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solvej dufour andersen
sabine wiese
kirsten dufour
mette kit jensen
rainer ganahl
nic ulmi
kirsten
dufour How can on-going critical spaces be established and maintained? (An
essay on the space in between)
The discussion is on-going in radical critical art groups: How does art operate in a
new liberal society of today, the art that by definition is critical/radical? Can it
occupy/hold some space/meeting places free (interstice-social space. In: The
Relational Aesthetic: Nicolas Bourriaud), where other alternative models of sociality or
modes of communication can be tried. Who is the public and how do we reach them/speak to
them? Shall art be out-reaching, break down borders, and make partnerships ? Which
resources are available? Which economical/non-economical models are possible?
Is visual art the perfect medium in the city and in urban space where the eye/ vision has
become the most important sense and where the human voice is no longer heard (a landscape
of human silence where the eye has become the organ through which people get information
of others: The Powers of the Eye: Richard Sennett).
How to recapture territories in the urban space, not only as a carnivalesque street party
for some hours (reclaim the streets: Carnival against Capitalism, 18 June 1999 in London),
but to more permanently establish non-places?
Art and everyday life together can encourage people to take greater control over their
every day life in a time when new liberalism and consumption has taken over all thought
and action.
Can we reuse methods and experiences from earlier radical groups in art? Constructivists,
de Stilj, Buckminster Fuller, Walter Benjamins theories, and the Situtationists, all of
whom foresaw what the conditions for existence, technology and consumerism, would lead
to?(Some are quotations from an article : the non place urban realm, Variant nr. 10,
spring 2000)
And what about the experiences from 1968? Writing this history is not yet finished. What
has not been sold ( in galleries or bought by museums) is not included in art history
'in a society where money makes history, it does not exist' (Martha Rosler
speaks about American feminist art in : Environ 27 ans, published by Sous Sol,
Geneva).
Maybe it is the artists strength/contribution that she/he figures out strategies and acts,
alone or collectively, and then materialises the work. The result of which is a method for
harvesting new experiences.
It began with SAAS (Space of Advanced Art Studies). in
1997 A non-space in the urban space, a non-economic space, an empty white
room, an empty shop, where nothing needs to happen in any prefixed routine, an empty space
where the possibility for things to happen exists. A free undefined artistic space. The
first initiative was the school, SAAS which started a strategy for the Open Academy with
only one student (to emphasize quality instead of quantity). Together we invited other
artists to join a project, an artco-operation.(1)
SAAS No Name, then, is a non-space in the city on a random street in
Nørrebro, a former shop with a large window and a door opening out onto the street.
The history of the neighbourhood is quite banal. There is nothing that can provide obvious
guidelines, no obvious personality. It is an old workers/artisans quarter, built during
industrialisations boom about 100 years ago. The apartments in the typical 5 storey old
buildings are today either condominiums or co-operatives, owned either by students
or pensioners. In the newer social housing, built on the land which earlier housed small
enterprises, immigrants have now moved in with their large families. During the day
between 9 and 4, the neighbourhood is empty. There is no life, few shops. a place where
people do not live but exist, a neglected playground, and a crumbling square next to it.
On sundays and holidays, the cars are gone. People have driven somewhere else. It is not
permitted to set up art pieces or make an exhibition in public space;on the square or any
place else in this part of Nørrebro. The public space , the streets , without
peoples knowledge and acceptance, has been given away or "sold". Who cares anyway? City
and State funds for improving urban areas are invested in large amounts in surrounding
neighbourhoods, giving this environment special status, since it is not included in the
plans. But in this absence of city administration initiative other activities has
developped. A Marokkan private school an Arabic kindergarden and other etnik and political
groupings as an anakist collective and a local radiostation with a youth club connected
making broadcasting programs for teenagers. It also gives us the possibility, without
supporting other interests, to formulate and carry out projects which hopefully could
reveal the resources of this area. In order to do so we have to dig down into small
unseen/unnoticed matters and begin from scratch.
The projects position in relation to
the contexts - the street, Nørrebro, the institution- is in the
cultural-political and the artistic sense a conscious attempt to actualise a problem
that does not only relate to a series of artistic strategies right now, but also to the
continuing discussion of the communication of visual art.
What has happened:
It
was our basic strategy to show art in our neighbourhood in Nørrebro, where
contemporary art has not been introduced and where people do not take any initiative to go
into an artistic/project space. This is a common experience, since an exhibition space for
most people is an alienated place.
Non-stop VideoWindow International in No
Name (3)
Video is a media that is easiest for people to read, since film and
television are the most used media today and therefore the easiest media for people to
relate to, to look at, to understand. Contemporary video art uses the picture poetically
with simplified short film sequences/loops with a completely different language and
consequence, often with a wide range of sense experiences and experiments, than that used
by commercial films. It therefore draws attention to new possibilities and creates a free
space for reflection.
