In a study of a particular social ecology, passage paysage was an interactive miniature landscape in the stairwell of Kunsthaus Tacheles, one of the original post-wall anarchist artspaces in Berlin. Though it is on destination-places maps, and thus frequented by tourists, it is pretty darn alternative, and about as free a space as many will ever experience. The building was a former shopping plaza from the Weimar Republic days, was bombed during WWII, and remained unused until the wall fell, and artistic anarchists (or anarchistic artists) moved in. In such a space what are the possibilities of play? Of interaction, of leaving a mark of one's presence, of affecting the space?
At the top of a five-story staircase -amazing, old, covered with layers of grafitti- there exists a small rectangular hole in the wall. That became something of a focal point, as many of the tourists visited during the day, when the bars and exhibition spaces were closed, their shut doors concealed under two decades of spraypaint. The moment of thwarted expectation became interesting to me, as families and couples would make the climb only to find nothing at the top, would take a picture of the stairs, and then descend again.
So this window into the wall, of tiny figures depicting the layers of human presence in such contested territory that makes up Berlin's history, and of the building itself, was a way for visitors to do something, to mark their pilgrimage. Over the month that I was in Berlin, I documented the daily changes to this little arena; the repositioning, disappearance and dissemination of these little figures throughout the building, as passersby moved the figures and took them home. This continued after I left, as I tracked sites like flicker and youtube, where people would upload their travel photos.
Not only was I able to follow the ongoing flux and eventual dissolution of the piece, but I was able to see how the piece was documented by others, how they framed their impressions, and how it became disseminated across milieus and geographies. A year and a half later my partner's sister visited the site, and documented its near complete blending into the rubble of the surounding building. It has become part of the wall itself, noticable only to those who look. Perfect.
model figures, plaster, paint, sand, moss, the actions of others. Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin, 2008