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THE CITY AS A STAGE.
TOURISM. SYMBOLS & MONUMENTS.
Stefan
Kaegi
August 30th - September 19th
SHORT CUT. THE BERLIN FILES.
If the city is a stage, what play is performed there?
Stefan Kaegi regards everyday life as theatre; "Our experience
is that most people know only seven or eight paths through their
city. A new city is revealed simply by looking upwards or to the
side - we are trying to open doors. The strands of text in our
recorded theatre pieces are only loosely fitted together. The
observer fills in the gaps. Everybody directs his own film."
With the help of headphones, letters, mirrors, projectors and
other props, segments of everyday life will be staged as readymade
pieces of theatre on the spot. Each view becomes a stage set,
each angle becomes the fragment of a piece, and each passer-by
becomes an extra or a member of the audience. Kaegi's project
for the Academy will, much like a paperchase, lay new tracks running
through Berlin: the written stage directions for a production
that the viewer invents as he walks and looks around. "The
dramaturgy of The Berlin Files updates itself based on the principles
of remote control. Each deposited message both acts like a window
for the students of the Academy and is at the same time a new
scene in a puzzle. Those who want to see the play to the end will
have to study the props like pieces of evidence."
Theatrical city tours will be developed together with the students.
These tours will be open to any interested Berlin habitants and
tourists even after the Mobile Academy is over.
Michel de Certeau's Kunst des Handelns will serve as a logbook
for the course. Jean Cocteau's film Orphée will also be
examined for cross-references. The students are also asked to
bring a description, photos, a video or a sound recording of a
flat in their hometown. They should choose a space that could
be used to avoid being detected. In Berlin, this hideout shall
be transposed to the architecture of the rooms they come across
and function as a place of refuge.
SubREAL
September 11th - September 19th
INTERVIEWING BERLIN
SubREAL has been pursuing the project Interviewing the Cities
since the mid 90s. It has already taken place in Vienna, Amsterdam,
Helsinki, Montreal, Strasbourg, Turku and Stockholm. Interviewing
the Cities works using photography, film and postcards and can
be seen as an installation, performance or exhibited archive.
In Berlin the project will pursue one main question: how individuals
connect with the city and its concrete cultural values and architectonic
conditions, in the way these are expressed in monuments, memorials
and museums. This process concerns both the relationship between
private and public space and the formation of urban identity and
collective memory through regional public planning and the cultural
setting of symbols. What relationship do the individuals in a
city have to the symbolic buildings there? As an experiment, urban
models of the last century shall be applied to today's urban structures.
A participatory observation of the city of Berlin that includes
walks, the mapping of specific locations, public interventions
and presentations.
Students of all disciplines are welcome in this
course. Knowledge of photography, video and audio is desirable.
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