Polylemma (English edition)
ISBN 978-3-86859-738-7
ISBN 978-3-86859-738-7
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<strong>Polylemma</strong>
Berlin
Raumlabor<br />
Andrea Hofmann<br />
Axel Timm<br />
Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius<br />
Christof Mayer<br />
Florian Stirnemann<br />
Francesco Apuzzo<br />
Frauke Gerstenberg<br />
Jan Liesegang<br />
Markus Bader<br />
Matthias Rick (†)<br />
Including fifty Meta Comments by<br />
Christopher Dell
12
13
Almost everyone<br />
Adélaide Ragot<br />
Adolfo Del Valle Neira<br />
Adrian Pöllinger<br />
Ágnes László<br />
Alaa Tellawi<br />
Albert Tschechne<br />
Alexa Szekeres<br />
Alice Baseian<br />
Alice Hallynck<br />
Aliénor Dauchez<br />
Alina Clavuot<br />
Aline Walther<br />
Alizée Serazin<br />
Amelie Schindler<br />
Ana Mendez<br />
Andine Mosa<br />
Andreas Krauth<br />
Andrew Plucinski<br />
Anika Neubauer<br />
Anna Abelló<br />
Anna Derriks<br />
Anna Foerster-<br />
Baldenius<br />
Anna Francesca Triboli<br />
Anna Hastings<br />
Anna Katharina<br />
Laggner<br />
Anna Kokalanova<br />
Anna Lafite<br />
Anna Lou Gerstenberg<br />
Anna Modin<br />
Anna Pape<br />
Anna Quintana<br />
Anna Wulf<br />
Annabelle Dorn<br />
Annamaria Piccinini<br />
Anne Kiefer<br />
Anne Schmidt<br />
Anne Steffen<br />
Anne-Claire Deville<br />
Anne-Laure Mellier<br />
Antonello Prezioso<br />
Antonia Dika<br />
Antonia Maisch<br />
Antonia Schlaich<br />
Ariel Curtelin<br />
Armin Fuchs<br />
Ashmi Mridul<br />
Ayse Hicsasmaz-Heitele<br />
Benjamin Frick<br />
Berk Asal<br />
Britta Sänger<br />
Bruno Gonçalves<br />
Camille Gregoire<br />
Camille Lemeunier<br />
Camilo Giribas<br />
Carl Fuchs<br />
Carla Kienz<br />
Carmen Rubio Garcia<br />
Carmen Staiano<br />
Caro Nagel<br />
Cécile Oberkampf<br />
Charlotte Foerster-<br />
Baldenius<br />
Chloé Detchart<br />
Chloé Francou<br />
Chloé Mas<br />
Chris Lewis<br />
Christian Dascheck<br />
Christian Dragnea<br />
Christian Göthner<br />
Christian Hennemann<br />
Christian Tonko<br />
Christiane Elle<br />
Christina Liesegang<br />
Christine Bock<br />
Christof Bedall<br />
Christoph Franz<br />
Christoph Panek<br />
Christopher Sejer<br />
Fischlein<br />
Claire Gaudron<br />
Claire Mothais<br />
Cora Hegewald<br />
Corinne Vial<br />
Cristina Antonelli<br />
Cristina Gamboa<br />
Dan Dorocic<br />
Daniel Vetterli<br />
David Lorenzo<br />
Cardenas<br />
David Presley Moritz<br />
Desislava Petkova<br />
Diana Dierking<br />
Diana Levin<br />
Dominique Cisielsky<br />
Dunja Predić<br />
Eduardo da Conceição<br />
Eleanor Rachel Brooke<br />
Elena Krämer<br />
Elena Tonini<br />
Elias Eichhorn<br />
Elisabeth Enke<br />
Elisabeth Haentjes<br />
Elisabeth Weiler<br />
Elke Scheffers<br />
Emilie Le Cam<br />
Esther Bonneau<br />
Esther Häring<br />
Fabian Jaggi<br />
Fabien Bidaut<br />
Fanny Benguigui<br />
Federica Menin<br />
Federica Teti<br />
Felix Wierschbitzki<br />
Florian Bosc Malvergne<br />
Florian Machner<br />
Franz Siebler<br />
Franziska Muehlbauer<br />
Frederik Kunkel<br />
Gary Hurst<br />
Giorgia Floro<br />
Gonzague Lacombe<br />
Gözde Şarlak-Krämer<br />
Gracie Grew<br />
Gregor Siems<br />
Gudrun Barenbrock<br />
Hannah Lu Verse<br />
Hannah Müller<br />
Hannes Pahl<br />
Heike Pauketat<br />
Heinrich Altenmüller<br />
Ida Sandstrom<br />
Ida Slettvold<br />
Ilaria Chiusolo<br />
Ilkin Akpinar<br />
Inari Virkkala<br />
Ingo Roth<br />
Irene Bittner<br />
Irina Jurasic<br />
Iris Scherer<br />
Isabel Knuth<br />
Isabell Schöllhammer<br />
Ivan Gugliandolo<br />
Jan Schlake<br />
