2011

 

Circuit Square

2011

animated video projection (12 min loop) on free-standing sculpture

dimensions variable (approx. 7 x 7 m)

Berlin Next! exhibition, La Gaîté Lyrique / "Rewriting Worlds", 4th Moscow Biennale of contemporary art, Artplay Design Center

Paris, France / Moscow, Russia

In collaboration with Arne Beck / INVISIBLECHAMBER

Animated video sequence dealing with the decay and renewal, the usage of space, and the changing sociology of a fictional Berlin neighborhood. These processes - often subsumed as gentrification - are displayed in a non-linear time-lapse loop that's projected onto 4 wooden structures arranged to form a square.
I think of this as something like a portrait of the area in Berlin that I moved to 10 years ago. Most of the buildings looked like the ones I paint back then. Most of them weren’t renovated areas which others could call ‘rundown’ or dilapidated were, in fact, pretty charming. There was a visible history on the facades with all their marks from generations of inhabitants. The buildings silently told stories of their inhabitants’ existences. That is what interested me. Only then all artistic activity and freedom made the area more and more popular and, just like anywhere else, gentrification happens here too. Prices go up, thousands of gallons of yellow paint were dumped on those buildings, taking away their unique charm, the people and the possibilities. So, for me these works are a symbol of what the neighbourhood once was.

videodocumentation: