Jean-Ulrick Désert/Berlin, New York
From the 19.December
till 27.December the American artist Jn.Ulrick Désert is invited to Pilotprojekt
Gropiusstadt and is introduced to the sponsored apartment by the co-organizer.
Jn.Ulrick is shown the computer, the kitchen, the bedroom, the balcony and yes
a view to the past.
The past is Mr.Désert’s point of departure while at the living
machine of modernity’s utopian dream. Gropiusstadt, a modern mannerist
experiment on the edge of idealism and the Berlin wall. To live in the tower
of another mans idea would lead some to depravities these walls can now only
whisper. The missing chapter of Dantes hell was perhaps that moment when one
could view the other side of hell from hell itself.
The artist decides to mark his time with images, new and old. He initiates an
8–day blog (see: http://www.gropiusproject.blogspot.com) documenting his
experiences and personal reflections. Who lived here? Who lives here? Various
meandering walks reveal fragments of life until he encounters the junkies. The
shopping mall is filled with junkies, the artist must be careful as he is prone
to this weakness himself. Today the thrill of escapism from the banal, is shopping.
Addicts line the corridors of Gropius Passagen, buying fashion, buying technology,
buying pleasure. Sentimentality is packaged, kitsch regurgitated, creating tomorrows
memories.
Christmas eve, the artist searches for memories and meanders through the darkness.
Little does the artist know that he will have new artificial memories of this
melancholic landscape, this kitchen, these corridors. In the silence of the
tower the artist reclines and watches the film “Christiane F., Wir Kinder
vom Bahnhof Zoo”.
The artist proposes
a projected memory project. Collecting images from various tenants and projecting
them for a weekend on one or more vacant walls.
contact: Jean-Ulrick Désert
Arbeit von Jean-Ulrick Désert 2006