into the pill - Issue 11Anna-Catharina Gebbers Bibliothekswohnung video by Stephan Dillemuth/Nils Norman, Headshots at an Art Opening, sVideo, colour, sound, 4min 50sec 2008 *** 1.When was your space founded? Tell me about its goals, direction and character. Anna-Catharina Gebbers | Bibliothekswohnung is my workspace. When I finally moved all my stuff from Hamburg to Berlin in 2004 I had to rent an extra flat for my innumerable books: "Bibliothekswohnung" means "library apartment". From the beginning on I started regular meetings with friends where we read and discussed texts on specific political or cultural subjects, a kind of self-organised academy or critical salon without the bureaucracy of an institution. It was the same attitude that led to inviting artists, cultural activists, theorist, curators and other institutions to collaborate with me for transdisciplinary exhibitions, performances and lectures. Unlike most of my work relations – be it commercial or institutional – this collaborations are meant to open a process-related, experimental, informal platform for open thoughts. Basically the space works for me like a research tool, laboratory or a playground, and the subject matter or the play is given by the space itself. I ask every invited cultural producer to somehow react on the characteristics of the context, and we discuss beforehand what we might focus on: First of all, I mostly do one-day-events which thus are more like a performance of an exhibition or event; it's a private place, which becomes public for a short period of time; it hosts a library and a black piano sitting against a black wall; the flat is located in Berlin Mitte in a formerly GDR luxury prefab building (“Plattenbau”) that housed officials of the leading party of the former GDR and the revue’s dancers of Friedrichstadtpalast; we are next to Friedrichstrasse with its theatre, cabaret and music hall stages making it the world's capital of entertainment in the Roaring Twenties, neighbouring Bertolt Brecht's Berliner Ensemble, facing Max Reinhardt's Friedrichstadtpalast (rebuilt as historicising Plattenbau that imitates Art-Deco-Style!), and situated in-between the art venues of Museumsinsel and the Berlin Mitte galleries and the government district ... The architecture of the flat itself, its colours, the smell of GDR materials, the erratic dimensions, doors with all different sizes, what you see outside the window – all this allures spatial experiments. Far beyond an aseptic white cube these given features evoke countless ideas, thoughts, discussions, discourses – an extensive transdisciplinary approach to a given history and contemporary reality. And despite all wholehearted inquisitiveness and concentration we always do have a lot of fun when developing these projects far away from the art market's valuations and institutional slowness. And this sparks the discussions with the visitors and the whole atmosphere at my space. Also people have to ring the doorbell, take the GDR style lift or the odd green painted staircase and enter a private flat. They always come to stay for some time, have drinks and go into more intense and intimate discussions than at a commercial gallery or Kunsthalle. I guess that is what you can call producing criticality through inhabiting a problem rather than analysing it. 2.What are your areas of focus and research? I‘m a philosopher and cultural scientist, not an art historian. Thus my interests cover a broader field. I‘m interested in principles of the production of knowledge, of activism, of cultural circulations and translations. Philosophy, literature, linguistics, sociology, psychology, politics shape my vision of art history. But I also do work very close with artists, discussing not only content but formal aspects of their work. Aisthesis is a sensuous approach to cognition/knowledge. But to me aesthetic or artistic forms of expression always have to relate to our everyday life and to how political meaning can be given through cultural activities. By using specific methods of a critical reading of meaningful cultural practices I‘m principally interested in combining cultural and scientific production with social action. You can find this approach either in the content or/and in the form of any of my activities. 3.How would you describe the artistic reality in Berlin? How would you integrate your space within it? Berlin's art world is characterised by the hype created around it and its self-fulfilling prophecy: Everybody has the feeling that Berlin is the place where things happen and where you have to be if you don't want to suffer from decay in the province. But this generates a broad community whith super interesting events 24 hours 7 days a week. You can practically go out whenever you want and you will meet interesting people, see interesting things and learn. 4.What would you change about the artistic reality of the city? This question evokes a broad discussion: It is a particular feature of Berlin to be a place for countless biographies and artistic realities. And each has its own demands and needs. 5.Do you pursue collaboration with local state institutions? What is your experience in that area? This is mostly a question of persons, not of institutions. There are a lot of people working in institutions who are friends and collaborators, but I also do work with institutions. 6.Do you pursue other local or international collaborations and joint projects? My approach to the art world is international, collaborative and transdisciplinary. I’ve realized a lot international collaborations and joint projects. 7.What form of curatorial action do you propose? Each curator develops his own way of activity - depending on his or her work situation, educational background, interest and surrounding. Thanks to Harald Szeemann the role of the independent curator appeared in the field of art. 8.What form of cooperation between artist and curator do you investigate? 9.How do you fund your space? My space is non-commercial. When working on an exhibition or event we fund this together: The artists transport and install their work by themselves. I write texts, organize the opening receptions and professional documentation, sometimes hire technicians. And I pay the rent. I‘ve selected a video by Stephan Dillemuth and Nils Norman mainly for two reasons: It deals in a direct form with the art world as a political and economic subject matter. And it is an unpredictable collaboration, a generously organised group project. In addition to that I would like to suggest to take a look at the website of Christoph Schlingensief, a German artist, film and theatre director whose transdisciplinary work always deals directly with contemporary society: www.schlingensief.com ***
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