Jana Gunstheimer<br />
Jeanette Kunsmann<br />
Jeanne Astrup-<br />
Chauvaux<br />
Jeannette Merker<br />
Jia Gu<br />
Joakim Nyström<br />
Johanna Götz<br />
Johanna Moser<br />
Johannes Henschel<br />
Jonas Haala<br />
Jonas Högner<br />
Jonas Johnke<br />
Jonas Klaassen<br />
Jordan Coquart<br />
Jörg Bodemann<br />
Josephine Ziebarth<br />
Julia Klauer<br />
Julia Rueckeis<br />
Julia Schreiner<br />
Juliane Schupp<br />
Julie Weideli<br />
Julius Walde<br />
Kahina Djahnine<br />
Kai Berthold<br />
Karoline Neumeyer<br />
Kate Milligan<br />
Katerina Videnova<br />
Katharina Rohde<br />
Katharina Spagl<br />
Katherine Ball<br />
Katja Szymczak<br />
Katrin Murbach<br />
Kim-Fabian von<br />
Dall’Armi<br />
Kipras Kazlauskas<br />
Kira Kohnen<br />
Lasse Skafte<br />
Laura Bertelt<br />
Laura Maria Hoepfner<br />
Laura Valverde<br />
Laura Zachmann<br />
Laure Severac<br />
Laureen Hünig<br />
Laurentiu Giogu<br />
Lena Fischer<br />
Leonard Börger<br />
Leonie Steudle<br />
Licia Soldavini<br />
Lilli Unger<br />
Lisa Garner<br />
Lisa Maria Zeller<br />
Lise Koefoed Larsen<br />
Livia Eggler<br />
Lorenz Kuschnig<br />
Louise Nguyen<br />
Luc Knoedler<br />
Luca Marinelli<br />
Luca Timm<br />
Lucas Fink<br />
Lucia Pasquali<br />
Lucie Bellenger<br />
Lucy Begg<br />
Lucyle Wagner<br />
Luíza Pereira<br />
Luka Marinello<br />
Luka Murovec<br />
Lukas Hamilcaro<br />
Lukas Lendzinski<br />
Luna Catteeuw<br />
Maik Ronz<br />
Maike Wittenberg<br />
Maja Wendel<br />
Malin Mohr<br />
Malte Licht<br />
Manfred Eccli<br />
Manon Moyart<br />
Manuel Rauwolf<br />
Marcel Arndt<br />
Maria Garcia Perez<br />
Maria João Vicente<br />
Mariana Marques<br />
da Silva<br />
Marie Dewey<br />
Marie-Katrin Turgetto<br />
Marina Urosevic<br />
Marion Kliesch<br />
Marion Mannhold<br />
Marius Busch<br />
Marius Gantert<br />
Martha Pozo<br />
Martin Kalina<br />
Martin Kaschub<br />
Martina Bloom<br />
Masayoshi Waku<br />
Mascha Fehse<br />
Mathilde Bonnet<br />
Matteo Carli<br />
Matyas Cigler<br />
Max Kessler<br />
May-Britt Franzen<br />
Meike Wittenberg<br />
Mélanie Boussière<br />
Merve Şimşek<br />
Michael Fuchs<br />
Michael Meier<br />
Michelle Hagenauer<br />
Mikuláš Novotný<br />
Miriam Kassens<br />
Monica Lamela<br />
Blazquez<br />
Monika Römer<br />
Monnier Ostermair<br />
Moritz Wermelskirch<br />
Nadine Stecklina<br />
Nancy Naser al Deen<br />
Naoya Yoshikawa<br />
Nathalie Denstorff<br />
Nelli Rehberger<br />
Nick Förster<br />
Nick Green<br />
Nicole Timm<br />
Nikke Brock<br />
Nils-Thore Grundke<br />
Nina Gernes<br />
Nina Peters<br />
Noa Haller<br />
Noa Timm<br />
Noé Herrli<br />
Nora Schmitt<br />
Nuria Keeve<br />
Olga Maria Hungar<br />
Olof Duus<br />
Pastor Leumund<br />
Patricia Bachmayer<br />
Paul Zöll<br />
Paula Hentschel<br />
Paula Strunden<br />
Pedro Cavaco Leitão<br />
Philipp Bertlein<br />
Pola Buske<br />
Rainer Kuch<br />
Rapahaela Sacher<br />
Raquel Gómez Delgado<br />
Rasmus Romme<br />
Brick Maabjerg<br />
Reinder Bakker<br />
Reto Keller<br />
Roman Karrer<br />
Roman Piontkowski<br />
Ronja Norrelgen<br />
Rosario Talevi<br />
Rose Henry<br />
Ruben der Kinderen<br />
Ryan Kelso Lewis<br />
Sabina Barcucci<br />
Sabine Zahn<br />
Salvatorina Rassu<br />
Sam Boche<br />
Samuel Dias Carvalho<br />
Samuel Perea<br />
Sara Gomez<br />
Sarah Bovelett<br />
Sebastian Kunath<br />
Sebastian Latz<br />
Sebastian Strombach<br />
Serena Abbondanza<br />
Servane Ardeois<br />
Severyn Romanskyy<br />
Silvia Szczutowski<br />
Simone Harbert<br />
Sophia Sundqvist<br />
Sophie Branz<br />