Video shown on the street through a shop window, breaks the
"silence" and communicates through the picture (no sound) and its persistent presence.
Each video playing all day, non-stop for a week, gives people the opportunity
to see it again and again, even to come by the next day if they had noticed something and
wanted to check it out.
A video window creates light and life in a dead street. It is
something special!
The weakness of this form is the lack of dialogue. We had to
pursue this through a telephone survey. We called the nearest neighbours who had been a
voluntary or involuntary public for four months. Their answers have been written down. It
is clear from such answers as: I am embarrassed to live in the same house; or: It gives
you a lift; that they took it in and felt responsible. (2)
Non-stop VideoWindow
International, was inspired by discussions/strategies and considerations that placed three
important issues on the agenda:
1. Create a space where art refers itself to another
public: A non-stop showing of art videos projected out of a large video-window
onto the street was the framework and context for VideoWindow International. A framework
that is completely central for the project as a whole and for the invited artists
relationship to the conditions and possibilities that the space outside the institution
represented.
2. Create networks/co-operation between art groups: which work
critically in a social area where intervention by dominating strategies and
socio-political zones in the city space belong to the artistic agenda.
In
co-operation with VideoWindow International in BASEL, which has shown silent
international videos for a year on a monitor from an empty store in Basels busiest
commercial area, we selected and invited 11 internatonal video artists from this
project.Six Danish video artists were also invited. The videos should represent a broad
spectrum of contemporary video art and be interesting to show in this context. They should
also function technically when being projected onto a larger surface out into the street
space in strong competition with the street lighting. Since there was no sound, it was the
pictures artistic quality that had to communicate the work.
3. Create a space for
discussion and stimulating the discourse between artists who work experimentally in a
socio-political context: To qualify and promote the discussion of the artistic
intentions that precisely in these years seems to question the institution as well as the
artists and arts role in a continually changing public space.
VideoWindow
International was followed by an international seminar: Art on Street Level, How to
succeed! at DCA, Danish Contemporary Art Centre(march the 30 -2001), to meet the
need for this discussion about art that experiments with another point of departure. We
invited four international lecturers, RTMmark N.Y. Nils Norman GB. Keith Pirlot L.A. lara
Wallner D, who work outside the art institutions in USA, Germany, and England. We also
arranged for all the Danish artists working with these issues to receive a comprehensive
introduction to the programme 2 weeks in advance. This was an attempt which resulted in
questions and discussion becoming a part of the presentation and in this way we avoided
the obligatory 5 min. questioning session in the end.
www.remap.dk Art on street level After the
Seminar we have been working with a publication for the internet www.remap.dk, with the idea of collecting and
introducing artists who work in a more activist way in public space, independently of
local political, institutional, and commercial interests. This group is difficult to find.
Our method is to establish contact through countless networks and through the Internet,
but working with the issues we realize that personal meetings are most important. This
requires many trips and participation in seminars where this discourse is carried out. By
exporting the local discussion out into a global disscusion and vice versa, through an
international network , the discourse will be develloped and strengenth, since the
vertical/the local aspect which goes deep cannot be develloped and strengenth without the
horisontal/global aspect which can communicate our thoughts, ideas and expieriences out to
everybody.
What happens now:
YNBK, Ydre Nørrebro Kultur Bureau- Outer Nørrebro Cultural Bureau. The
experiences from VideoWindow International are being followed up by a group of artists
living in Nørrebro, who daily for several years have made various observations in
this neighbourhood. by founding Outer Nørrebro Cultural Bureau in the spring of
2001 based on the following ideas: Artists in YNBK should be living in the area, use the
environment as their field of observations and the activities should be directed towards
the local population by introducing new models of sociality/communication and develop
alternative "meeting" spaces within public space. We are in the beginning of a longer
process where every project is an experiment. We are not going for immediate results as
our work is based on a long term investigation to clarify and make visible for the people
and us living there, the structures, the resources and the possibilities especially their
cultural life, performed through different cultural organisations and interest groups.
Autumn 2001: We started to making tours in the area taking up the Situationist's
method also called derive. We met in a coffee shop, where we usually had our meetings in
the morning and then we used the whole day walking around, knocking on doors and talking
to people. We quickly found out that our environment is full of activities, -
activities that for various reasons live a quite anonymous existence. Some examples:- An
after school Centre arranging homework for emigrant children with help from voluntary
Danish university students.
- Indian Mother Theresa Nuns running a centre serving food for
homeless people.
- An Islamic funeral Centre
- A woman feeds 50 wild cats in an old workshop
area every day.
- Music groups rehearsing Arabic music.
- A local radio station Station 2000
combined with a youth club of young immigrants who make Radio programs.
