Pablo Pijnappel Works

Transcription

Pablo
Pijnappel
Works
Pablo
Pijnappel
Works
Contents
This publication was made possible with the kind support of the
Mondriaan Fund.
Mondriaan Fund.
Mondriaan Fund.
2015
2014
55
Preface
66
Introduction
10
Invasion
The
Partyof the Killer Frogs
5
22
20
Preface
Em
frente
ao oceano
Casa
da Michèle
6
30
24
5
Introduction
Now
We’llser
Gode
‘tilum
thecinza
End translúcido
Pareciam
Preface
636
10
32
Introduction
The Party
Lucas
22
40
44
10
30
44
52
22
50
30
36
58
Casa da Michèle
Nima
The Party
Pareciam
ser de um cinza translúcido
The
Playmakers
Casa da Michèle
Lucas
Pareciam
sertode
um cinza translúcido
Lucas Goes
Church
Curriculum Vitae
2013
40
59
63
36
44
66
40
50
72
44
Nima
Lucas
The Playmakers
Nima
Lucas
The Playmakers
2012
Curriculum Vitae
50
59
80
Lucas
Sebastian
Curriculum Vitae
59
85
2014
2013
2014
2013
Works
2nd edition,
edition, 2016
2015
3rd
Contents
Contents
For contact please write to [email protected]
Works
Copyright@2014-13
by Pablo Pijnappel. All rights unreserved.
6
2nd edition, 2015
Any part of this publication may be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any
Works
form or by any means, eletronic or mechanical, without permission in writing
2nd
2015
fromedition,
the author.
For contact please write to [email protected]
Published by
Pineapple
Tree Press, by
Reichenberger
Str. 107,
10999unreserved.
Berlin
Copyright@2014-13
Pablo Pijnappel.
All rights
For
contact
please write
to [email protected]
Design
appropriated
by
Any part of this publication may be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any
Pablo
Pijnappel
from H.L.
Chu and
Michael Kenna
form or
by any means,
eletronic
or mechanical,
without permission in writing
Copyright@2014-13
by
Pablo
Pijnappel.
All rights unreserved.
Printed
by
from the author.
Any
part of this publication may be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any
‘Marcel’
form or by any means, eletronic or mechanical, without permission in writing
Published by
from the author.
Pineapple Tree Press, Reichenberger Str. 107, 10999 Berlin
Design appropriated by
Published by
Pablo Pijnappel from H.L. Chu and Michael Kenna
Pineapple Tree Press, Reichenberger Str. 107, 10999 Berlin
Printed by
3
Preface
Although in many ways I remain
an experimental filmmaker at heart,
since 2013 I have started to engage more often with forms that go
beyond the audiovisual based mediums. For many years working mostly within the paradigm of the moving-image, I dedicated quite some
of that time to a certain archeology
of cinema, using the 16 mm and the
slide film at a time when these type
of analog technique was rapidly
being made considered out-dated as
the new cheap low-quality products
brought by the digital revolution
flooded the market. I found their inherited transparent process, endowed
in their relative primitiveness within
the context of binary language-based
machines, as a ready-made deconstruction of image making and remaking. Therefore, the 16 mm and
the slide-projector proved to be very
adequate tools to help me desiccate
the image constructions made by our
psychic apparatuss.— not exactly an
original idea, but one worth rescuing
before was too late.
Almost ten years later, I feel now
that a certain chapter of my oeuvre is
complete and that I can move forward into new grounds: Text based
works, performances, audio installations and site specific works are
some of the languages that I decided
to borrow to expand my exploration
of the relation between narrative and
memory.
Photographing for Publication by Norman Sanders,
published in 1983.
Because of the nature of these
works, which opposed to films and
slide-installations, happen often hors
du champ, that is to say in a space
and time outside a frame which cannot be disseminated after the fact as
a video documentation, for the first
time the need was created to have a
more traditional catalogue, where an
explanatory text can be read along
with photographs, that together try
to emulate something that has been
made for, or in, a specific place and
situation. As it happens, the com-
plications involved in the relation
between text and image are part of
my practice, allowing me to approach the otherwise daunting task
of documentation as another creative
endeavor.
The catalogue which you have now
spread on your screen has its design
and layout appropriated of a book I
once found in the throw-away carton
box of a friend who was moving
between studios, and who had Mr.
Sanders as a teacher in art-school
— presumably in his photography
class. Since the field of photography
is pertinent to me, which in Richard
Prince’s words — very cynically put
in his trial for the Canal Zone works
— is a precursor of the download
and copy-and-paste of images, I
found the arbitrariness to buccaneer
this book convincing enough.
During my own early study in fine
arts in the V.A.V. (Previously Audiovisual) department of the Gerrit
Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam,
I was thought that the process is
more important than the end result
— which mainly meant that they
wanted you coming to class rather
than only showing up in the day of
the exam. Therefore this catalogue
should be considered an on-going
project, which will be constantly
improved and expanded (towards
both the future and the past) as I
continue to make newer works and
unearth documentation from earlier
ones. Please do not hesitate to ask
for further material.
Rio de Janeiro,
January
Rotterdam,
January
20152015
5
Introduction
Formally, my work explores the
mechanisms of memory through storytelling. To tell stories is always to
look back, or at least, to project the
past into the future. I’m fascinated
with our inherit aptitude of abstracting time into key moments creating
constantly a narrative of our past.
My works convey in underlying this
premise by presenting stories that
haven’t been thoroughly finished
and left partly fragmented — not
very unlike an incomplete jigsaw
puzzle — in order that each one will
have to place the pieces together in
the attempt of making a coherent
story from it. Inevitably, each viewer
makes their own version, using their
pool of images and of knowledge in
their mind to fill in the gaps.
Sigmund Freud in his first book, The
Interpretation of Dreams, mentions
that our recollection of a dream we
had on the previous night is nothing but a constructed memory of a
far more fragmented and irrational
unconscious impulse. In fact, Freud
says that as we remember the dream
we adjust events in a more coherent order and perhaps fill in the
remaining gaps of an illogical dream
sequence with ready-made thoughts
from previous dreams or fantasies
(e.g., day-dreams). He names this reflex of consciousness as Secondary
Revision; he claims to be the same
agency that makes optical illusion
possible, or sonorous illusion, for
that matter (like hearing our name
being shouted by a complete stranger, only to realize that the word uttered was actually very different).
