gesamt-raum-werk: residency.ch 19.05.2012-09.06.2012

The residency.ch work period 18.05. 2012-09.06.2012 developed into three phase elements: – Nest 3 – halbierte blasen und schäume in residency.ch – Kugelstück – Verabredung mit der aare Nest 3 was performed in the main studio room located in the residency flat. I worked in the 5 x 5 m attic space first of all preparing the floor of the studio for an overall circle drawing cutting card board and patch working a double bottom. This ‘false’ floor was painted with three layers of white ordinary household paint. Over night the two materials reacted = wave like formations occurred which flattened with time passing by. A ceiling-painting was applied to the sloping surface. The concept for this part of the work had it’s source in the sandsteingrünton (sandstone green tone) of the unesco world heritage listed buildings situated in the city centre of bern/ch. On the first day in bern that, quote: ‘depression causing mud green’ ( a bern citizen) caught my attention and it kept creeping into my mind until it was echoed in the nest 3 space. The specific geometric form of the green area is an exact copy of the shape of the facing wall , seen when entering the room. The ground work started on the fifth day of the residency as a continuation or extension of the nest 1 floor painting in groningen/nl. Only this time the work was set up as a semi public performance. Via information sheets people working or living in the künstlerhaus progr in which the residency space is situated were invited to draw red circles on the floor of the nest. They were required to work in silence and in the restricted time span of min. 1 – max. 50 minutes which every visitor had to define before starting to draw. Appointments could be made using the e-mail medium or directly by means of ringing the bell or knocking on the door of the residential flat. The walls of the nest 3 partly were covered with dots of liquid acrylic. Nest 3 deals with notions such as an overall space experience, time perception, the outer and inner experienced in a specific location and interactions between artist and public. Kugelstück is a piece of clay work in progress. It is a growing three dimensional handmade coral. I aspire towards a meter in width , height and length which will take approx. another year or two. There was a natural back and forth movement of drawing and rolling going on during the hours spent in the studio area. Verabredung mit der aare is a photo documentary piece. It offered an anchor in the daily obsessive work routine as described above. Three fixed times (10.30 am, 3.30pm and 8.30pm) in the 12 day hours meant having to leave the flat at least in that rythm in order to visit two intuitively depicted spots close to the river aare taking ‘witness snap shots’ of two very specific views (see website category projects: ‘verabredung mit der aare’). Every day the walk down to the water area, the weather, the light, the situation found, the people and animals met were different. Every day was unique despite its very similarly seeming routine of actions. The passing of time and an awareness for my place in a space at that particular moment became enormous, sometimes almost unbearable. The longing for breaking off and leaving that ‘harebrained’, self initiated existential framework and at the same time clinging to it, holding it , fostering and nourishing the structure almost desperately was an experience interesting to look at from a distance such as now. The loss of one pattern created the making of a new to recognize my own existence. The farewell has not taken place as yet, the longing for the aare is huge. The residency ended with a conversation with kathleen bühler, curator of the kunstmuseum bern, and a ‘nestöffnung’(nest opening) to the public finishing with a digitally beamed presentation of other parts of my work. the visitors were invited to ask questions while being in the work. We were walking along and into the ‘gesamtwerk’ which was the overall installed work on the walls of the hall and office, the entrance area of the studio and the nest 3 room. (26.06.2012, 10.39 pm)