelter.
We did this work performatively and got in touch with the audience of the festival. We involved them in the building process and talked with them about alternativley ways of living.
At the end we desconstructed everything.
view from east
view from south
view from west