When I first read that theory, I immediately had to remember something that Chris Marker once said:
“Actually, when we are in a cinema
what we are watching for most
of the time is darkness. For every
frame of a picture the shutter from
the projector closes twice. It’s in
the darkness that a story sets in our
minds.” This reflex, Freud’s Second-
6
ary Revision, that our minds does in
order to make unfinished information a complete coherent whole is
what makes the illusion of cinema
possible, as well as, perhaps, dreams
and memory.
A French communication entrepreneur and former journalist, Franck
Frommer, wrote the book, La Pensée
PowerPoint, which states the dangers of abusing the Microsoft application. He argues that PowerPoint
can forestall criticism upon a given
project being presented, hiding flaws
in logic in the proposal of the orator
by its (almost hypnotic) power of
illustration (bright colored images
being projected in the dark) that help
to give weak arguments the illusion
of coherence. According to Frommer, “PowerPoint c’est du Cinèma”.
Another book, on the same apparently banal subject, is The Cognitive
Style of Power Point, by the American Edward Tufte, that demonstrates
how the graphic and discursive
mechanism of PowerPoint helped
Colin Powell “sell” to the United
Nations the existence of weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq...
having changed radically of environment, who walked out of the beaten
path, or a place as a subject where
this kind of characters transit, a sort
of hubs for adventurers and lost
souls, that usually are places of transition and of transformation. These
protagonists usually resemble someone real or an existing place is seen
through peculiar angle; is irrelevant
if they are fictional or not, as they
are merely subjects, case-studies, for
an examination of our construction
of space and time.
The combination of text with image
plays a strong role in conveying the
compelling meaning. According to
Ronald Barthes, photographs are
de-connoted images waiting to be
connoted by words like any newspaper can prove. I feel that the written
and spoken language, juxtaposed
with images form one and the same
cognitive thinking, just like our perception apparatus is constituted of
consciousness and unconsciousness.
“When we dream we think in images
and when we are awake we think in
concepts,” Freud once suggested.
As a subject, my films sometimes
employ the convention of storytelling of having some kind of protagonist as a seeing-eye, an object
of identification, who is invariably
someone that has a nomadic nature,
7
2014
2015
9
9
2014
Transcription
60
posters, found
Performance,
50’ stereo and party debris
2014
2015
10
12
The Partyof the Killer Frogs
Invasion
The
is asite-specific
site specificworks
instalOne Party
of three
lation
tailored for
commissioned
for the
the off-space
group show
Die
Raum
in Berlin.
A Mão
Negativa,
thatThe
tookspace
placeis
located
near
to Eberswalder
Straße,
in Parque
Lage,
Rio de Janeiro.
in
Prenzlauer
Berg;isaan
district
which
The
venue, which
interesting
in
its heydays
roughlyan
less
hybrid
between—anuntil
art-school,
than
ten years
agoand
—aused
to be
the
exhibition
space
public
park,
cool
hip area.
then
it drasticontains
in its Since
grounds
a strange
cally
morphed into
a predominantly
and labyrinthine
garden,
which,
bourgeois
neighborhood
became
alongside an
ostentatiousand
neoclassiacalsort
of cautionary
taletheofearly
how XX
fast
villa,
was made in
gentrification
can changeplantation
the characcentury by a sugar-cane
ter
of a as
place.
owner,
a gift to his eccentric wife,
an Italian opera singer. During the
Because
of thethe
local
neighborhood’s
performance,
public
was taken
recent
history,
I thought
it was
pertifor a walk
across
the park,
which
nent
to tackle
Berlinincludes
emblem athat
between
otherathings,
started
to be exploited
fake medieval
tower, amore
large recently,
stone
which
is the
local
party culture;
aquarium,
and
a slave’s
bathhouse,
considered
one of six
the dreams
main traits
of
while I recounted
I had.
the
what
startedthe
as a
TheGerman
dreams capital,
all had in
common
consequence
for being
cheap
place
fact of being very
vividaand
cinepopulated
withstorytelling,
the creativeasclass,
matic in their
well
in
last yearsfitting
became
more
of an
as the
particularly
to the
nearly
industry
for tourists,
hordes of
lunatic landscape
thatwith
the park’s
young
gardenpeople
offers. taking cheap flights
for the weekend to party in increasingly expensive clubs.
The Party
IThe
wrote
a short-story
is a
walk
is presentedwhich
as a guided
fictionalization
a new
year’s
tour through theofpark,
and
as theparty
Iplace
had thrown
with —
friends,
— I calltogether
it The Zone
where
few
months
before,
whichimprobahad gotI have
witnessed
certain
ten
bit outatofnight.
hand.Slowly,
I transferred
ble aevents
as the
the
story to
the area
near Dieinto
Raum,
different
dreams
intertwine
one
in
the turn the
of the
year and
between
2005
narrative,
garden,
everything
and
2006,
the time
that
around
theeffectively
park’s grounds,
suggentrification
from the
hit its
gest the cartography
ofarea
someone’s
maximum
point,
makingthe
hordes
of
unconscious.
Although
subject
young
and hipster
roll down
of sleepartist
or dreams
are never
directly
the
hill towards
the next cool
place
enunciated,
the audience
is induced
then:
Kreuzberg.
appropriated
Die
to infer
that they Imight
be dreaming
Raum’s
silkscreen infrastructure
themselves.
— they print their flyers into amusingly
large posters
— andisdivided
The dreams’
provenance
an
the
storythat
intoI sixty
posters
(includarchive
had been
building
ing
plain
colored
ones
that
served
for the
last
eight or
nine
years,
by
to
brakeaccounts
the storyafter
intowaking
chapters)
taping
up that
were
four geometrical
from split
someinto
gripping
night excur-grids
designed
of the three
comsions, thatfor
areeach
particularly
clear
due
pletely
irregular interrupted
walls of thesleep
space.
to my recurrent
In
the opening
evening
caused
by insomnia.