Stefan Klopfer<br />
Stefania Tsigkouni<br />
Stefano Ragazzo<br />
Steffen Suhr<br />
Steffi Krämer<br />
Steffi Weller<br />
Stephan Henrich<br />
Susanne Augustin<br />
Susanne Lachmayer<br />
Suzana Cosic<br />
Suzanne Labourie<br />
Sven Heier<br />
Tayma Abuhakmeh<br />
Teresa Huppertz<br />
Theo Göken<br />
Thomas Eder<br />
Thomas Lillevang<br />
Thomas Neher<br />
Thomas Peterman<br />
Thomas Quack<br />
Thomas Rustemeyer<br />
Tibor Bartholomä<br />
Tilli Sträb<br />
Tim Maassen<br />
Timo Luitz<br />
Tobias Gellert<br />
Tobias Michnik<br />
Todosch Schlopsnies<br />
Tom Meiser<br />
Tomma Suki<br />
Hinrichsen<br />
Trude Een Eide<br />
Ulrike Wetzel<br />
Valentina Fysiuk<br />
Verena Ries<br />
Verena Schönhart<br />
Victor-Amé Navarro<br />
Violeta Burckhardt<br />
Razeto<br />
Winnie Westerlund<br />
Xuehan Li<br />
Yü Chen<br />
Yu-Chin Ku<br />
Yunting Zang<br />
Yvonne Harder<br />
Zachi Raz-el<br />
14
Matthias Rick<br />
February 20, 2012<br />
Nacionalinė dailės galerija,<br />
Vilnius, Lithuania<br />
Good evening everyone, it is a great<br />
pleasure for me to be in Vilnius. It is<br />
the first time in my life and today is<br />
also the first time in my life that I have<br />
experienced minus 30 degrees. In Berlin we have minus 16 degrees at the<br />
moment. So, let’s start. Before I forget, I have to introduce our own book:<br />
It is called acting in public and we published it in 2008. This was our first<br />
book and in it we collected our first works and it is also a little bit about<br />
where we are coming from, why we are working and how we are working,<br />
and the things I will show today are mostly not in this book, so it will be a<br />
surprise for you if you have read this book—there will be something new.<br />
At the moment, we are thinking about a new book because we’ve had a lot of<br />
new experiences with our works.<br />
I always talk about we—“we” means eight architects 1 who are based in<br />
Berlin. We are working in a kind of collective way. We are a group called<br />
raumlabor, which means “space laboratory” or “space lab” in <strong>English</strong>. We<br />
understand our name as a program. We see architecture as a tool. We work<br />
in the fields of architecture, urbanism, and art and we like to experiment<br />
with the topic of architecture. We try to discover the borders. We are interdisciplinary.<br />
We work in different groups, in smaller units depending<br />
on the task, also with different specialists like scientists or sociologists, or<br />
carpenters, or also citizens, as you will see later.<br />
And we like to work in the city because we see the city as the body, as an<br />
organism, not an image. It is something where we also see our responsibility<br />
as architects to re-ask and improve how we would like to live together in<br />
the future. We don’t see our profession as a problem-solving one. We like to<br />
make problems because making problems generates processes and the city<br />
means process. Every city has its own identity, its own conditions. We like<br />
to work with these conditions.<br />
If you have questions, don’t hesitate to raise your hand and ask—I like<br />
discussions; you can interrupt me if you don’t understand something.<br />
1 By now we are nine.<br />
Context<br />
15
Fall 1999. A group that sometimes meets in a storefront on Almstadtstraße in Mitte,<br />
Berlin is looking for a name for itself to take part in a competition for which<br />
they cannot agree on a single idea. The three scenarios that raumlaborberlin submits<br />
