Building Something Out of Something
2009/2015 –
– Residence of the Federkiel Foundation
Building Something Out of Something
2009/2015 –
– Residence of the Federkiel Foundation
2 Rooms, Kitchen, Bath
Collection of the Federkiel Foundation
In 2002 Stiftung Federkiel began its involvement on the grounds of the former Baumwollspinnerei. Since then the foundation is among the most significant private sponsors involved in the conversion of the factory grounds according to the standards of continuous client-oriented development.
In 2008 the Stiftung Federkiel rented a “guest apartment” in the former workers’ housing units of the Spinnerei that line Thüringer Straße and invited the artist group FAMED to treat the flat and furniture as artistic material. They developed an ironically narrative text piece that cuts straight through the rooms and gives them a coherent visual form. The result is a complex work of art provided and presented by the foundation; a space for living and developing ideas.
I am, therefore I think.
And where am I? Behind. Already opened the door and entered the apartment, centuries of Cartesian thinking behind me. A way of thinking that, it seems, has stopped outside the door. Standing outside is probably the fate of those who think about access to something without moving away from their position, after:
131 years. After 12 hours of work. Check the clock. Get up. Check the clock. Get dressed. Check the clock. Breakfast. Check the clock. Go to work. Work. Check the clock. Lunch break. Back to work. Check the clock. Go home. Walk across the factory grounds, check all the clocks on all the buildings. Pick up your child from Kindergarten. Play for two hours. Check the clock, check the clock! Dinner. Set the alarm. Go to sleep. Get up.
There are grandmothers who still refuse to eat when they are hungry; they eat when it’s 6, when it’s 12, when it’s 6. They put their dining table where the lamp hangs. They even put their grandchildren into the best light, never themselves.
What is to be done with all this light? Open the doors. Move the table. Sand the floor. Expand grandmother’s mirror. See yourself inside it, your own tiny inherited body. Hang the mirror somewhere else. Alternatively: keep looking into it. Work on seeing yourself. Take your work home. Take your work into the kitchen, into bed. Define work for yourself.
Refrain from yourself again.
Kenah Cusanit
Photos: Stefan Fischer