Aswe
partthrew
of my
aongoing
party that
easily into
filledthe
thepsychic
small
research
fifteen
squarewhich
feet gallery.
the
mechanisms
render Later
both redebris
of theand
party
were left inworkthe
membering
storytelling,
space
as props
for the material,
installation.
ing with
unconscious
i.e.
spontaneous narratives, is a logical
step. The fact that
these
dreams in
areDie
Detail
of installation
Installation
in Die Raum,
filled with cinematographic
referRaum,
Berlin,
Photo
by
Berlin,
2014.2014.
Photo
by Jan
ences — including
violence — give
JanWindszus.
Windszus.
Femke, Chloe and I were organizing
a New Year’s party together. It was
the winter of 2005, and we all still
lived in Prenzlauer Berg, just about
the time when most of the younger
artists and hipsters were leaving en
masse down the hill to Kreuzberg,
which was fully flourishing as the
new place-to-be, starting its own
self-obliteration towards total gentrification, the same cycle that Prenzlauer Berg was completing then.
But we were already not that young
— we were in our mid-thirties — so
we had no plans to leave. Besides,
Prenzlauer Berg still had some rough
edges left and wasn’t completely
taken over by armies of baby strollers like nowadays.
2014
I had already been living in Berlin
for five years then and had hosted
several parties, always with the help
of Femke and her boyfriend. I used
to live in a large loft near Wedding,
with incredibly tolerant neighbors
who never called the police, despite
the fact that we usually partied during weekdays until the wee hours.
Especially in the first years, I was
still sort of half living here and in
Rio. Because I was terribly afraid of
flying, I always gave a farewell party on the day before the departure, to
make sure I would get in the plane
very tired and hungover; actually,
in my innermost fears, I did believe
that every farewell party could be
my last good-bye to my friends.
But since Femke still hadn’t held a
house warming party, and since her
house was much more central than
mine, we decided to locate the New
Year’s Eve party at her new place,
which was a newly renovated, spacious, ground floor apartment, close
to the Eberswalderstrasse U-bahn
station, where she had moved with
her half-Colombian boyfriend, the
writer Carlos, who at the time had
Performance in Parque
gone to visit his mother in Bogota.
Lage, Rio de Janeiro.
Photo by Daniel
Just after Christmas,
Jablonski.
10
when Femke
and Chloe had returned from their
that about fifty guests would come
60 posters,
found
stereo
party
debris
respective
families
in Holland
and and
— in
fact I secretly
expected that
England — I stayed working at
at least fifty of my friends would
home with my cat — we met in her
come. It was our aspiration that after
house to plan the party. After a tour
the fireworks, people would stay to
around the house, we regrouped
dance.
in the kitchen to have drinks and
cigarettes. Chloe, who was a very
We were all very excited and anxclose friend of Femke, was a short,
ious to see how everything would
red-haired artist, completely covered play out. I had a special reason for
with freckles, with the Centaur con- having certain anxieties because my
stellation sprinkled on her face. She
new fling might come that night.
told us about her Christmas thrills
Soraya was a small, plumpy Lebain a small coastal town in England,
nese girl who was a good friend of
where in a truly regressive experiChloe, and whom I had met during
ence, she had to sleep in the bunk
a dinner party back in the summer.
bed of her 10-year-old nephew, and, We had been in touch for almost two
while outside rained miserably, she
months through e-mails and longsat in the living room watching her
distance calls, while she was abroad
nephew drive an orange Porsche in
in Romania and Lebanon. We had
circles with his new PlayStation.
two brisk, feverish nights before she
Because she had just moved from
went to Romania, where she took
Paris where she had been living for
part in an artist residency close to
Thepast
Party
is years,
a site specific
instal-con- Bucharest.
I wrote a short-story
which me
is ato
the
five
she couldn’t
She had invited
lation tailored
theguests
off-space
fictionalization
a new
year’s On
party
tribute
so muchfor
with
for the
visit
her, which of
I had
accepted.
Die Raum
in turned
Berlin.out
Thetospace
is
I had
thrown
with an
friends,
party,
which
be comthe
same
day together
that I bought
expenlocated fine
nearwith
to Eberswalder
few months
before,
hadagotpletely
Femke whoStraße,
was
sive
ticket, her
fatherwhich
suffered
fatal
in Prenzlauer
Berg;
a district
which
ten a bit
out in
ofBeirut,
hand. Icausing
transferred
concerned
about
having
too many
heart
attack
her to
in its heydays
— until
less
the story
to the area
people
who might
end roughly
up wrecking
leave
to Lebanon
thenear
nextDie
day.Raum,
thannew
ten apartment.
years ago — used to be the
in the turn of the year between 2005
her
cool hip area. Since then it drastiand 2006, her
effectively
time
that
Somehow
father’sthe
death
seemed
callybought
morphed
a predominantly
gentrification
from
the area
We
the into
drinks
together, but I to
have brought
us closer,
ashit
if Iits
bourgeois
neighborhood
became had
maximum
making
was
in charge
of the foodand
— which
enteredpoint,
her life
so herhordes
father of
a sort of
tale
of how
youngleave
artistit.
and
hipster
rollback
down
would
becautionary
Brazilian of
course
—fast
and could
Once
I was
from
gentrification
change
the charac- Bucharest,
the hill towards
next anyway
cool place
they
took carecan
of the
decoration
wherethe
I went
ter ofsetting
a place.
then:
Kreuzberg.
appropriated
and
up the space. During the
—
I couldn’t
get aI refund
— andDie
Raum’sinsilkscreen
infrastructure
afternoon of the 31st, while I cooked stayed
a cheap hotel
by myself,
ofthey
the local
— theyaprint
their
flyers
into amusaBecause
feijoada,
hungneighborhood’s
colorful filhaving
terrific
time
encounterrecent
I thought
it wasroom
pertiing
ingly
largeofposters
— and
ters
onhistory,
the lamps
in the living
packs
ravenous
straydivided
dogs in
nent because
to tackleCarlos
a Berlin
emblem
that
the story
intowe
sixty
(includand,
was
paranoid
dark
streets,
keptposters
daily contact
started
to beinexploited
recently,
inglong
plaindistance
coloredcalls
onesand
thate-mails.
served
that
people
the partymore
would
steal
by
which
is the
culture;
to brake
themore
storythan
intoone
chapters)
his
books,
thelocal
girlsparty
covered
the
Now,
after
monththat
we
considered
one
of the
main
traits of
were split
intosee
four
geometrical
grids
book
shelves
with
a gold
aluminum
would
finally
each
other again.
