an stelle und dort | 2005

An-stelle-und-dort was part of SARAY-SOSYAL, a project concerned with the representational functions of castles and condominiums. SARAY-SOSYAL confronted the social perceptions and the symbolic values of royal prestige-architecture versus those of modern social condominiums: Why is old royal architecture in general perceived positively, whereas modern concrete architecture mostly negatively?

Through artistic interventions, SARAY-SOSYAL researched the terrain of polarizing architecture amongst the social and political community, and verifies if a breaking with perception patterns is possible, and if there are openings to intervene the process of emerging symbols. Between the 7th and 30th of April 2005, several exhibitions, performances, films and lectures, divided into 3 presentation-blocks, were presented in and around the NKZ: Neues Kreuzberger Zentrum, one of the best known concrete castles since the 70's in Berlin, at Kottbusser Tor, Kreuzberg, an area with about 70% migrants, mainly from Turkey. The project was coordinated by Mathias Ott, supported by BC-Semiotik/Echtzeit Institut Berlin and financed mainly from Hauptstadt-Kulturfonds Berlin.

Heike Langsdorf was one of the artists invited to contribute a personal work, focusing on the given problematics of SARAY-SOSYAL. From the 22nd until 26th of April 2005, she presented the performance / installation 'an stelle und dort', in co-operation with Lilja Hermannsdottir, during the presentation block ‘projektionen’.

an-stelle-und-dort, was based on a pure interest to investigate the performance-format within a social-cultural context. The ambition was to find a way of dealing with the specific content proposed by SARAY-SOSYAL using performative principles while avoiding any kind of representations.

The forms and disciplines required were therefore rather hybrid and demanded a multi-functional interpretation: The voice, movement, text and entertainment-strategies were used to communicate the intentions of an-stelle-und-dort to a public. A public that, in the case of SARAY-SOSYAL, would be highly heterogeneous, containing very different cultural groups starting from allochtone-immigrants, Kreuzberg-inhabitants, an art-interested public from Berlin as well as an invited public of specialists from outside Berlin who were present during the festival for a scientific discussion about the symbolic aspects of architecture.

From the concept idea to the performance execution, the project had an interesting struggle. The project had to refer to Kafka’s novel "Das Schloss" (The Castle). An obligation in the context of SARAY-SOSYALS' interest in the co-existence of private persons and institutions in a social space. Eventually the performance did not make explicit reference to this narrative, though the underlying conflict between individual and institution was very present.

another limitation was that an-stelle-und-dort was to be performed in direct dialogue with the slide projections of Simon Sparwasser (projections of palaces, castles, and royal interior design). an-stelle-und-dort was therefore forced to incorporate or rather to resist their symbolic representational discourses. The performance became a way to estimate how far an act can stand or carry meaning in opposition to and in the coexistence of superimposed images.

concept :
Heike Langsdorf
support :
Echtzeitinstitut, Hauptstadt Kulturfond Berlin, frogs OS, Kunst/Werk, Netwerk / center for contemporary art
commissioned by :
Matthias Ott, Saray-Sosyal
performance :
Lilja Hermannsdòttir