- An autonomous
collective of young students, being almost daily under police observation.
- An Islamic
school for children those normal schools don't want to have.
- A group of tenants has
made a proposal for an Activity Park in a closed down rail road station area.
- Two
Kindergartens next to each other, one Islam, on second floor with nowhere to play outside.
- etc. etc.
We would arrange meetings with them and come back later and make an often 2 hours long
video interviews with them. Except for the nuns, they were against any advertisement of
their work. The interviews were always very positive and usually ended up in them asking
us in one way or another for advice; teaching programs in art, decorating a wall etc, and
in the local autonomous collective they were interested in promoting work in public
spheres making an eating space or a street garden and organising demonstrations.
The Activity Park and the Culture and Art Centre. In November 2001 we took part in a
public hearing about new planning for the area Outer Nørrebro. There we heard about
the local Authority's plans for a now empty and demolished railroad area: They
wanted to build new rental houses there and a pretty park with a lake. Young members of
the free radio youth club, where the kids had interviewed local politicians and asked for
better conditions for young people, such as meeting and outdoor activities spaces (there
are none). A group of local grown up tenants who called themselves 'Initiative
Group' put forward their idea of an 'Activity Park' for the old rail area.
The area is just next to 'Mjølnerparken' a housing area with a high level
of immigrants 98% with ca. 2000 children.
We decided to support the 'Initiative Group' and their proposal for the
'Activity Park'. Not only support it in the decision making of a new local plan
but to advertise the project in the local community to get them involved. In addition we
proposed to use some beautiful old condemned storage buildings/ The Freightman Halls which
had been decided to be pulled down, and there establish an alternative Culture and Art
Centre. The Freightman Halls are situated between the Activity Park and Nørrebro
Station, which in few years will be servicing 30 000 people per day (compared to 7 000 per
day now). The idea of the Centre is to create a meeting ground for local art groups/
cultural groups with international art. To create a space settled in a local cultural
environment, but where international artist can be invited in to provoke meetings not only
to cross over ethnicities but also to cross over the local - global. The specific
characteristic of Outer Nørrebro will be preserved but at the same time the area
will receive an new input for the benefit of the local population as well as for art and
cultural interested visitors into the area.
Spring 2002 we have been developing the idea about an Art- and Cultural Center
further and communicating it out to the politicians who carry the final decision, by
taking part in quite a few political meetings.
On March the 16th we opened YNKB our bureau in No Name. Here we have exposed the plans for
the Activity Park and the Art - and Cultural center in an exhibition and invited
artists/experts in to set up a meeting space, where ideas and experiences can be shared
and developed creating new alternative opinions and awareness and in this way support and
develop common engagement in the 2 new projects to come. It is our plans to contact local
cultural organisations, and there is quite a few, and confront them with the ideas and try
to get them involved. We are working together with the local Radio station: Station 2000,
and a local TVstation: TV stop. In addition we have arranged four theme days: - A hearing
at the radio station: station 2000, with politicans about the plans for the Activity Park
and the Cultural - and Art centre. The visitors in the exhibition could telephone
station 2000 and ask questions to the politicians.
- A day about playing grounds: A
kindergarten teacher will tell about Danish playgrounds in the last 30 years, an artist
will tell about his experiences in making playing grounds and an architect will tell about
projects in Holland of similar character to the Activity Park.
- A music day: An opera
singer and an accordionist, an Arabian orchestra and an Experimental musician will join
together.
- A Rock Opera: A group of students from the royal academy in Copenhagen has
joined together for restaged a rock opera by Røde MOR (Red Mum), - a popular
left oriented rock band from the seventies.
In the autumn 2002 we are planning to set up new events and building new strategies for
our artistic practice . At the same time this project gives us the possibility of
experimenting with alternative ways of how art can move into social/ political decision
making processes. From these few months of different practices we have already learned
that there are two important factors to be aware of, one is building trust and the other
is a long-term project, since this is the only way this canbe obtained. The group
consist of following artists/ members at the time being, spring 2002: Kirsten Dufour,
Åsa Sonjasdotter, Gillion Grantsaan, Petri Rappannan, Molly Haslund, Finn Thybo
Andersen.
Note: The text in bold is written by Dorthe Abildgaard, DCA, Copenhagen
Footnotes:
(1) In 1995, Kirsten Dufour, together with Finn Thybo Andersen, started SAAS
Space of Advanced Art Studies in Copenhagen, an alternative forum for experimental art. It
consisted of an art school, an exhibition/project room, a publishing house, and a
film/video production company. The idea was that there should only be very few students.