I
the German
capital,
what
started
designed
for iteach
ofbut
theIthree
comfoil,
shielding
Carlos’
books
fromas a didn’t
know
then,
was seDetail
of of
installation
consequence
for being a cheap
place cretly
pletelybecoming
irregular
walls
the space.
the
gaze of intellectually
inclined
very
attached
to her
Photo
by
de tal
populated with the creative class,
In the opening
evening
we threw
thieves.
already;
even though
I Fulano
consciously
in the last years became more of an
a party
easilytoo
filled
theexpectasmall
tried
to that
not have
many
industry
with
fifteenwith
square
gallery. Later
The
threefor
of tourists,
us had no
ideahordes
how of
tions,
the feet
presentiment
that the
youngpeople
peopletotaking
cheap
flights
debris
theneedy
party were
left inwhile
the
many
expect;
Berlin
was
she
wasofjust
and lonely
for the weekend
to party parties
in increasspace as props
for theand
installation.
blooming
with Silvester
to
mourning
her father
once back
ingly expensive
compete
with, inclubs.
our neighborhood
in Berlin she would let me down.
alone there would be dozens and
Installation in Die Raum,
dozens of house parties for people to I discovered too late
that my feelings
Berlin, 2014. Photo by Jan
choose between; our assessment was behaved then like vines
that would
Windszus.
The Party
11
13
11
Transcription
Femke,
andof
I were
organizing
them theChloe
capacity
reflecting
how
athe
New
Year’s
party
together.
It was
consumption of popular culture
the
winteringrained
of 2005, in
andour
weminds.
all still
becomes
lived
in
Prenzlauer
Berg,
just
about
Was under that interpretation that
the
time
when
most
of
the
younger
I shaped my persona in the perartists
and the
hipsters
leaving
formance,
guidewere
or keeper
in en
masse
down
the
hill
to
Kreuzberg,
the walk, inspired on the hosts of
which
wasTV
fully
flourishing
the
anthology
series,
such asasHitchnew
place-to-be,
starting
its
own
cock’s Hour, or more appropriately,
self-obliteration
towards
totalbut
gentriThe Twilight Zone.
And last,
not
fication,
the
same
cycle
that
Prenleast, I named the park The Zone,
zlauer
Bergreference
was completing
then.
as a direct
to Tarkovisky’s
But
we
were
already
not
that
young
The Stalker.
taken
over by armies of baby strollTranscription
ers like nowadays.
Good evening,
I had already
been
living
Welcome
to the
Zone.
I’ll in
beBerlin
your
for
five
years
then
and
had
hosted
guide here tonight, and in this
tour
several
parties,
we are about
to always
begin, Iwith
will the
try help
of
Femke and
herof
boyfriend.
to describe
some
the eventsI used
I
to
live
in
a
large
loft
witness every night Inear
find Wedding,
myself
with
tolerant
neighbors
here. incredibly
Despite that
these occurrences
who
never
called
the
police,
despite
amount to very improbable and
very
the
fact
that
we
usually
partied
durimplausible narratives, I can assure
ing
the I’m
weeabout
hours.to
youweekdays
that all theuntil
stories
Especially
in
the
first
years,
I was
tell you weren’t in any way fabricatstill
sort
of
half
living
here
and
in
ed or invented — they were simply
Rio.
Because
I
was
terribly
afraid
found, discovered. Whenever I findof
flying,
always
farewellinparmyself Ihere,
it’s gave
like Iasneaked
a
ty
on
the
day
before
the
film set during shooting,departure,
but whoseto
make
sure Iwas
would
in because
the planeof
film-script
lost.get
And
very
tired
and
hungover;
actually,
the time-pressure put in place by the
in
myproduction
innermost costs,
fears, the
I did
believe
high
director
that
every
farewell
party
could
is obliged to film from memory,be
my
last good-bye
togaps
my friends.
improvising
for the
he doesn’t
remember, and appropriating everyBut
Femke still
thingsince
he stumbles
overhadn’t
duringheld
the a
house
warming
party,
and
since
her
shooting, like a dejected paperback
house
was
much
more
central
than
novel, scraps of newspaper, toilet
mine,
we decided
locate
thein-New
one-liners,
hearsay,toetc...
For
Year’s
Eve
party
at
her
new
place,
stance, once it unfolded before
me
which
was
a
newly
renovated,
spathe following scene...
cious, ground floor apartment, close
to
Eberswalderstrasse U-bahn
1stthe
Dream
her
the
...Anhalf-Colombian
isolated house boyfriend,
in the countrywriter
Carlos,
who
at
the
time
had
side. A burglar enters it and surrengone
tosingle
visit his
mother
Bogota.
der the
mother
andinher
two
teenage daughters who live there.
Just
afterthem
Christmas,
He tight
with a when
rope orFemke
maybe
12
The
2014
Party
2015
and
Chloe locked
had returned
from
their
he simply
them in
a room.
respective
families
in
Holland
and
Either way, he took one of the girls
England
—
I
stayed
working
at
to a room by himself. While the man
home
withwith
my cat
we the
metother
in her
was gone
one—
sister
house
to
plan
the
party.
After
a
tour
young girl manages to escape. Later,
around
the
house,
we
regrouped
the daughter returns (maybe actually
in
the kitchen
to have
drinkstoand
together
with her
mother?),
find
cigarettes.
Chloe,
who
wasofashock.
very
her sister alone, in a state
close
friend
of her
Femke,
a short,
But other
than
dresswas
being
torn
red-haired
artist,
completely
and some sign of blood here covered
and
with
withotherwise
the Centaur
there,freckles,
she seemed
safeconstellation
sprinkled
on
her
face.
