Selfie im Bau in Bronze
'selfie in the 'den' in bronze' — performative intervention as a meditation and video-work
* 1 map of the building | 2-6 templates for body labelling *
background
This intervention is in a narrower and wider sense a clone of the intervention with video work of «Selfie im Bau II» at the Campus Brugg-Windisch 2020. However: the Campus Muttenz was designed by the pool architects from Zurich and is a completely different building structure, with a decidedly different aura than the Campus Brugg-Windisch. Consequently, this required a different scenario for the sequence of movements and a different text script.
sphere of action during the intervention/meditation
I explore and investigate its obvious and hidden movements in a section of the campus building in a live intervention. The building is a cube, hollowed out on the inside. My field of action is the entrance area with the public zones from the ground floor to the 3rd floor with the Beletage and the public campus library. The lower three floors are not only the 'fillet' piece, as one of the pool architects said, they are also part of the four-storey atrium, above which a central wing crosses the interior and divides it in two. Flooded with light from the skylights, the volume of the atrium is a visible player of the 360 000 m3 of air circulating through the campus spaces. The theatrical appearance in the atrium is produced by the transversal flights of stairs. They lead to the first three floors.
mode of movement during the intervention/meditation
My mode of movement is influenced by the surfaces and the rhythm of their rasters, such as interruptions on concrete walls and wood panelling, furniture, room dividers and ripples in the curtains. A subtext monologue, spoken in different modulations, also has an effect. It talks about the physicality of the building and asks questions of the people who work and study in this place: how they use the sweeping flights of stairs, breathe the air, how they physically appropriate the building. It is about the place where the campus stands and its development through different times. It talks about the materiality of the building (wood, stone, colours, etc.) and their cultural significance. The text tells, compares and is also information. The sound of the words and sentences addresses the physical structure of the building. It calls to what is past and hidden inside. With this text, I probe into the building, its materiality and 'inner' movements that are not visible, that reach beyond the present time of the building both into 'aerchological pasts', into the time-zones of the construction period and into the future: the movements of materials and workers during the construction phase, movements of pipes, power cables that ensure the communication infrastructure in the building. This text aims to link the interior life of the campus building, which extends and is concealed beyond its present time, with the momentary movements and interactions that happen and are possible in these public zones.
interfering factor
As a fictitious figure, I am noticeably dressed and carrying signs. The signs refer to the cardinal points 'north', 'east', 'west' and 'south', to the sign system of the building. I move around the edges, unobtrusively in dance mode, which could disrupt the 'usual' flow of movement in this campus zone, if the building were not deserted due to the Corona pandemic and the performer and filming followers were therefore almost completely alone.
iPhones are omnipresent everywhere and have become part of our being, so to speak, they are used in this exploration. So I try to capture details of the interiors in selfie mode, with the iPhone pointed at me on a camera stabiliser. Three followers film me, each pointing their iPhone at my legs, then at my arms and then at my head. We influence each other as we move through the rooms, becoming a moving organism. Not only the building structures and the lighting atmosphere guide and influence our mode of movement, but also the subtext.
The contingency co-writes the script of this being on the move, which can also be understood as a spatial and media research.