The student participates in a kind of apprenticeship with a professional artist/teacher
and is active on all fronts, participates in designing and discussing his/her own
education, in meetings, exhibitions, studies, and study trips, both his own and the
teachers. This requires a continuing education. As part of SAASs activities, we have made
an exhibition space /project room, No Name. The idea has been, among other things, to
involve the students in SAAS in an exhibition practice in which new strategies are used:
Open Academy Project 1998. An Art-co project with RCB exhibitions in Ranum
Copenhagen Berlin. which referred to the locality-specific population. An
interplay project in the neighbourhoods around the exhibition places in all three cities.
One of the projects was Artradiogetlost, a parasite radio that sent 1-hour
discussion on art on street level--from a local radio with local artists in
each city.
Open Academy project 2000 The Pro bono Committée services,the Open Museum, El
Monte Memorial. var et Art-co project started as an open academy project, a
collective group with students and teachers from Otis College of Art and Design in Los
Angeles. and the artist group Despiute Resolution Servicies and other artist living in
L.A. Together we made 5 different events :exhibitions, street happenings or actions during
the spring 2000.
Open Academy project 2001. L-AA-L. (3.40x4.80) was a Art-co project
together with The little Garden Nørresunby.dk and The Potatoes Project, Public Life
and The School garden project in London. Three gardens on 3,32 x4.83 meters were
established in London . The size were identical with the little garden. dk. They were
executed in 3 different art csontexts, all operating in public space outside the art
institution. We found the 3 artprojects after having researched the underground art
activist milieu in London an they were all invited to introduce themselves in a
publication and on www.dlhsite.dk, a website made by The Little Garden. dk, -Nørresundby. At
the same time the project was visualised as A Souvenir Installation in The Little Garden
in may 01.
Open Academy project in Valand Gøteborg oct.2001. Through a workshop we sat up a
permanent open department in the academy, where students could collaborate with other
groups from outside and in this way not only launche their own education but open up the
institution and build up important networks.
(2) Program for Non-Stop Videovindue International 12/12/99 - 01/04/00:
1999
- 12/12 Anja Franke (DK)
- 19/12 Kristine Kemp (DK)
- 26/12 Chantal Michel (CH)
2000 - 3/1
Ann Lislegaard (DK)
- 10/1 Eloise Porcarelli (CH)
- 17/1 Birgit Johnsen/Hanne Nielsen (DK)
-
24/1 Sue Webster/Tim Noble (GB)
- 31/1 John Wood/Paul Harrison (GB)
- 7/2 N55 (DK)
- 14/2
Eric Lanz (CH)
- 21/2 Sandra Kogut (F)
- 28/2 Graziella Tomasi (NE)
- 6/3 Monica Pirch (D)
- 13/3 Anja Vormann (D)
- 20/3 Stefan Rohner (CH)
- 27/3 Simone Aaberg Kærn (DK)
(2) Program for Non-Stop Videovindue International Second session jan-
apr. 2002 is a project arranged as a co-operation between "Space of Advanced Art
studies" (S.A.A.S.), Copenhagen, with Kirsten Dufour, "SHOOT", Malmø, with Lisa
Strömbeck, and "And I'll do anything to get girls into my bedroom", London,
with Emma Hedditch. The project has two parts, a video exhibition with a 12-week
programme from 3 January to 31 March 2002, and a concluding presentation/discussion to be
held at the end of March 2002.
Program - 06. - 12. jan. Elisabet Apelmo: IĞm not naked (S)
- 13. - 19. jan.
Felix GMelin: :-) + :-( = :-I (S)
- 20. - 26. jan. Marnie Weber:
Destiny and blow-up friends (USA)
- 27. - 02. feb. Lena Ignestam: Skyline (S)
- 03. - 09. feb. Marika Bredler: Man to Mouse,T-shirt, Ulv, Fuck/Luck,
Myra,Myrstack(S)
- 10. - 16. feb. Serge Comte: Orange Sanguine (F)
- 17. - 23.
feb. Anna Brag: W (double You)(S) 24. - 01. marts. Bettina Munk: Smile (D)
- 03.
- 09. marts. Guppy, Yoko Hata: Moving Honey Honey City2 (Japan)
- 10. - 16.