She
and there was no sign of the man,
to
told
us
about
her
Christmas
thrills
everyone’s relief. But the burglar apin
a small
town
England,
pears
againcoastal
standing
byin
a doorway,
where
in
a
truly
regressive
experiholding a double-barrel shotgun
that
ence,
she
had
to
sleep
in
the
bunk
he might have found in the house.
bed
10-year-old
nephew,
The of
girlher
who
was violated
goes and,
while
outside
rained
miserably,
she
berserk and produces from somesat
in
the
living
room
watching
her
where a very long revolver (which
nephew
drive
orange Porsche
in
maybe was
theanburglar’s).
She raises
circles
with
his
new
PlayStation.
the gun holding it with both hands,
Because
shethehad
justasmoved
fromto
and aim at
man,
she starts
Paris
where
she
had
been
living
for
slowly walk towards him. She pulls
the
past
five
years,
she
couldn’t
conback the revolver’s hammer with
tribute
much
with
guests
for the
a thumbsoand
only
stops
walking
party,
which
turned
out
to
be
when her gun is near the facecomof the
pletely
Femke who
was is
burglar fine
and with
the shotgun’s
muzzle
concerned
about
havingSuddenly
too manythe
touching her
forehead.
people
who
might
end
up
wrecking
lights are out. Nothing is to
be seen.
her
new
apartment.
Gradually an image start appearing from within the darkness, as if
We
bought
drinksitself
together,
it would
be the
forming
on thebut I
was
in
charge
of
the
food
—
which
surface of a body of water. Among
would
be
Brazilian
of
course
—itand
its ripples that swirl clockwise,
they
took
care
of
the
decoration
becomes eventually discernible that
and
up the
space.
During
the
a girlsetting
is driving
a car
along
a desertafternoon
of
the
31st,
while
I
cooked
ed road at dusk. She wears a long
adress
feijoada,
they hung
and seems
very colorful
differentfilthan
ters
on
the
lamps
in
the
room
before; she has maturedliving
— now
she
and,
becauseOn
Carlos
was paranoid
is a woman.
the back-seat,
lays
that
people
in the party
would She
steal
a (the)
double-barrel
shotgun.
his
books,
the
girls
covered
the
arrives in a town that seems to be
book
shelves
with
a goldisaluminum
relatively
small
(maybe
a suburb
foil,
shielding
Carlos’
books
from
of a big city), and parks
in front
of
the
gaze
of
intellectually
inclined
a social housing building; low, gray
thieves.
and brutal. As if the apartment house
was put through a gigantic x-ray
The
three the
of us
had noofidea
machine,
interior
eachhow
apartmany
people
to
expect;
Berlin
was
ment slid by, showing the humble,
blooming
with
Silvester
parties
working-class residents who areto
compete
with, in
ourorneighborhood
either watching
TV,
sleeping, or
alone
there
would
be dozens
and
talking to each other.
There remains
dozens
of
house
parties
for
people
one particular apartment, where in to
choose
our assessment
was
a room between;
there are three
single beds.
Transcription
that
fiftythe
guests
come
Oneabout
is empty,
otherwould
two have
—
in
fact
I
secretly
expected
that
each a man of dubious complexion
at
least
fifty
of
my
friends
would
sitting on them, on their undershirts.
come.
It was ourfaces,
aspiration
that
after
Their unshaven
paired
with
the
fireworks,
people
would
stay
to
sly little eyes, smoke cigarettes with
dance.
a certain stoic boredom, as if they
were practicing being in a prison
We
all very
excitedabout
and anxcell.were
There’s
something
the
ious
to
see
how
everything
third empty bed which callswould
attenplay
hadempty
a special
reason
forit
tion. out.
LikeI an
hat or
glove,
having
certain
anxieties
because
stands poignantly as a symbol formy
new
fling who
mightis come
thatSomeone
night.
someone
missing.
Soraya
was
a
small,
plumpy
that isn’t there sleeps on thatLebabed.
nese
girliswho
was a good
friend of
Where
he? There’s
an intrinChloe,
and
I had something
met during
sic logic
in whom
this image,
ahanging
dinner party
back
in
the
summer.
on the cigarette smoke
that
We
had
been
in
touch
for
almost
two
veil everything like a blue mist, that
months
through
e-mails
and
longleaves no doubt that bed belongs
distance
calls, who
whileraped
she was
abroad
to the burglar
the girl.
in
Romania
and
Lebanon.
We
had
In the kitchen of the apartment,
(or
two
brisk,
feverish
nights
before
she
maybe is next door?) there’s a little
went
to
Romania,
where
she
took
party happening. Neighbors crack
part
an artist
close toto
jokesinand
laugh,residency
while listening
Bucharest.
She
had
invited
me to
radio music. A woman is cooking
visit
her,
which
I
had
accepted.
On
something in a pan. Suddenly the
the
same
day
that
I
bought
an
expencarouse is interrupted by a power
sive
ticket,
father
suffered
fatal
cut. All
the her
lights
go off.
Shotsaare
heart
attack
in
Beirut,
causing
her
heard. Once the eyes get used to to
leave
to Lebanon
day. of
the darkness,
one the
seesnext
a couple
bullets going through a wall and (or)
Somehow
father’s
death
a door. Theher
woman
that
was seemed
cooking
to
have
brought
us
closer,
I
was almost certainly hit byasaifstray
had
entered
her
life
so
her
father
bullet. Things get pitch dark now,
could
leaveanit.image
Once slowly
I was back
from
and again
forms.
Bucharest,
where
I
went
anyway
The burglar is now seen wearing
—
I couldn’t
get a refund
and
a dark
suit, talking
to other—men
stayed
in
a
cheap
hotel
by
myself,
dressed similarly. They all have a
having
a terrific
time encountervery shady
and shifty
body language
ing
packs
of
ravenous
dogs in
and facial expression. stray
It becomes,
dark
streets,
we
kept
daily
contact
therefore, clear that the once-upby
long distance
calls burglar
and e-mails.
on-a-time
small time
now
Now,
after
more
than
one
month
we
works for the mafia. At some
point,
would
finally
see
each
other
again.
maybe someone casually drops it, I
didn’t
know
it item
then, within
but I was
like one
more
the sesmallDetail of installation
cretly
becoming
very
attached
to her
talk amongst crooks, that the head
Photo by Fulano de tal
already;
even
though
I
consciously
of the family they work for wants
tried
notex-burglar.
have too many
expectato seetothe
He immeditions,
with
the
presentiment
ately becomes nervous, and that
maybe
she
just needy
and lonely
while
trieswas
to hide
it by sucking
the tip
of
mourning
her
father
and
once
back
a cigarette. The meeting will take
in
Berlin
would let
me down.
place
in ashe
particular
Italian
restaurant, where the mafia
often
gathers.