will remain important motifs for them: the city as a playground, the mountain<br />
and the urban forest as a space to live, the experimental Urban Practice.<br />
Big Bang Berlin 1999<br />
16
Bookwalk 3—Take 1<br />
raumlabor with Herman Verkerk 1<br />
November 18, 2019, 11:05 a.m.<br />
Storage space in Neukölln, Berlin<br />
Benni 2 We are standing in the raumlabor<br />
storage on Rollbergstraße. Frauke 3 I<br />
have not been here in a while.<br />
Axel 4 It’s a bit smelly. Herman What<br />
does it say on that sign? Markus 5 That we’re using a storage space<br />
that costs money, and if we want to keep using it, we have to<br />
call them. Christof 6 Are we still paying? Andrea 7 Who would know?<br />
Francesco? Francesco 8 I recently asked about a possible extension.<br />
It will probably be okay until March. The forklift will stay too.<br />
I was afraid we would have to climb up there and form a human<br />
chain. Florian 9 So our stuff can stay here until March, and then we’ve<br />
got to move out? That is something we’re discussing at raumlabor at<br />
the moment. Where do we put all the stuff our work generates? Herman It<br />
seems fairly manageable to me. Christof We also have other spaces<br />
across town though. Markus Yes, if you think about it, raumlabor has<br />
been around for over twenty years. In the beginning, we stored our<br />
project remains at Stolzenhagen. 10 Not a lot survived. The deal was<br />
that we could store our things for free, but we never used anything so<br />
they either used them for the co-op or they threw them away. Benni It<br />
was kept in an open-sided barn, where anyone could go in and take<br />
something, but that never happened. After a couple of years, they<br />
figured we were never coming back, so they started using the things<br />
for this and that. A few pieces from Extrahaus and from Das System<br />
can still be admired today as the back wall of a cabinet. 11 Jan 12 And<br />
some of it we used ourselves, in our experimental building workshop.<br />
I don’t remember, when was that? Markus What I was trying to say is<br />
that we have had various storage sites. This is the third one. We<br />
threw a lot away ourselves. It’s an ongoing debate: Does it make sense<br />
to save anything? What’s the value of storing these items? What’s<br />
their value? Are these resources? Artifacts? Artworks? Christof That’s<br />
the difference between a storage space and an archive. Storage<br />
is something active. For the things we want to use again, or just<br />
put away for now, like the Küchenmonument. 13 Leftover materials.<br />
An archive is for more long-term storage. Herman Who does the archiving?<br />
Benni What do you mean? All of us, of course! Francesco That’s<br />
where our self-image gets interesting. Are we artists, architects,<br />
craftspeople? Artists archive everything. We generally do the opposite.<br />
We keep as little as possible. Unlike artists, we don’t sell<br />
anything. We don’t have agents. Christof We are also talking about this<br />
because by next year we will have some aircraft parts to store. 14<br />
What will we do with those? Benni That remains to be seen. But one<br />
thing is for sure: everything here is getting more valuable. Rent<br />
for the storage is 250 euros per month. That’s 3,000 a year, and<br />
1 Herman Verkerk motivated us to make this fourth<br />
attempt at a book about our practice with him. Helping<br />
us choose the topics, sort them, and devise the structure.<br />