marts. Michelle Naismith: My Black Sun (UK)
- 17. - 23. marts. Marina Vishmidt:
Nails (USA)
- Eva Hjorth: Idun Varvin (DK)
- 24. - 31. marts. Niki Woodham: Glass (UK)
(3) A collection of comments from inhabitants in Baldersgade 69 and 70, Balders Plads 4
and 6, and from Station 2000 - a local radio station:
video window was a break in
everyday life it opened up for a conversations and discussions about art the window wakes
you up in the midst of everyday life it gives you a lift fine funny and humoristic, it was
good to have lightens up because it was pictures and movement people stopped I would like
it to come back, but I wouldn't pay for it it's something different positive
initiative it has value that someone feels like starting a project like that surprise led
to confusion and uncertainty about what it was people felt it a pity when the video
projector was stolen it was like a show in the southern countries I was provoked about
what it was all about today there is a surplus of pictures, so on the street I would like
a break from them people from Nørrebro are maybe prejudiced in relation to not
knowing what it is, and they think "bourgeois piss" here in the midst of the working class
the project is predictable here in Nørrebro, in the suburbs north of Copenhagen
people would understand the meaning there should be more explanationv the great amount of
pictures is an obstacle right on! it awakes emotions one of the better initiatives art to
the people, so it's not elite everyday users of art the content was the interesting
thing the text video made me want to write an answer on the window I am glad something
happened in the street good for the street with a touch of culture great when I went by in
the evening when I didn't quite understand it, I looked at the text on the door I
especially remember the video with people that are sort of gliding you can't help
looking it was an experience in the street scene you stopped and thought, what does it
mean? many videos repeat themselves it doesn't seem very deep it created life in the
street, especially when the television was projected out the window it had no meaning for
me it made me think that I would like some art to decorate or look nice there is no
message or an experience in itself that kind of art is very strange to me technically, it
is not perfect art should beautify reality I don't want to be surrounded by reality
all the time art should give life extra dimensions, for example, suffering, death, or
desire most of those I have seen have gone by without stopping Baldersgade is the area of
Nørrebro farthest out, so not many have watched some of the videos made me feel
embarrassed and ashamed at home I have paintings that harmonize with my everyday life
there isn't any art in this area just feel I'm being confronted with reality
- I see enough of that every day the first thing I think of is that the video
projector was stolen i t was the worst junk it was embarrassing when you had guests it was
embarrassing that it came from our building even the children made faces the video of the
women with the tool was grotesque art outside is fine enough, but then it should be worth
looking at if art is to be seen every day, it should nice and beautiful people stopped and
said it was bad it was just uninteresting you couldn't choose, there was no button
to shut it off I stopped sometimes it was a little different than what you usually see
surrealistic it was good that it wasn't the same all the time the idea is good
we're not used to having art blown up out of a window it mostly grabs the young
people because it's like the movies we had art served to us
Collected by Helene
Ollegård, art historian, by telephone, April 2000
see work at planet22 top
mette kit jensen Involuntary
listener
The woman's voice blubbers all through the hall: 'Honey, please let me in...
please let me in...'
No response
Woman: 'buhuu, I'm so sorry'
The door on the 4th floor opens
Man's voice: 'It's your own fault'
Woman: 'Buhuu, I know, I'm sorry'
Man: 'So long'
There's a slamming of the door
Woman: 'Please let me in'
Man, this time through the closed door: 'So long'
The woman cries louder but moves away from the place and
begins to walk down the stairs. The sound increases as she passes my door and fades away
together with the sound of her steps to dissappear altogether the moment you hear the
slamming of the main door.
The house is silent for about 10 min, then you hear the sound of the telephone ringing in
the flat upstairs, continually. Nobody picks up the phone. The entire incident has lasted
for about 20 min. Once again I've become the involuntary witness to these
people's lives, in spite of the fact that I've never seen them as anything but
blurred outlines which now and then passes by my scratched door spy. I have no idea who
these people are who live their lives nights in the flat upstairs and partly on the
stairway, and who apparently have come to a permanent agreement as to all questions of
guilt. The man with the brutish voice keeps hurling endless accusations at the defendant,
who voluntarily admits to everything. She is all too conscious of her guilt and thus have
to spend more and more nights on the stairway with the doormat as her confessional,
whispering her pleadings and confessions through the letter slit. Her weak voice fades
away on the stairway, and to her appeals about being let in, her hangman responds with an
occasional offended roar, 'Fuck off'. Even though I live alone in my flat, I
seem to be sharing my life with these people, whose existence I virtually doubt in my
desperate moments. They on their part seem to live in absolute ignorance of their
audience. I have been forced to become an involuntary voyeur or more preciselyan
involuntary listener. Forced to listen to these fragments of a radio play of changing
sound quality, living in ignorance as to when they will be continued. In between there are
no sounds for months, then they begin again or they are taken over by other series from
the flat next door or downstairs. For instance, the flat on the 2nd floor is occupied by
Mr. C, who is at home only rarely, but who apparently has a tremendous appetite for women.
Sometimes there is a moaning and groaning coming through my bedroom floor, rythmic and
passionate like the trains that pass outside my window.
The acoustic room of the city floats through streets, walls, and stairways. When I'm
on the train or in the bus I get caught by private cell-phone conversations,
involved in fights and reconsiliations. Against my will I've become a spy,
constantly dragged into intimate relations, unfinished sentences, meeting arrangements,
booking of tables, cancelings, and confirmations. As if I were a detective I'm
being left to collect, resolve, and evict information, and in this way try to obtain
meaning in the stream of sounds.