Detail of installation
in Die
IAs
discovered
toothe
latetime
that
my
he waits for
to
gofeelings
toPhoto
the by
Raum,
Berlin,
2014.
behaved
like
that would
meeting,then
he becomes
gradually
more
Janvines
Windszus.
13
Rio.
I was
terribly afraid
tenseBecause
and afraid.
Something
is out of
flying,
I
always
gave
a
farewell
parof the protocol about this intimation
ty
on
the
day
before
the
departure,
for him to be this nervous. When heto
make
I would
get inthat
theeveplane
arrivessure
in the
restaurant
very
tired
and
hungover;
actually,
ning, and finds it completely empty,
in
innermost
fears,worried.
I did believe
he my
starts
to get really
The
that
every
farewell
party
be
only waiter working takescould
him to
my
last
good-bye
to
my
friends.
a table, where the man waits for a
long while, smoking and worrying.
But
since
still hadn’t
held
Finally
theFemke
boss comes
in with
hisa
house
warming
party,
and
since
her
wife. He is the cliché mafioso: bald,
house
was
much
more
central
than
fat and in his fifties. His wife is also
mine,
we decided by
to locate
thelayNew
not disappointing
wearing
Year’s
Eve
party
at
her
new
place,
ers of make up and a fur coat. The
which
was awho
newly
renovated,
spaex-burglar,
by then
is completecious,
ground
floor
apartment,
ly exasperated, sweating slight-close
to
Eberswalderstrasse
U-bahn
ly, the
can’t
help himself but asking
station,
where
she
had
moved
with
directly about the purpose of that
her
half-Colombian
boyfriend,
the
meeting. The wife is the one that
writer
Carlos,
who
at
the
time
had
answers saying that they were sorry
gone
visitdelay
his mother
in they
Bogota.
for thetolong
but that
had
forgotten they had another engageJust
whenwhere
Femkethe
ment;after
alsoChristmas,
in a restaurant,
Invasion The
of the
Killer Frogs
Party
respective families in Holland and
close friend of Femke, was a short,
red-haired artist, completely covered
with freckles, with the Centaur constellation sprinkled on her face. She
in a small coastal town in England,
where in a truly regressive experience, she had to sleep in the bunk
bed of her 10-year-old nephew, and,
sat in the living room watching her
the past five years, she couldn’t contribute so much with guests for the
party, which turned out to be completely fine with Femke who was
concerned about having too many
people who might end up wrecking
her new apartment.
We
bought
drinks
I
food,
by thethe
way,
was together,
delicious.but
The
was
in charge
of answer
the foodmakes
— which
senseless
of that
the
would
be Brazilian
of apprehensive.
course — and
ex-burglar
even more
they
tookagain,
care of
theadecoration
He asks
now
trifle more petand
setting
up was
the space.
During
ulant,
why he
summoned
likethe
afternoon
of the
while I cooked
that — what
was31st,
happening?
The
aboss
feijoada,
theyhand
hung
filputs one
oncolorful
his shoulder,
ters
in the
livingDon’t
room
and on
triesthetolamps
calm him
down.
and,
Carlos
wasfind
paranoid
worrybecause
kid. You’ll
soon
out. Just
that
people
in theThe
party
would steal
another
minute.
ex-burglar’s
his
books,
the give
girls in
covered
nerves
finally
— thatthe
was the
book
shelves
a gold
aluminum
last straw.
Hewith
stands
up and
defiantfoil,
shielding
Carlos’
bookswhatever
from
ly urges
his boss
to deliver
the
gaze
intellectually
he has
toof
deliver,
becauseinclined
he just
thieves.
can’t wait anymore. The mafioso,
changing his tone, gathers all his
The
three and
of usintimidate
had no idea
authority
his how
man to
many
people
expect;
sit back
downtoand
wait, Berlin
unless was
he
blooming
Silvester
to
would likewith
to see
him getparties
mad. The
compete
with,
in our
neighborhood
ex-burglar
obeys,
scared,
and even
alone
be dozens very
and
thoughthere
he iswould
sure something
dozens
of house
parties he
forsits
people
bad is going
to happen,
backto
choose
between;that
ourhis
assessment
was
down, resigned
fate lays on
— in fact I secretly expected that
dance.
We were all very excited and anxious to see how everything would
play out. I had a special reason for
having certain anxieties because my
Soraya was a small, plumpy Lebanese girl who was a good friend of
Chloe, and whom I had met during
We had been in touch for almost two
months through e-mails and longdistance calls, while she was abroad
Bucharest. She had invited me to
visit her, which I had accepted. On
the same day that I bought an expensive ticket, her father suffered a fatal
heart attack in Beirut, causing her to
leave to Lebanon the next day.
Somehow her father’s death seemed
to
brought
closer,
asboss
if I and
thathave
other
man’s us
hands.
The
had
entered
her
life
so
her
father
his wife leave, and not long after a
could
leave
it. Once
I was back
from
beautiful
woman,
elegantly
dressed,
Bucharest,
where
I
went
anyway
enters the restaurant. She walks
—
I couldn’t
get his
a refund
— and
directly
towards
table and
sits in
stayed
in
a
cheap
hotel
by
myself,
front of him. The woman then
stares
having
a terrific
time encounterdeep into
his eyes.
ing packs of ravenous stray dogs in
dark
2nd streets,
Dreamwe kept daily contact
by long distance calls and e-mails.