He talked with us for days and patiently chaperoned<br />
the creation of the <strong>Polylemma</strong> book for more than three<br />
years. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Herman!<br />
2 Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius, on p. 120 in a bathrobe.<br />
3 Frauke Gerstenberg, on p. 285 with a lion.<br />
4 Axel Timm is smoking on p. 273.<br />
5 Markus Bader, on p. 67 with a bone.<br />
6 Christof Mayer, on p. 328 sporting a grey beard.<br />
7 Andrea Hofmann in stripes on p. 348.<br />
8 Francesco Apuzzo, on p. 448 wearing ear protectors.<br />
9 Florian Stirnemann, on p. 300 behind a red box.<br />
10 At Gut Stolzenhagen (an old manor estate), aka Ponderosa,<br />
Matthias developed the idea of the Oder Art Lab<br />
with Jörg Bodemann in 2002; this is also where Jan did<br />
his first experimental building workshop in 2006<br />
and Axel rebuilt a lot of old houses over the last couple of<br />
years. Starting in 2005, this is where we stored Gasthof<br />
Bergkristall, Extrahaus, the remains of Dolmusch<br />
X-press (all not in this book), and lots more, until we<br />
realized that a storage space two hours from Berlin made<br />
very little sense. But now our storage is back there again.<br />
11 Extrahaus (not in this book) was an installation for the<br />
Mind The Gap exhibition at Aedes Berlin, 2005. Das<br />
System (not in this book) was an exhibition at Kunstverein<br />
Heidelberg and the impetus for the book acting in public,<br />
Heidelberg 2008.<br />
12 Jan Liesegang, on p. 224 with a chair.<br />
13 Das Küchenmonument (Kitchen Monument), 2006–now,<br />
see p. 27.<br />
14 Christof is referring to a sawed up Transall, part of the<br />
project Third Space, Bochum 2018–2021, see p. 449. It is<br />
still in Kultur Ruhr’s storage warehouse in Gelsenkirchen,<br />
Bochum and has to move out soon ...<br />
Bookwalk 3—Take 1 Berlin 2019<br />
17
30,000 over ten years … Markus [Describing shelves] At the very top<br />
there are these perilous towers made up of models piled five high.<br />
On the third shelf: the most valuable items. 15 Kitchen things, truck<br />
things, 16 rubber mats, Matthias’s 17 Balla Balla box 18 for the cargo<br />
bike (the bike itself was stolen), gray boxes which probably hold<br />
the templates for the Küchenmonument, bubbles, remnants of the<br />
Metabolic Kitchen, 19 like the microwaves that are gradually being<br />
distributed throughout Berlin. Frauke Projection screens from Plus<br />
Ultra, 20 entrances from the Esslingen bubble, 21 various Weltausstellung<br />
drawings. 22 Right? Francesco Barrel tools from Nuremberg. 23 The<br />
barrels were later reused in a number of places. Mostly at Prinzessinnengärten<br />
in Berlin, 24 or for our ovens. 25 Templates for chairs, 26<br />
parts from Transmediale. 27 But where’s Bye Bye Utopia? 28 Andrea That’s<br />
now at the Haus der Statistik, 29 after its recent exhibition at the<br />
ZKR. 30 Benni I thought it would be good to begin today’s bookwalk at<br />
our storage space, because it’s a constant topic of discussion for<br />
us. It embodies what we’ve already done, and what we still hope to<br />
do. Storage is simultaneously the past and the future. Markus It’s<br />
all part of the discussion: “What is actually valuable?” If you tie<br />
everything solely to economic value, like when we discussed the<br />
rent, then soon everything appears worthless. But after twenty years<br />
of raumlabor, you do wonder: “What will we leave behind? Are there<br />
