FUTURES

We’re getting there. Photographic paper and audiotapes:
it is here, on this very site, that they were produced and sent out
into the world, to see what could be seen and hear what could
be heard. Here was, back in 1964, the former Perutz-Werk bought
by AGFA (Aktiengesellschaft für Anilinfabrikation). Since the
late nineteenth century, the Perutz Photowerke in Munich had
produced photographic plates, adding roll-film to their selection
in the 1920s. On this industrial site, AGFA established its largescale
manufacturing facility for magnetic tape, which became part
of BASF in 1990/1991. In 1997 it became EMTEC, a company
that produced coated magnetic tape right here, at No. 70 Kistlerhofstraße,
until it closed in 2004. This is where fresh magnetic tape
sat ready to receive impressions, ready to wind up and unspool
these impressions innumerable times. Rewind, fastforward: Just
where exactly are we?
On Kistlerhofstraße. But who was this Kistler? Was it
Cyrill Kistler? The composer, music theorist, music professor and
publisher, born in 1848, in the Swabian town of Großhaitingen, died
1907 in Bad Kissingen in Lower Franconia. Studied in Munich and
was, in his day, placed on par with Richard Strauss, has been all
but forgotten. However, it turns out that we are on the wrong track
with this particular Cyrill. At the city archives, I discover that the
street name, Kistlerhof, derives from the name of a former estate
in Obersendling. Was it a homestead? Hard to say right away, I was
told by the archive staff: this would require more indepth research.
So, next frame: Where are we?
Here, on a floor of studios that has just been moved into.
Everything is still fresh, the dust has barely settled, the floor is
still covered with plastic sheets from the painting job, the hallway
floor has just been laid. Everything is ready for exposure. Where
precisely are we? On the third floor. On the floor above us, music is
set and billiard balls follow their more or less intended trajectories,
impact upon impact. Beneath us, gloves and sweating people
in heavy-duty workout equipment. Maybe not the worst context!
Art, after all, involves both head and body – Billiard and Body -
building, so to speak. Although art doesn’t really need to be
handled with gloves, save for the more fragile pieces as they are
being installed. In Bodybuilding, the central objective is to shape
the human body by exercising different muscle groups, often with
the help of fitness machines. The term art can be described as
any cultured form of action that is based on knowledge, practice,
cognition and intuition (this includes the art of healing or the art
of free speech). In its narrower sense, the term art refers to products
of purpose-driven human action that do not have a particular
function assigned to them. The following three factors are key
in the making of a photograph: the light-sensitivity of the photographic
medium, the aperture used, and the exposure time. A
photograph is well exposed when both the highlights as well as the
shadow areas retain a degree of line and detail. The beginnings
of three articles in a popular dictionary… 1 Three articles that
deal with how to express or convey an impression. An important
prerequisite for gathering impressions is having a good outlook.
And where precisely are we?
30
Let’s call it PLATFORM3. A platform can provide spectacular
views; a platform can also be where you wait for the train
that takes you elsewhere, a place of departure into new territory.
A platform, podium-style, can be used to get messages across.
In essence, a platform is the carrier for things that are evolving:
it is a place of experimentation. There’s no need for telescopes here
at PLATFORM3: much is being done to enhance the glance, and
views can be found hanging on the walls and installed on the floor
in the studios and gallery spaces, have yet to grow and wind their
way out into the world. A platform on three legs, classical style.
Three legs… that means the stand can be a bit wobbly if the fourth
is missing. It means that one has to work to stay balanced, that
one doesn’t get too comfortable or feel too secure, that one keeps
moving: and that’s what it’s all about – using head and body. No,
we are not standing at the green-felted pool tables, and we are not
ensconced in the muscle-machines, nor are we coating virgin film
or audio tape. We get to work directly on the developing processes
within our minds; we immerse our bodies in the light and the
sound and time itself and make them into something. What that is,
exactly, remains to be seen. 2
1 Wikipedia, March 2009 (translated from the german site)
2 Shortened version of the Inaugural Talk for PLATFORM3, held on
March 20th, 2009. The original talk ended with a reference to the season:
“Today is equinox, the beginning of Spring! The new art spaces await,
PLATFORM3 is set up and ready. Let us take this opportunity and dance!”
31