Copenhagen December 9th 2000 at 04:47 a.m.
see work at planet22 top
rainer ganahl hotmail for
desperate living
ecrivez_write@hotmail.com is the name of my
project for PLANET 22, a conceptual gallery in Geneva. It is just what it is, an
e-mail address that now anxiously waits for mail.
The work consists of an illuminated panel, affixed to a gallery project wall in
Geneva's red light district. Upon the panel, the address ecrivez_write@hotmail.com is written in
white, surrounded by a pool of magenta. The sign glows silently, inviting passersby to
respond in either French or English. E-mail addresses are private when on name cards
or scribbled on tiny sheets of paper meant only for private exchanges. E-mail
addresses are public when written on products, on advertising surfaces and flashing up on
TV screens. When created by an individual, they can be used to express practicality,
fantasy, individuality, invention and even desire and provocation. For example,
Rainerganahl@yahoo.com or fuckyou@bolt.com. Nothing needs to be true. Network identities
are usually initiated with e-mail addresses and they're supposed to be
invented, to be staged for our communicational arenas.
ecrivez_write@hotmail.com is a publicly
located address, an open invitation to anyone who encounters it so long as they are
familiar with e-mail and technically literate. E-mail however, suggests a
private dialog. The questions are: will people take notice of it, and will they write to
me? Will I start e-relationships? And how will this work affect with my private
affaires?
I myself am an e-mail enthusiast since 1989. In many ways e-mail has changed
my life: the way I organize my activities, the way I communicate, the way I even think and
day-dream. We barely need anything anymore. Today, e-mail messages are
retrievable from nearly anywhere and at any time using all kinds of convenient, portable
devices. Quasi-public interfaces such as Hotmail or Yahoo have the ability to
liberate us from our own machines and even from our personal belongings. Liberation
however, comes at a price.
Online providers go to great lengths to promise their customers discretion and privacy
while using their services. A false sense of safety and anonymity is created, as people
freely play with real and electronic identities. The reality however is different.
Marketing companies, law enforcement agencies, and others, have relatively easy access to
your personal information, enabling them to track your every move, both on and off the
Internet. Cookies for example, using HTML data file packets such as CGI scripts, are
regularly placed within your hard drive by remote web servers controlled by information
hungry companies. Cookies uniquely identify you during web interactions, creating records
of who you are, and what actions you take on a website. Such records can be easily passed
on to anonymous third-party companies, creating opportunities for abuses of privacy.
There is much more to be said about the private and public uses of e-mail and its
technical, social and psychological infrastructure. I however, prefer to simply wait here
for your mail.
In the end, what e-mail creates are states of perpetual expectation. Endless streams
of waiting and waiting and an inbox full of spam.
Ecrivez-write me at ecrivez_write@hotmail.com!
Geneva, May 2000
One year into this socio-poetic experiment and I have received 192 messages from 10
different people, with my having sent 167. Not surprisingly, most of the respondents have
been artists who initially heard of the project through art world channels. The majority
of messages received at ecrivez_write@hotmail.com have been written by
three different respondents, yet there have been about 300 more exchanges using my
personal account, since real friendships have grown out of the work.
Getting to know people in this way has been an exciting and liberating experience.
Relationships were established through e-mail texts alone, fueled by the distance
between myself in New York and my e-pals in Switzerland. At one point, I asked for
some chocolate and received presents and books via airmail. The e-mails eventually
transformed into post cards, telephone conversations, and on two occasions personal
encounters.
Experiences such as these are unique and unpredictable. They fit well with a psychology of
curiosity, adventure and desire, in a state of fracture, rupture and social isolation.
They simultaneously produce pleasure and frustration, since reality is harder to deal with
then instant communication in a room of unrestricted and quasi-uncensored
expressions. Through these meetings, writing becomes an art of encounter and community.
The city is falling on its stomach. This new situationist logic doesn't need to
remember street names. Nadja, the mysterious flaneur in Breton's Paris of the early
XX century can now get lost anywhere. An e-mail address and computer access is
sufficient and anybody would be back on our screen. Loss and fragmentation still occur but
aren't anymore only geographically defined. Combined with Boeing, Airbus and high
speed train systems, the city and its multiple promises can be spread and carried around
everywhere. Fog, urban darkness, danger and seduction exist also through grammar and the
use of words and idioms. Strange attractors may be sent with electro-chemical
idiosyncrasies. The beauty of late nights and of early mornings ends and begins with a
password and some dial-up noise. E-dependencies go unnoticed and jet-leg
becomes immanent when moving via the World Wide Web. Sleep and insomnia oscillate when we
hit keyboards, scroll screens, and encounter friendly interfaces. Language is left behind
as we continue clicking (incoming and outgoing) towards a time-zone-free
horizon. I wish I were here; Wish you were here.