particular traces which we want to leave behind? How is everything<br />
connected to these things?” These things are tied to a lot of memories<br />
and moments that we created with a lot of time and effort, and<br />
love. That can’t be represented with a price tag. Frauke Sometimes you<br />
think a project will continue, but later you realize it’s finished.<br />
It turns out it was only interesting for that one place. Herman Is<br />
there any documentation of this storage? Frauke Yes. Last time we<br />
were here we took pictures and made a list. That’s in the raumlabor<br />
Dropbox. Benni Sometimes we surprise each other. [Recording stops. We<br />
start walking.] 31<br />
15 Models from Jan’s and Christoph’s graduate diploma, Die<br />
große Weltausstellung 2012—The World’s Not Fair, see<br />
p. 376 for the Chennai arched roof, of Haus der Kulturen<br />
der Welt (an uncompleted list of projects we did under<br />
the roof: Transmediale, 2010–2020, see p. 250 Pictoplasma,<br />
not in this book, taz.lab, Schools of Tomorrow,<br />
see p. 255 The Metabolic Kitchen) , see p. 192 Allmänna<br />
Badet, see p. 123 and many more.<br />
16 Truck = The Knot, 2010–2021, see p. 25.<br />
17 Matthias Rick sadly died in 2012. He is in the middle on<br />
p. 425.<br />
18 Balla Balla is a project with an inflatable room that can<br />
be transported by cargo bike, complete with electric<br />
fans, library, and bar, first built for a 2008 event with<br />
La Casa Encendida in Madrid; the bubble is still in<br />
storage, see p. 30.<br />
19 Opening performance for The Anthropocene at Haus der<br />
Kulturen der Welt 2013, see p. 192.<br />
20 +ultra: knowledge & gestaltung, an exhibition at Berlin’s<br />
Martin Gropius Bau, 2016 (not in this book).<br />
21 For the Good Space exhibition at Villa Merkel in Esslingen,<br />
2016 (not in this book).<br />
22 For Die große Weltausstellung 2012—The World’s Not<br />
Fair on Tempelhofer Feld, we worked with Erik Göngrich<br />
to create a drawing that assembles all the greatest<br />
architectural works of all the world fairs that have ever<br />
been held, bringing them to Tempelhofer Feld; this is<br />
also where the future Floating University, 2018–now,<br />
appeared for the first time, see p. 296.<br />
23 Drilling template to drill the 500 barrels for Temple of<br />
No Shopping in front of the Neues Museum Nürnberg,<br />
2016, see p. 408.<br />
24 While not quite the mother of all urban gardening<br />
projects, Berlin’s Prinzessinnengärten has elevated<br />
gardening to a multidimensional form of Urban Practice.<br />
25 For example, Saale Onsen, 2017, see p. 120.<br />
26 First produced for The Generator//Sedia Veneziana at<br />
the 2010 Venice Biennale, see p. 230.<br />
27 raumlabor created the exhibition architecture for<br />
Transmediale from 2010 to 2020, see p. 250.<br />
28 The words BYE BYE UTOPIA were made from old doors<br />
for an exhibition of the same name at Kunsthaus Bregenz<br />
in 2010 and have been in storage ever since, see p. 84.<br />
29 We currently also have a storage space at Haus der<br />
Statistik in Berlin, 2015–now, see p. 338.<br />
30 ZKR—Zentrum für Kunst und öffentlichen Raum (The<br />
Centre for Art and Public Space). For the past few years,<br />
the ZKR has been directed by Katja Aßmann, with<br />
whom we created many projects in the Ruhr region<br />
(see p. 328). The words were shown there in 2017 at<br />
the fantastic Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition Zwischen<br />
Räumen. The missing artwork Remote Control, a<br />
