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PERFORMATIVE LIVING
Tekst og fotografi
Verket er laget på bakgrunn av et en ukes kunstneropphold i en leilighet i Gropiusstadt, Berlin regi av Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt. Foto og tekst ble publisert i Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt Yearbook 2009, og er et tenkt forslag til en performance for stedet.
Living one week at the top floor in a tower block in
Gropiusstadt has made me feel as if I was the only
person in the world. Surrounded by people in similar
apartments and tower blocks. A stranger. Only staying for a short while.
Knowing that some live their whole
lives here, even for generations, still gives me the
feeling that everyone must be a stranger here.
I find the flat very quiet. I like quiet places. The outside
seems fairly quiet too. I like surroundings where
you can walk alone. Like in the woods. This place is
nothing like it. This silence has a strangeness to it.
Behind the windows, and inside every tower block,
there are hundreds of lives. Do they, as I do, feel this
quirky absence of people? Do the tower blocks them
selves bring anonymity to the inhabitants? The grey,
tall monsters don´t make you want to give them nick
names, qualities, nor smells. How to differ one from
the other? They seem to be like shadows or big clouds
that are part of the air for a while, and disappear when
you turn your head. Look at that cloud! That shape, it
is huge! And look, now it is gone.
There are verandas with strange lights. Verandas that
glow in the dark as if they are dressed up for raveparties.
Green fluorescent light to part the insides from the
outsides. There are verandas with all kinds of flags,
verandas furnished like living rooms. Down the street
there is a veranda at the top floor of a tower block,
looking like a Chinese take away. Hovering, drifting
towards the sky. Red paper-lights swinging in the wind
in the forefront of blue heaven. I like the idea of using
windows and verandas as your face to the world. Hello!
This is who I am.
There is a great potential in tower blocks facing each
other, for voyeurs and exhibitionists too. I use the days
thinking about developing a performance for two of
them. One building would be the stage, the verandas
and windows, scenes or chapters. The inhabitants
would be the performers. The mirroring building
would be used for lighting up the stage. The audience
would be sitting on the verandas in the same building,
even on the ground, looking up. It would be night.
Dark. The buildings and inhabitants would come alive,
as glimpses of stories, giants with multiple personalities.
Gropiusstadt 07. 03. 2009
les om Gropiusstadt, Berlin
les om Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt
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