Etc. Etc. some subject (a selection): Eyes wide shut, Aug 27 2000, 2k; Re: sad sans le e.,
Aug 27 2000,1k; aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa( ueberuebelsensibel)rrr..., Aug 11 2000, 3k; very
nice to hear from you...., Jul 29 2000, 1k; writing immunity; Jul 25 2000, 2k; cadeau,
Jul 24 2000, 1k; creating immunities, Jul 23 2000, 1k; My very first hours...., Jul 23
2000, 1k; Re: I am a nice person, Jul 22 2000, 2k; Alles blau in blau sehen (Suite)
(Suite)(Suit..., Jul 20 2000, 3k; Re: Schreiben Sie_ Moi, Jul 20 2000, 2k; Re: Le monstre
du lac LEMON . Un épisode inéd...; Jul 18 2000, 1k; Re: lie or write, Jul 17
2000, 1k; (none), Jul 12 2000, 1k; Re: money money money... a song; Jul 6 2000, 2k; Re: a
song, Jul 6 2000, 2k; write and buy, Jun 28 2000, 1k; steel and write, Jun 27 2000, 1k;
Re: specified: : : very specified; Jun 26 2000, 3k; Re: No subject was specified. Yes "no
subject..., Jun 19 2000, 2k; Blauer Fleckunempfindlich, Jun 18 2000, 1k; écrit, Jun
18 2000, 1k; scrivere, Jun 17 2000,1k; geschriebt, Jun 16 2000, 1k; alles superpflanzen,
Jun 16 2000, 1k; writerobert, Jun 12 2000, 1k; ecrirons; Jun 11 2000, 1k; what a suspense,
Jun 2 2000, 1k; Re: qu'est-ce que j'écris?, Jun 5 2000, 2k;
qu'est-ce que j'écris? May 31 2000, 1k.
Scattered messages by people spread all over the world, including from the ones that are
living next door or in the same room, intensify the pulse of things. This art of literate
and literal encounters usually has something utopian and liberating about it, and is more
like poetic lubrication than power. New York, May 22, 2001
see
work at planet22
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sabine wiese
rue de berne 22
l'histoire projeté par le bureau a. lozeron et m. mozer associés qui
finissent les travaux fin 1964. le maître d'ouvrage, m. porter a
également été l'initiateur de deux autres ensembles dans le
quartier réalisés par le même bureau (rue de Zürich et
pâquis-môle) les affectations au rez-de-chaussée étaient; un
restaurant chinois, un bar rez une laverie publique. les 5 étages
supérieures sont identiques comportant 8 studios par étages. le
bâtiment sera rapidement 'habité' pas des prostituées et la
location d'un studio coûte à l'époque 1000.- sfr environs.
en 1985 les façades d'origine brûlent et sont remplacées par une
façade en pvc. puis l'immeuble sera 'géré' par une
maquerelle demandant 500.- sfr par personne et on trouvera jusqu'à 6
occupants par studio, le rendement est à son comble. Suite à un
contrôle, le bâtiment se vide et des projets de rénovations
légères sont prévus; mais commencé au 5ème
étage, ils s'arrêteront, le propriétaire ayant fait faillite.
resté vide pendant 8 ans, il est squatté en fin 1997. à la
première étage maggi et yvette restent locataires officielles pour la
régie. Le rez-de-chaussée reste utilisé par le bar 'lotus
bleu', le 'hong-kong café chez tchang', le kebab 'al amir'.
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nic ulmi au rez de chaussee et demi
Nébuleuse d'Orion, NGC 1976 M42 dans ton catalogue de l'univers.
Monsieur C vit ici, au rez-de-chaussée et demi, sur une planète
qui porte le numéro 22. La numéro 24, juste à côte, est une
planète assez bondée irriguée par un fluide pétillant; elle
s'appelle "Chez Tschang". Sur la numéro 20, nommée Al Amir,
on brûle à petit feu des animaux empalés sur de longs pieux. Sur quelle
galaxie est-tu tombée?
Une bande signalétique orange et verte te donne, un peu plus loin, une indication:
Orion, précisement. Une nébuleuse où l'on se promène
vêtus de combinaisons en matière plastique qui exposent de larges portions de
peau nue au contact de l'air, et dont les dispositifs de laçage et de
délaçage semblent avoir été conçus par des
ingénieurs en habillement pour prolonger le plus possible les phases
d'enfilage et d'effeuillage. Mais on voit mal Monsieur C porter une de ces
combinaisons ou s'abîmer dans les sous-sols interlope d'Orion
érotique shop, NGC 1976 M42 dans ton catalogue de l'univers. Monsieur C est
plutôt du genre à rechercher une certaine élévation:
c'est d'ailleurs pourquoi il habite au rez-de-chaussée et
demi sur la planète numéro 22. C'est en fait un studio, largement
vitré, avec vue plongeante sur la rue. Ni tout à fait au rez, ni tout
à fait à l'étage, Monsieur C vit là sa vie abrité
par un rideau brodé et éclairé par un lustre démodé en
forme de soucoupe volante années soixante.
