City Lounge

Exhibition: Berlin Biennale 2

Location: Trepp Tower – Allianz, Berlin, Germany

Year: 2001

Curator: Saskia Bos

Courtesy: The artist

Photo: Apolonija Šušteršič

Technical Data: Lounge space with seating elements placed on an orange carpet – situated in Trepp Tower, Gallery, CD compilation with statements from different people talking about the ongoing development of Berlin, monitors with images from specific city locations taken from www.cityscope.de which is following the change of the city every hour.

Video: City Lounge (2001, 12’ 47’’). Sound editing: Apolonija Šušteršič, Kees van Zelst. Music: Kees van Zelst. Sound fragments from interviews, talks and guiding tours with: Susanne Walter, Dr. Andres Lepik, Thomas M. Krüger, Stefan Rethfeld

Concept: City Lounge was placed in a lounge-like space in a corporate building of the Allianz insurance company, situated just off the centre of the inner city of Berlin.

The project commented on the recent development of the city, where the big corporations (such as Allianz) are playing a major role, manipulating the development of the city by means of architecture and planning strategies.

Placing the work within the Allianz building was therefore addressing its power position and offering to the viewer a space and time to think about it.

Along that City Lounge was using images from www.cityscope.de, which has four cameras, placed on the high office buildings in the area of New Berlin, recording every hour the present changing situation within the city. Visitors could view three monitors showing the images of the changing city while listening at the sounds track on the headphone overlooking the river Spree.

The “conversation” on the sound track is quite contradictory, portraying different ideas and views of the present urban situation in Berlin and give the listener an impression as she/ he would stand in the middle of the simulated discussion