#046 verité/endere Räume
2013 / installation, exhibition, site-specific
verité/endere Räume
Site-Specific Installation Exhibition "Local Host" at Former Border Crossing
Project Overview
"verité/endere Räume" (verité/other spaces) represents an ambitious site-specific exhibition project developed in collaboration with Nelson Vergara, professor of media arts at Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL), Bogotá. The exhibition, titled "Local Host," transforms the former border crossing "Köpfchen" near Aachen into a temporary laboratory for experimental artistic investigation. This collaborative project, involving students from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, explores the intersection of natural environments, border topographies, artistic intervention, and phenomenological experience through a carefully orchestrated series of installations and actions performed over July 26-27, 2013.
Conceptual Framework
The project investigates processes of temporal "(dis)location" through artistic intervention in natural topography. Drawing from Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopias outlined in "Other Spaces," the works create deliberate interruptions within the forest environment that challenge conventional perceptions of space, time, and place.
Central to the project's sonic dimension is a collaboration with composer Udo Moll, exploring the application of "das Mollsche Gesetz" (Moll's Law) as a reductive methodology for deconstructing classical musical structures. Through this systematic approach, Beethoven compositions undergo radical transformation, their complex orchestral arrangements reduced to essential elements that can be integrated into the forest's acoustic environment via the Telefante system.
Artistic Interventions
The exhibition encompasses multiple approaches to site-specific practice:
Material Investigations:
- Abandoned found objects and their temporal narratives
- Sound interventions that disrupt natural acoustic environments
- Atmospheric shifts created through technological mediation
Environmental Transformations:
- Experimental terrain investigations using light/video installations
- Engagement with existing vegetation and water systems (streams)
- Integration of built objects within natural topography
- Temporary actions that create ephemeral spatial experiences
Historical Layering
Beyond immediate environmental engagement, "verité/endere Räume" investigates historical stratifications of the site, acknowledging the complex political and cultural histories embedded within this former border crossing. The site at "Köpfchen" carries the material and immaterial traces of border politics, territorial divisions, and cross-cultural exchanges. The forest and former border infrastructure become both medium and subject, a space where natural processes intersect with human intervention and political history across multiple temporal scales.
Institutional Context
Realized as part of the FIELDSITE Project under Achim Mohné and the seminar "UNSITE TEMPORALITIES" led by Echo Ho and Dirk Specht at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, the project demonstrates innovative approaches to site-specific practice within academic contexts. The collaboration with Nelson Vergara (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá) brought international perspectives on site-specific interventions and media arts pedagogy. The choice of a former border crossing location amplifies questions about territory, belonging, historical memory, and the politics of place that permeate contemporary artistic discourse.
Project Links:
Specific Interventions
Visual Interruption: Installation of high-reflective mirror walls within the forest creating visual repetition and spatial disorientation, directly referencing Foucault's observations on heterotopias and the creation of "other spaces" within familiar environments.
Acoustic Intervention: Radio receivers tuned to random frequencies create acoustic interruptions of natural surroundings, generating surreal juxtapositions between technological noise and forest ambience that challenge conventional boundaries between natural and artificial soundscapes.
Participating Artists
The collaborative nature of "verité" brings together diverse artistic voices, each contributing unique perspectives to the collective investigation of site, temporality, and intervention.