„Germania-construction of an image“ < Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena- Italien

Introduction Text by Barbara Steiner

If one thinks of Deutschland, names like Volkswagen and Mercedes spring quickly to mind, typical stalwarts of a politically and economically prosperous nation. But this image is very soon joined by another one: Nazi-Deutschland with topics like the "Zwangsarbeiter" being currently discussed worldwide. If one thinks of German culture after the Second World War, Rainer Maria Fassbinder, the famous filmmaker of the 60's and 70's is certainly of importance. Thinking of Germany, one also refers to German philosophy: Kant, Hegel, Heidegger. And of course, food like Sauerbraten, Flädlesuppe, Schweinshaxe and Sauerkraut complete the image. They are integral to any Hollywood film about Germany. And we shouldn't forget the Deutsche Heimat films produced in the 50's and 60's with their clichéd potrayals of the glorious "deutsche Heimat". The word 'Germany' conjures up a weird mixture of diverse images.
In historical and contemporary terms, it is overloaded with associations. Like Italy. Whereas Germany is often linked to its recent past, to the 19th and 20th centuries when the idea of a German nation became strong and powerful, Italy seems to be associated more to its ancient past, to Ancient Rome, the Renaissance and Baroque. And more to culture than to economy and politics. Who thinks of Mussolini and the Italian Fascists when visiting Italy? Italian culture is good food and wine - "la dolce farniente". In the context of cliché images, Italy and Germany are quite contrary: Italy is seen to function as a "working" country which has regained a power position in world politics, economically strong but with a deficit in contemporary culture. There is a long history behind the German-Italian relationship which has effected current perceptions as well. Italian lifestyle has become very desirable for Germans. Clichés are a constitutive part of the construction of a nation. Cultural clichés especially play a very important role in the construction of any national identity.
The exhibition seeks to explore the construction called "Germany" and the role which images play within this. Which figures must we identify with? Which are the images others identify with us? Which images influence our identity? How are they going to be adapted? Which political and economical aspects are continuously implemented from all sides in culture? The curators and artists focus to investigate the terrain of nation seen from a cultural point of view and the role of culture within the ideological construction of a nation, taking into consideration urbanistic, feministic and economy-critical discourses.
Artists like Rirkrit Tiravanija and Anny and Sibel Öztürk mix up different cultural backgrounds: Tiravanija cooked Flädlesuppe (a soup with stripes of pancake) in Hamburg. In doing so he introduced a very southern German dish to the north because he considered it as "typically" German. Being a Thai, he made the soup very spicy too. In Ludwigsburg he prepared the Swabian speciality "Maultaschen" with coconut milk. Anny and Sibel Öztürk rebuilt a room from the former GDR period using only their imagination, informed by films they had seen on TV. Uwe and Gert Tobias ask what it might have been like there with their piece "Neustadt" (Rumania). The twins (working under the pseudonym Tobias Z.) went back to Siebenbürgen, a German part of Rumania, to compare their family´s memories and stories with the actual situation there.
Jeanne Faust went to Bavaria (where her father and grandfather come from) to produce photographs that look like stills from a Heimat film, yet keeping Fassbinder very much in mind. Different perspectives meet in these artists´ work: personal experiences, memories, stories told by others or read somewhere, the past and the present intermingled and almost impossible to differentiate from one another. Ethnical identity becomes a construction in which people of various origins can participate. Memories also play an important role in Franz Ackermann´s "mental mappings". His perspective on urbanistic situations is informed by the various images he can recall. Sean Snyder is interested in urban spaces and the way their political and economical components are linked to prefabricated images.
Monica Bonvicini examines the images which modern architecture has produced and focuses especially on the (oppressed) role of women within them. Eva Hertzsch and Adam Page's starting point is the image of Siena itself:a carless historical town. They will install an underground parking entrance onto the back of the PdP, functioning solely as a prestigious symbol. Christoph Schäfer´s "Revolution Non Stop" deals with a cleaned up image of a city like Hamburg, produced by neoliberalistic ideas (and with it deals with the clichés of leftish critique) and John Bock picks up the clichés of economic discourses to twist them around in his pseudo-economic lecture-performances. Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger cooperated with BMW for one year. Every exhibition space and every catalogue page which Dejanov & Heger were offered as artists during that year was given to BMW. BMW's management had to decide about the presentation (content and aesthetics) and representation of the company. Johannes Wohnseifer starts with popular images produced by music, TV and art and mixes them up in his collages.
Alexander Gyoerfi works on clones and doubles (the doubling of images) and examines the relationship between a possible personal/genetic identity and the surface of a popular picture. Daniel Roth links different spaces: he tells (fragmented) stories about secret places which are based on (popular) literature and various (action) movies. Antje Schiffers starting point is the desirable relationship between Italy and Germany. Her trip to Siena is based on an exchange of goods: she offers her abilities as an artist (by that she means the image people have in their head about artists) in exchange for an Italian language course, a hotel room, food, a car etc. The pieces she produces for her clients will then be exhibited in Siena together with information on the exchange-process. One of the topics behind her project is the "Italian journey" undertoaken by a lot of German artists and writers over recent centuries.
Christian Jankowski examines, amongst other things, different images linked to the idea of the productive artist. He has, for example, consulted a psycho-analyst to overcome his personal (creative) crisis and he consulted clairvoyants to tell him about his future career. Rupprecht Matthies is interested in the different ways which Italians perceive Germans and Germans perceive Italians, preconceptions which are linked to characteristic ideas. He will to collect a vocabulary of typical German and Italian words (like "Ehre", "Pflicht" or "amore", "la dolce vita") which he will then cut out of perspex and present inside and outside the PdP.
Anke Haarmann raises the question about the potential of the prefabricated images with which we are constantly confronted when watching TV, films etc. Her cooperative projects (under the pseudonym AHA) with German and Turkish kids or her work with people in German fitness-centers deal with the confrontion between already existing patterns and a subjective appropriation. Superflex are also interested in cooperations: They want to work with the huge Italian community in Wolfsburg as part of their project "Wolfsburg2, a virtual version of the real city. Dorothee Albrecht will be on tour with her bus. Under the label "nettours"she provides a platform for others to present their ideas and work.
Barbara Steiner
ARTISTS
Franz Ackermann, Dorothee Albrecht, John Bock, Monica Bonvicini, Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger, Jeanne Faust, Alexander Györfi, Anke Haarmann (AHA), Christine Hill, Christian Jankowski, Rupprecht Matthies, Anny and Sibel Öztürk, Adam Page & Eva Hertsch, Daniel Roth, Christoph Schäfer, Antje Schiffers, Sean Snyder, Superflex, Johannes Wohnseifer, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Tobias Z and Doris Berger