5×10-meter portrait of Lakshmi Mittal from 2005,<br />
reemerged at Haus der Statistik in 2021. Erik Goengrich<br />
had used it as winter weather protection for his Studiolo.<br />
So is it a resource or art? Or an art-ificial roof for another<br />
artwork? Or artistic solidarity?<br />
31 Located on Rollbergstraße in Berlin’s Neukölln district,<br />
the storage space we visited for this conversation<br />
was finally emptied on January 7, 2022, and the building<br />
slated for demolition—which is no real loss. But what<br />
does the disappearance of urban storage spaces mean?<br />
We want to store things as part of our circular economy.<br />
But now, we have an out-of-town storage space which is<br />
far away again. And that’s just silly.<br />
Bookwalk 3–Take 1 Berlin 2019<br />
18
Accumulation is primarily a spatial concept. It means concentration. The connection between history<br />
and accumulation points to more than just the spatial aspect of time. Conversely, it also points out<br />
that the question of accumulation is always a question of time. Regarding capital, this means that it<br />
must move through time in order to accumulate. One could have left it at that, with the assertion<br />
that accumulation is a matter of space. Like with Scrooge McDuck, whose money vault becomes ever<br />
fuller. But this is not the case. The appearance of the concept of accumulation in the nineteenth<br />
century coincides with the invention and rise of historical science. It is no coincidence that Marx wrote<br />
the Critique of Political Economy at a time when history itself played a significant role.<br />
19
Future One Murau, Austria 2012<br />
Pose the big question about the future (while actually meaning the present)<br />
in a small Austrian city with a big art exhibition. → Created for the Regionale<br />
in Murau.<br />
86
Every attempt to take images of the city and meld them into the world of the city is a truncation,<br />
just like every attempt to view the city as an image: the image and the city are not identical,<br />
with the former only a narrow aspect of the latter. This has consequences for spatial planning policy,<br />
because the latter is also shaped by the slides with which one discusses the regulation of space.<br />
The city is ruled with the slides through which the city is conceptualized.<br />
87
Markus Bader<br />
June 2012<br />
Murau, Austria<br />
During my visit to Murau, I was looking<br />
for postcard-perfect landscapes.<br />
Such an idyllically situated small town<br />
has something that other places don’t: expansive views showing the town in<br />
relation to the landscape. It was on this quest that I hiked and took in all the<br />
surrounding hills and mountains. Often enough, the view was obscured by<br />
the thing that almost completely surrounds Murau: the forest. Nonetheless<br />
I was able to discover some viewpoints. Coming from St. Lambrecht, there<br />
is a pretty stop on the road. Down in the valley too, on the bank of the Mur,<br />
facing the town center and next to the traditional garment shop, there is<br />
another such viewpoint. From there, the small town’s highlights fall into a<br />
single frame: old houses in a historic composition, with a church above and<br />
a castle a little higher.<br />
But this postcard view does not automatically reveal itself as a self-contained<br />
experience to the tourist. It’s an unspoken agreement between the<br />
postcard sender and the postcard producer that a certain pictorial perfection<br />
