Timm Ulrichs, ‘Der erste sitzende Stuhl (nach langem Stehen sich zur Ruhe setzend)’ (1970)
Transl.: ‘The first chair sitting down (relaxing after standing for a long time)’
Tag Archives: germany
Nasan Tur
Nasan Tur, ‘Passport’ (2000)
Applying for a German passport, Nasan Tur let his mustache grow over several months, fitting the cliche of the Turk in Germany.
This small alteration in his appearance led to a complete change in perception of and reaction to him from the outside world in his daily life. In the circles in which he normally moved he was suddenly no longer welcome, and from a female point of view unsexy, whereas he was greeted with “Salem Aleykum” when walking past Turkish cafés and reaped enthusiastic compliments from aunts and uncles.
Hans Haacke
‘Germania’ (1993) Hans Haacke‘s contribution to the 1993 Venice Biennale.
“I learned that the pavillion’s present appearance was tied to Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. As part of an excursion to Venice for a meeting with his comrade Benito Mussolini, the man who had not succeeded as a painter in Vienna, paid a visit to the Biennale and the German pavilion. Hitler did not like what he saw. As a consequence, by 1937 an exhibition titled Degenerate Art opened in Munich, and plans for the re-styling of the pavilion in Venice were approved. A new national corporate identity was in the making – and so were preparations for the expansion of Germany beyond its borders and the introduction of a deadly programme of ethnic cleansing.”
(Hans Haacke in an essay for Tate Papers)
Helmut Dick
Helmut Dick‘s ‘Salad-field as big as a skyscraper’ (2001)
The field was situated in Gropiusstadt, Berlin-Neukölln, one of the biggest skyscraper settlements in Germany. The crops were gathered by neighborhood residents.
Michael Sailstorfer
The installation ‘Forst’, by Michael Sailstorfer. Seen at the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover.
Jason Dodge
‘Darkness falls on Beroldingerstraße 7, 79224 Umkirch’ (2006), by Jason Dodge
Everything that produces light was taken from a house at the edge of the woods in Germany.
Pied la Biche
‘Refait’ (2009) by Pied la Biche.
‘Refait’ is a remake of the football WorldCup match between France and Germany (Seville, Spain, 1982). Shot by Pied La Biche in Villeurbanne (France), every aspect of the fifteen last minutes of the match was carefully reconstructed : players, positions, gestures, intensity, drama etc. It consists in shifting the traditional game area into the urban environment. Each sequence takes place in one or several locations and then the city temporarily becomes the lab for unsual experiments.
A way to overcome a lost football match…
