K. H. Stauffer (space biography)

Since September 2019, artist Simone Rueß has been visiting people with dementia in the Stephanus Foundation's Ernst Berendt House. In returning conversations, she invited them to describe their spatial experiences, which she then visualized in drawings. In 2022 she presented the series of drawings in the exhibition “FRAGILE REMEMBERING” on the site of the Stephanus Foundation, together with an site-specific installation in the Friedenskirche.

In the direct neighborhood of the exhibition FRAGILE REMEMBERING, the open air cinema Freilichtbühne Weißensee was showing a short film portrait of K. H. Stauffer, which documents the moment of fragile memory of biographical experiences. K. H. Stauffer fled with his family in 1945 from present-day Poland to the Rhineland-Palatinate, where he grew up with his family on a four-sided farm. He later managed this farm by himself for many years. Resettlement and escape as well as the Iron Curtain play a central role in his memories. In addition to a spatial biography album, which the artist is constantly expanding in collaboration with the protagonist, we see and hear three excerpts from the large-scale project “Space/Time/Resonance” (2022), in which Simone Rueß explores “how geopolitical caesuras are written down in spatial biographical narratives…”

Seit September 2019 besucht die Künstlerin Simone Rueß Menschen mit demenziellen Veränderungen im Ernst-Berendt-Haus der Stephanus Stiftung. In wiederkehrenden Gesprächen lässt sie sich Raumerlebnisse beschreiben, welche sie im Nachhinein zeichnerisch visualisiert und 2022 in der Ausstellung „FRAGILES ERINNERN“ auf dem Gelände der Stephanus Stiftung präsentiert.

In unmittelbarer Nachbarschaft zeigt die Freilichtbühne Weißensee anlässlich der Ausstellung FRAGILES ERINNERN ein Kurzfilm-Portrait von K. H. Stauffer, welches den Augenblick des fragilen Erinnerns an biografische Erlebnisse dokumentiert. K. H. Stauffer floh mit seiner Familie 1945 aus dem heutigen Polen in die Pfalz, wo er mit seiner Familie auf einem Vier-Seiten-Hof aufwuchs. Später bewirtschaftete er selbst jahrelang diesen Hof. Die Flucht sowie der Eiserne Vorhang spielen in seinen Erinnerungen eine zentrale Rolle. Neben eines Raumbiografie-Albums, das die Künstlerin in Kollaboration mit dem Protagonisten ständig erweitert, sehen und hören wir drei Auszüge aus dem umfassenden Projekt „Space/Time/Resonance“(2022), in dem sich Simone Rueß damit befasst, „wie sich geopolitische Zäsuren in raumbiografische Erzählungen niederschreiben...“

K. H. Stauffer (space biography), 2019-2022, short film, Freilichtbühne Weißensee, based on conversations with K. H. Stauffer, 4min

Animation

Diagrams with a vertical historical timeline and a horizontal narrative timeline summarize the narratives (in this case narratives by K. H. Stauffer). Weightings of certain space biographical data become visible in relation to memory capacity. Superpositions and condensations reveal how certain experiences of respondents, influenced by geopoliti- cal caesuras, acquire more frequented resonance.

Light recording [micro-light installation]
On the 18th of January, 2022, for the duration of eight hours, daylight was recorded on a sheet of paper with a small funnel in a darkened room on a micro scale while appearing on a monitor via a webcam. The digital light cone translates the phenomenon of filtering perceptions onto the screen (as a magnified sensor).

Sound piece by Catherine Lamb
Filtered ambient sounds are the basis of the piece inter sum (2019). Taking into account the various transitions of acoustic perception between indoors and outdoors, Lamb applies a resonance band-pass filter to her ambient field with her synthesizer instrument, thus reflecting the constantly fluctuating field of attention.

Lichtaufnahme [Mikrolichtinstallation]

Am 18. Januar 2022 wurde für die Dauer von acht Stunden in einem abgedunkelten Raum Tageslicht auf einem Blatt Papier mit einem kleinen Trichter im Mikromaßstab aufgenommen und über eine Webcam auf dem Monitor eingeblendet. Der digitale Lichtkegel übersetzt das Phänomen der Filterung von Wahrnehmungen auf die Leinwand (als vergrößerter Sensor).

Klangstück von Catherine Lamb

Gefilterte Umgebungsgeräusche sind die Grundlage von Lambs Stücks inter sum (2019). Unter Berücksichtigung der unterschiedlichen Übergänge der akustischen Wahrnehmung zwischen drinnen und draußen wendet Lamb mit ihrem Synthesizer-Instrument einen Resonanz-Bandpassfilter auf ihr Umgebungsfeld an und hält so das ständig schwankende Aufmerksamkeitsfeld fest.

INhabit 2018/2020

In 2018, I collected mental images of home in my INhabit project with the help of around 60 narrative interviews from Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Israel, the Czech Republic, Germany, Thailand, etc. During the lockdown, for many „home“ became a home office. Professional and private activities all took place in the same place. In 2020, I juxtapose the mental images from 2018 with new conversations with the same interviewees. These are presented on posters at bus stops during the festival in the public space „ADAPTACJE"
in Gorzów Wielkopolskie (2021), curated by Marta Gendera.

2018 sammle ich in meinem Projekt „INhabit“ Vorstellungen von Zuhause mithilfe von ca. 60 narrativen Interviews aus Italien, Holland, Belgien, Israel, Tschechien, Deutschland, Thailand etc. Während des Lockdowns wurde das Zuhause für viele zum home office und die beruflichen und privaten Tätigkeiten fanden alle am selben Ort statt. 2020 stelle ich die mentalen Bilder von 2018 erneuten Gesprächen mit denselben Interviewten gegenüber. Diese werden während des Festivals im öffentlichen Raum „Adaptacje“ in Gorzów Wielkopolskie (2021) auf Plakaten an Bushaltestellen präsentiert.

Kręgosłup

In the middle of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, which marks the centre of the capital city, there is a system that shows similarities to the spinal column of the human body. In the midpoint of the palace tower are 12 elevator shafts in which people are transported daily to 43 floors. The work abstracts the space within the architecture of these elevators, a space which the people occupy and define over time through their usage of the moving lifts, getting in and out at the different floors. Dismembered in its seperate vertebrae, the spinal column is lying on the floor, as if an organ has been removed from the body and relieved of its normal function. And so, the observer has the chance to examine the spine with his own eyes.

Detail, Kręgosłup (Warsaw), 2010, 3,40 m, modules up to 30x30x8 cm, sand with epoxy

PKiN (Movement Space), 2010, lifts in the Palace of Culture, pencil on paper, 29.7x42 cm

Heutiges Leben: Erinnerungen in der Zukunft.

Rome

2018, Adele Giacoia related the city Rome with the meaning of home and described it as a large, open labyrinth structure of books that you can walk through. 2020, the same city, Rome, was still connected with the meaning of „home“, but now Adele Giacoia created a mental image of a DNA-like structure, where you could only walk through mentally with the help of your memory.

Inhabit 2018/2020: During my residency and exhibition at the Triennale di Milano, 2018, I collected, in the form of narrative interviews, over 60 mental images of home, from people from Europe, Taiwan, Israel, etc. During the pandemic lockdown 2020, for many people, the home became the home office. Professional and private activities took all place in the same place. I met my interviewees of 2018 again, this time virtually, and I asked for their current mental image of home in times of pandemic lockdown. Transformed into drawings, the contrasts between the ideas of home from 2018 and 2020 are presented on posters at bus stops during the festival in public space "Adaptacje" in Gorzów Wielkopolskie, 2021.