A toolkit for critical graphic design, concerning the yearly event of "European Capital of Culture".
Research:
No more originality:
The original idea of this event is to put culture on the same level as politics and economics. And what is it nowadays?? Tourism?? Entertainment?? Culture?? Tourismentertainmentculture??
I found an answer in quotes of Beral Madra, turkish critic and curator: “We have an event culture here, but no real critical culture” and “Culture is used - not to say abused - by the state and private sector to enter the EU”.
Intergration:
How to integrate the 3 cities without hierarchy?? the event wants to confirm the integration of the EU, but is seperating the cities from each other (in 2010 there are 3 cities: essen/ruhrarea, in germany, istanbul in turkey; pecs in hungary). It is a good idea to integrate cities from countries which possibly enter the EU soon, but they are only allowed to take part in a “tag team” with at least one other european city.
Existance equals death:
What can this event have for an effect on the cities?? In which way do they exist as cultural capital, when the whole city is suffering a makeover?? Actually, it seems to become a new city whereby the original one actually didn´t exist as cultural capital of europe. The conclusion of this question came back when i waslistening to the old mayhem song “chimaira”: “you are not dead - you never existed”.
i went to the city of essen to use my toolkit.
Résumé:
Europe - the perfection of neutrality??
I think all in one we were 15 people who took part in the action. In the beginning people wanted to take part, because they were very interested. Till I said: “Ok, cool, take a t-shirt, and some other stuff and start acting”. They just went away. Maybe they were scared to be arrested?? Maybe it was not clear enough for them how to act on their own?? I just gave global advices about how to use the toolkit. In this direction I want to go on with my research.
But maybe this is reflecting situation of Europe in a way: the cities present themselves as special and individual, as different and unique, but all of them paste themselves into the frame of the not written rules of the European Capital of Culture. The people I asked also wanted to take part only as long as they did not behave different from the people walking around. This was only Essen but to draw a conclusion: Europe seems to live under a recipe from a cookbook.
special thanks to:
eline makker for acting and taking photos
namik schwarz for acting
angela mainetti for acting
sasha renkas for filming and taking photos
madeline schäfer for filming and acting
thanks to:
tim larweczka
stephan casselmann
thomas galeski
jasmin keune
laura wiederhold
for acting spontaneously
as part of my graduation there was an exhibition as well
happy new ruhr2010
monuments cannot deny
