Living in Weimar, a place with a highly performed interactivity between local and "moving" populations (tourists, foreign students, Asylum-seekers, and more), is quite an interesting experience. I decided to make an inquiry, positioning myself in this surrounding as an artist, not only aesthetically but also politically, in combination with my inquiry for definitions of artistic identity and how it is expressed nowadays (Globalization , European Community, Postmodernity, etc.). One of the basic problems I question in this project is how to apply abstract ideas within the context of a physical space, and which is the best way of creating public space. Emphasizing the contradictions of different experiences created during the life of a temporary dweller (artist/researcher/traveler), and focusing on the conditions of art making in contemporary societies under the circumstances of globalization, I started to realize of a project taking different positions of employees, and becoming a chameleon citizen. Placing myself in this way, I exchanged the positions of the performative action of the artist, with that of a common behavior of an actual citizen, intervening in the city's everyday life. On the other hand, I interacted with working-groups, the visitors and clients of each working center. Using this scheme, this "mechanization" for practically, transforming my job-character, my "appearance" according to the pattern of each working environment, as a purpose I basically had to: -Enter the local community and gain the trust of the people. -Exercise against the alienation of the artist from the real world. -Act against the alienation of the public from the artist. -Have an immediate, authentic experience of how each specific functional part of this city works. -Work on how the public perceives the artist's work beyond the protected and institutionalized space of the Museum and the Gallery. -Creating my own route in the city as a cultural tactical resistance. Practically, I applied for employment to several businesses, for two full time working days. I "jumped", temporarily, into various personae of common people/employees. I used the appropriate, job-specific outfit; it was provided to me from the agencies' authorities in each place of action. Where it was not provided from the authorities, I improvised. I had an assistant for documenting the process. During the actions, I carried equipment to document the project. Specifically, I did training as, 1. A social worker in the Asylum-Seeker- Wohnheim, 2. An employee in the tourist information center of Weimar, 3. An employee in the train station, 4. An employee in the post office, 5. A cook and server at the student's restaurant, 6. A seller in the market, 7. An assistant in the "Network against the Extreme Right", and finally, to exchange labor with my photographer, 8. As his assistant for a wedding. The outcome of my inquiry is formed into a cultural/political message in using the media form of posters/advertisements. The posters are designed to present instants of the projects' process, and they are images having my person as the main protagonist figure in each place of interaction, depicted in combination with relevance to the topic text-graphics. This art product will be put in the open space, and, hopefully, will function as a stimulation, to create a dialogue between the citizen/spectators, within the broader public of the city. I perceive the places I chose to work either as Ports of Entry for the city of Weimar, or, as places where an intense interaction between the local society and the foreign takes place. |