Catalogue > At random

Eight protagonists distributed over Marls central Rathausplatz in front of the Skulpturenmuseum use megaphones to call out everyday phrases to each other as if they were carrying out a conversation: “ Do you think he will have won the Lotto ” or “ You will have told me much about your experiences“. Formulated in future perfect, these shouts play with the expectation that certain events will have happend by a certain time in the future. This construction has a distancing effect on the here and now and on the ease of normal everyday conversation, showing the extent to which a present experience is determined by expectations of the future. The use of megaphones seems antiquated today and thus deals ironically with present-day forms of communication. Like on the Web, banal experiences from one`s own life are communicated to an imaginary public without controls or personal contact. Marl`s Rathausplatz and the Skulpturenmuseum were constructed in the 1970s and document the city`structural rebirth, carried out with the goal of turning the urban core into a vibrant place and optimally combining diverse functions. Previously regarded as amuch lauded model solution, it is now obvious that the utopian promise of a city that radically deviates from traditional urban structures has not been fulfilled in the long run.

Born in Duisburg, Germany, lives and works in Braunschweig. From 1986 to 1989 apprenticeship as a carver (diploma), Michelstadt, from 1989 to 1996 studies at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (Academy for Visual Communication), Offenbach, as well as at the Kunstakademie (Art Academy) in Düsseldorf (1995 Masterstudent). Since 2009 Professor for Film/Video at the University of Art Braunschweig.