FUTURES

Foreword
Birgit Pelzmann
This publication is a documentation, a celebratory snapshot, taken
on the occasion of the second anniversary of PLATFORM3 – Spaces
for Comtemporary Art. Several views of this multidisciplinary project
are presented here side-by-side, accompanied by an assess-ment of
PLATFORM3’s development in relation to its physical site.
The colorful formal and literary variety of the vignettes
featured in this publication corresponds to the organizational
structure of PLATFORM3 which serves as exhibition space, artist
residency program, production site and think tank for local and
international artists, young curators and art administrators, as well
as the longterm unemployed. Both onlookers as well as insiders
have been invited to contribute to our anniversary publication, be
it in word or in image.
With his camera, photographer Jörg Koopmann captures
both things apparent as well as things that seem inconspicuous.
He documents and discloses glimpses of PLATFORM3’s interior spaces
and the individuals who are at work here. In these shots, he grants
just as much attention to the hidden nooks and crannies as he does
to the studios, the workshop, and the exhibition spaces.
In a brainstorming session on the topic of the studio as
the classical origin of creativity, the artists based at PLATFORM3
were asked to think about their individual work space in terms of
the demands and requirements they would place on their “(ideal)
studio”, their working environment. In the resulting works, each artist
has articulated the core elements that are absolutely essential for
him/her in order for the artistic process to begin. Not surprisingly,
the fleeting perceptions of the artists’ immediate surroundings can
help trigger the creative process and sometimes these impressions
find their way into the final product, as demonstrated in the
gouaches from the series “urban dreams” by Stefanie Unruh.
The Viennese author Hanno Millesi also explores the question
of what makes the ‘ideal’ workspace. In his delightful prose text,
En plein air, he tells about his ‘dead letterbox’ and the ‘conversation’
it triggered with René Magritte, and what this has to do with Magritte’s
very personal attachment to the various places where his images
first came into being.
It is important to take the past into account when assessing
the present. For the 2009 inauguration of PLATFORM3, Nikolai
Vogel, one of the first resident artists, explored the historical roots
and physical coordinates surrounding the PLATFORM3 complex.
Excerpts from his original inaugural speech are being published here
for the first time.
This publication is documentation and more. It points
beyond the status quo of the project PLATFORM3, it demonstrates
all its potential and possibilities, and we hope that it may broaden
the spectrum of possible cultural scenarios in the coming years, for
all those who are invested and involved.
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