Now,
one month we
A manafter
just more
wokethan
up somewhere
would
finally
see
each
around the countryside other
near aagain.
smallI
didn’t
know
it
then,
but
I
was
setown which might
serve as a subDetail of installation
cretly
veryHis
attached
urb forbecoming
a biggerPhoto
city.
name to
is her
by Fulano de tal
already;
even
though
I
consciously
Jacques. He doesn’t know where
tried
have
too many
expectahe is to
—not
can’t
remember
where
he
tions,
with
the
presentiment
slept — and this is definitelythat
not
she
was just
needyhe
and
lonely
while
his house.
Maybe
slept
at his
mourning
her
father
and
once
back
mother’s, he muses, within the
in
Berlin of
sheanwould
let memind,
down.
haziness
inebriated
still
in the grip of a long awakening, as
Ihediscovered
tooby
late
my feelings
drives home
thethat
countryside.
behaved
then
like
vines
that
He parks in front of a gardenwould
of a
13
Transcription
beautifulChloe
houseand
thatI were
seemsorganizing
to have
Femke,
bloomed
from
the profile
of
asimply
New Year’s
party
together.
It was
a mountain
day.and
Thewe
first
the
winter ofone
2005,
allfloor
still
is in fact
completelyBerg,
carved
lived
in Prenzlauer
justinside
abouta
slope;
while
themost
second
floor
is half
the
time
when
of the
younger
over the
surface
andwere
halfleaving
inside the
artists
and
hipsters
en
mountain,
and
where
the main
masse
down
thethat’s
hill to
Kreuzberg,
entrance
is,fully
accessible
by a stone
which
was
flourishing
as the
path place-to-be,
which half-circles
the
new
startingaround
its own
garden. Inside thetowards
foyer, the
self-obliteration
totalclinkgentriing of a key
thethat
key-hole
fication,
the entering
same cycle
Prenis heard.
Thewas
door-knob
turnsthen.
and
zlauer
Berg
completing
Jacques
entersalready
with anot
dazed
But
we were
thatlook
young
on we
his were
face, as
he would
be still— so
—
in our
mid-thirties
half-awoken,
half-dreaming.
For
we
had no plans
to leave. Besides,
a moment he
catches
a glimpse
of
Prenzlauer
Berg
still had
some rough
his wife,
she dashes
through
edges
leftwhile
and wasn’t
completely
the house,
taken
over deliberately
by armies ofavoiding
baby strollJacques,
exiting by the back door
ers
like nowadays.
in the kitchen. That seems to throw
him
deeper
in living
disarray.
He
I hadeven
already
been
in Berlin
walks
his house,
looking
for
fivearound
years then
and had
hosted
with a certain
several
parties,astonishment
always with and
the help
curiosity
and the furof
Femkethe
andobjects
her boyfriend.
I used
niture
scattered
as
to
live that
in a lay
large
loft nearthere,
Wedding,
if in search
of some
clueneighbors
or hint
with
incredibly
tolerant
that would
explainthe
him
what despite
was
who
never called
police,
happening.
he steps
into the
the
fact thatWhen
we usually
partied
during weekdays until the wee hours.
Just after Christmas, when Femke
14
12
12
2014
The
2014
Party
2015
comfortable
living-room
he beand
Chloe had
returned from
their
haves as if families
he hadn’tinbeen
thereand
for
respective
Holland
many years.
around
England
— IEverything
stayed working
at him
shouldwith
feel my
familiar,
home
cat —but
wethey
met only
in her
resonate
memories
things
that
house
to as
plan
the party.ofAfter
a tour
look similar
to things
know. His
around
the house,
we he
regrouped
eyes
in everything
with voraciin
thetake
kitchen
to have drinks
and
ty. In the living-room
a large
cigarettes.
Chloe, whothere’s
was a very
window
withofa Femke,
panoramic
close
friend
wasview
a short,
over the valley,
lays oncovered
its
red-haired
artist,where
completely
bottom
the small-town.
He is conwith
freckles,
with the Centaur
contemplatingsprinkled
the landscape
stellation
on herwhen
face. some
She
rumbling
is heard
coming from
the
told
us about
her Christmas
thrills
third
floor,coastal
where town
the bedroom
is.
in
a small
in England,
Jacquesinwalks
the staircase
and
where
a trulytoregressive
experisees ashe
friend
climbing
down
ence,
hadoftohis
sleep
in the bunk
fromofthe
He walks
past
bed
herbedroom.
10-year-old
nephew,
and,
Jacques
without
greeting
or saying
while
outside
rained
miserably,
she
anything.
He or room
Jacques
climb down
sat
in the living
watching
her
to the first
floor,
under the
nephew
drive
an which
orangeisPorsche
in
ground,with
where
them prepares
circles
hisone
newofPlayStation.
a drink from
a small
that from
stands
Because
she had
just bar
moved
in there,
nearshe
thehad
staircase.
The for
Paris
where
been living
friend,
Jacques,
near theconthe
pastorfive
years, waits
she couldn’t
stairs insothe
second-floor
until
tribute
much
with guests
forhethe
ends up
coming
down
the
party,
which
turned
outtotomeet
be comother who
drinking
some
pletely
fineiswith
Femke
whowhiswas
key on ice.about
Jacques
thinks
concerned
having
tooabout
many
her new apartment.
We bought the drinks together, but I
was in charge of the food — which
would be Brazilian of course — and
they took care of the decoration
and setting up the space. During the
afternoon of the 31st, while I cooked
a feijoada, they hung colorful filters on the lamps in the living room
and, because Carlos was paranoid
that people in the party would steal
his books, the girls covered the
book shelves with a gold aluminum
foil, shielding Carlos’ books from
the gaze of intellectually inclined
thieves.
The three of us had no idea how
many people to expect; Berlin was
blooming with Silvester parties to
compete with, in our neighborhood
dozens of house parties for people to
choose between; our assessment was
Transcription
punching
the face,
that
about his
fiftyfriend
guestsonwould
come
butindoesn’t
know what
to think,
—
fact I secretly
expected
thatin
what
believe,
what
to do.
Finalat
leasttofifty
of my
friends
would
ly, after
hesitations,
asks
come.