has to be achieved on this small rectangle of card. How else can this<br />
distant greeting serve as evidence that the travel destination was chosen<br />
wisely, and that the anticipated beauty and relaxation were actually found<br />
there? Postcards are therefore tools of a constructed travel identity. They<br />
reproduce an idealized image of their subject matter as a matter of course.<br />
Blemishes are hidden or photographically erased, colors are heightened, a<br />
gaze is constructed. The postcard’s view is usually focused on the locality’s<br />
historical aspect. Modern structures rarely make it into the picture; more<br />
often it is historic buildings and monuments. What kind of journey are we<br />
documenting with such postcards? Was I visiting the nineteenth century?<br />
Did I come to experience a past that was better, one that allowed me to shake<br />
off the cumbersome complexity of today? This is exactly what many postcard<br />
images would have you believe.<br />
I myself do the same during a mountain holiday: I buy a postcard of the<br />
beautifully snowy little village that stretches so gently up the slope. On the<br />
back, I write a couple of friendly lines before writing the address, then I flip<br />
the card and draw an X next to our house. I get goosebumps every time the<br />
pen digs into the glossy front, leaving behind its colored lines. The resulting<br />
X is always frustratingly imperfect. The lines are patchy and crooked,<br />
and the postcard’s beautiful integrity is marred. It does not want me there.<br />
It does not want to admit the present.<br />
Future One Murau, Austria 2012<br />
88
By looking at<br />
Archigram’s<br />
work, you should<br />
learn to think as<br />
we think, not to<br />
do as we did. It’s<br />
the thinking<br />
that’s important.<br />
Dennis Crompton<br />
Dennis Crompton (*1935), architect, founded the group<br />
Archigram in 1960—together with Michael Webb,<br />
Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, and Peter Cook. The work of<br />
Archigram has long been one of our main influences. In<br />
2008, when we were allowed to design the exhibition<br />
Megastructure Reloaded created by Markus Richter and<br />
Sabina van der Ley in collaboration with Dennis<br />
Crompton, the idea for the Stick on City, see p. 90, grew<br />
out of many discussions between Dennis and us.<br />
London 2008<br />
89
90
91
92
93
Look for seating that can both facilitate listening and shape the space for a large<br />
digital festival. Find what you’re looking for in South Africa and order a container<br />
of colorful Monobloc chairs. Find yourself still sitting on them ten years<br />
later. → Ordered for re:publica 2012.<br />
re:publica Berlin 2012<br />
226
Purchase contract with the company Chemcraft for 1800 Alpine Chairs;<br />
transport: container, ship, truck.<br />
227
228
Material: disused stadium seat shell, approx. 2.4 m of 8 mm tubular steel,<br />
30 × 4 m of flat steel, 4 screws; tools: bending template, flex, welding machine,<br />
protective clothing, drill press → Developed at the project Third Space,<br />
see p. 449<br />
Third Space Chair Bochum, Germany 2018<br />
229
Sedia Veneziana Venice, Italy 2010 230
Material: planks, 58 screws; tools: crosscut saw, cordless screwdriver, assembly<br />
template → Created at the project The Generator // Sedia Veneziana.<br />
Sedia Veneziana Venice, Italy 2010<br />
231
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Colophon<br />
raumlaborberlin (ed.):<br />
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