Le rideau est juste assez bas pour te donner l'impression qu'en te mettant sur
la pointe des pieds sur le trottoir d'en face, tu peux voir ce que Monsieur C
fabrique dans sa piaule à l'entresol: Monsieur C a-t-il des
dimensions normales? Vit il courbé, plié en deux?, Ou en quatre? T'as
beau sautiller sur la chaussée, tu n'arrives pas à le voir. Tu sais
pourtant qu'il est là. Non seulement la lumière est allumée,
mais il y a des bruits, qu'on entend à travers des grilles rondes en se
postant juste en-dessous, dans l'entrée du numéro 22. On
découvre ainsi que Monsieur C est agité, mais routinier. On l'entend
très distinctement tirer des meubles et des meubles et tourner bruyamment en rond
à 9, 13, 17, 19, 21 et 23 heures, tous les jours, jusqu'au 4 octobre.
Après, Monsieur C devra partir, et le caisson vitré au-dessus de
l'entrée du 22, rue de berne, à Genève, accueillera un nouvelle
installation. planet22: sans doute un des plus petits espaces d'art contemporain de
l'histoire du monde, et peut-être le seul où il est tout à
fait impossible d'entrer. A moins, bien sûr, d'être Monsieur C: Thes
secret life of Mister C, où La vie secret de Monsier C est donc visible -
façon de dire - au 22 rue de berne, à Genève, grâce
à l'artiste danoise Mette Kit Jensen. Qui aime son pays et surtout sa ville,
Copenhague, où les gens t'abordent pour te raconter des choses intimes
pendant que tu attends accoudé-e au comptoir d'un stand à
saucisses ou posté-e en rang d'oignon sur un banc de l'abribus.
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solvej dufour
andersen
un extrait...
La formation, autour de la rue de Berne, d'une zone de bars et de prostitution est
à mettre en relation avec la proximité de la gare et de l'ensemble du
système hôtelier. ♥ Anciennement rue de l'Entrepôt
- bâtiment démoli en 1892 pour faire place à la poste du
Mont-Blanc - La rue prit très officiellement son nom de rue de Berne un
31 décembre de 1902. ♥ (...) un témoignage d'amitié
confédérale qui nous rappelle que Genève est bien suisse. ♥
La loi du marché. Il y a l'Hôtel Barillon qui est fermé,
où beaucoup de femmes travaillaient. Avant, dans les années
quatre-vingt, le grand noyau de la prostitution, c'était 22, rue de
Berne, en face: le Barillon, juste derrière il y avait le Vénitien, à
la rue Grossier, et l'immeuble le Catelle. ♥ J'ai toujours
rêvé que pendant les soldes, les nanas de la rue de Berne nous offrent une
banderolle du genre 'Monstre braderie sur les pipes ' ou 'Prix
sacrifiées, prix exceptionnels '. En travers de la rue, au niveau du
deuxième étage. Ca serait drôle et joli. ♥ 26 mars 1879:
les régisseurs Pilet-Bouvier informent que les auteurs de tapage à la
rue de l'Entrepôt 11, font le même bruit au premier étage.
(...) Des voisins m'ont assuré que tous les jours une vingtaine
d'individus et souvent de nouvelles figures montaient dans les appartements de ces
deux personnes. Ces deux personnes, deux prostituées vaudoises de 26 et
respectivement 27 ans, ont un appartement au premier étage de cette rue et
l'agent les décrit: 'Elle (sic) sont à la fenêtre, se
faisant remarquer par leur tenue et leurs gestes, elle (sic) sont sans occupation et ne
vivent que du produit de la prostitution. ' ♥ En 1961 déjà,
étaient dénoncées au Grand-Conseil une série de
démolitions dans le quartier ayant entraîné l'évacuation
des habitants: Entre autres 22, rue de berne. ♥ Dans votre immeuble (22, rue de
Berne), elles payaient jusqu'à 1800 frs. un studio (de 25 m2). À
l'époque, comme il n'y avait pas beaucoup d'endroits où
elles pouvaient travailler, elles étaient prêtes à payer 1800 frs...
C'étaient des immeubles où il y avait une espèce de mafia
derrière, ça augmentait, ça baissait... ♥
♥ O. Archambault ♥ R. Hippenmeyer, ♥ Pasteur Privat, ♥ Mireille Rodeville ♥ Sarcloret, ♥ A. Cairoli,
♥ O. Archambault ♥ Mireille Rodeville, Aspasie
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