It many
was our
aspirationhe
that
after
the fireworks,
friend if hepeople
shouldwould
punchstay
him.to
the
As an answer, the friend calmly
dance.
goes up to the second-floor. Jacques
follows
and finishes
his drink.
We
werehim
all very
excited and
anxWhytodidn’t
I sleep
here? He
asks his
ious
see how
everything
would
friend,
answers:
Yes.
No, you
play
out.who
I had
a special
reason
for
should certain
be sleeping
here.because
If you are
having
anxieties
my
feeling
better,
sleep
new
fling
mightcome
comeback
thatand
night.
with your
Jacques
begsLebafrom
Soraya
waswife.
a small,
plumpy
deepgirl
within
daze.
Helpfriend
me. The
nese
whohis
was
a good
of
friend smiles
and tries
sooth
him:
Chloe,
and whom
I hadtomet
during
sure.
Why
didn’t
I sleep
here?
aSure,
dinner
party
back
in the
summer.
Don’t
Jacques,
everything
We
hadworry
been in
touch for
almost two
will be alright.
don’t
go for
months
throughWhy
e-mails
andwe
longa drink somewhere?
Let’s
goabroad
to such
distance
calls, while she
was
orRomania
such place.
lamp
in
andSuddenly,
Lebanon.like
We ahad
bulbbrisk,
beingfeverish
lit in a moonless
night,
two
nights before
she
the most
vivid memory
went
to Romania,
wheresparkles
she took
in Jacques:
Oh residency
yeah! Thatclose
place!
part
in an artist
to
In such or such
neighborhood...
Bucharest.
She had
invited me to
Closeher,
to which
whatever
street!
The friend
visit
I had
accepted.
On
becomes
verythat
happy
that Jacques
the
same day
I bought
an expenseems
to remember
place. aThey
sive
ticket,
her fatherthe
suffered
fatal
take the
car.inInBeirut,
the way,
they spot
a
heart
attack
causing
her to
girl, friend
of theirs,
leave
to Lebanon
the walking
next day.on the
side of the road. She’s with another
girl they don’t
know, in
theirseemed
way
Somehow
her father’s
death
to have
meetbrought
some guy.
of aassudden,
to
us All
closer,
if I
Jacques
is on
back-seat
with
had
entered
herthe
life
so her father
each girl
sitting
beside
him.
He from
has
could
leave
it. Once
I was
back
his arms spread
leanBucharest,
wherebehind
I wentthem,
anyway
ingI on
the back
the seat.
—
couldn’t
getof
a refund
—There
and
is no one
the front
carmyself,
— no
stayed
in aincheap
hotelofby
one is driving
The encounterengine doesn’t
having
a terrificit.time
even
seemoftoravenous
be running
anddogs
the in
ing
packs
stray
car simply
slowly
silentdark
streets,slides
we kept
dailyand
contact
ly down
into the calls
smalland
town.
On a
by
long distance
e-mails.
corner,
there’s
typical
fromwe
Now,
after
morea than
onebar
month
Rio, very
simple,
wideother
open again.
with no
would
finally
see each
I
walls parting
frombut
theI street,
didn’t
know ititthen,
was se-filled
Detail
installation
with lawyers
on
suitsofattached
wearing
hats.
cretly
becoming
very
to
her
Photo
by
tal
They areeven
smoking
heavily
anddetheir
already;
though
I Fulano
consciously
glasses
of beer
only
the last
tried
to not
havecontain
too many
expectasip before
to their wives,
tions,
with going
the presentiment
thatindicating
the needy
end of and
the happy-hour.
she
was just
lonely while
The car isher
rolling
down
street
mourning
father
and the
once
back
past
the bar,
in
Berlin
she when,
would from
let meinside,
down.
Jacques stretches
oneofarm
out ofin Die
Detail
Detail of
installation
installation in
Die
window and
grabs
a
lamp-post,
Ithe
discovered
tooRaum,
late
that
my
feelings
Raum, Berlin,
Berlin, 2014.
2014.
Photo
Photo by
by
braking itthen
to alike
full
stop.
Opening
behaved
that
wouldthe
Jan
Janvines
Windszus.
Windszus.
13
door he Chloe
muttersand
something:
I’m gonFemke,
I were organizing
drink
a quick
one.
Right inItfront
anaNew
Year’s
party
together.
was
of him,
next
a narrow
side-walk,
the
winter
ofto
2005,
and we
all still
standsinthe
side of the
bar’sjust
counter,
lived
Prenzlauer
Berg,
about
against
his
the
timewhich
when two
mostfriends
of the of
younger
are leaning
while drinking.
One of
artists
and hipsters
were leaving
en
them, adown
blondthe
with
redKreuzberg,
tie, offers
masse
hillato
him a smile
and greets
Jacques:
Of
which
was fully
flourishing
as the
course,
come on in!
Haveits
a drink
new
place-to-be,
starting
own
pal! Jacques recognizes
friend,
self-obliteration
towardsthe
total
gentribut can’t the
quite
place
himthat
exactly.
fication,
same
cycle
PrenHe drinks
friends, then.
albeit
zlauer
Bergwith
wasboth
completing
he gulps
down
much not
faster
But
we were
already
thatthan
young
them
Then
he lights
a cigarette,
—
wedo.
were
in our
mid-thirties
— so
offered
by plans
the blond
friend.
Smokwe
had no
to leave.
Besides,
ing with delight,
he remembers
that
Prenzlauer
Berg still
had some rough
he wasleft
trying
quit. completely
Once he is
edges
and to
wasn’t
finished,
heby
enters
back
car.
taken
over
armies
of into
babythe
strollIn the
of his friend (the one
ers
likeoffice
nowadays.
he met in his house earlier), they
examine
together
document
which
I had already
beena living
in Berlin
is being
prepared
be had
senthosted
— theyfor
five years
thentoand
re both lawyers).
It contains
an odd
several
parties, always
with the
help
feature
in its
insteadI used
of
of
Femke
andlast
herpage:
boyfriend.
having
a hand-signature,
contains
to
live in
a large loft nearitWedding,
the digital
prints,tolerant
and theneighbors
whole
with
incredibly
palmnever
of a hand.
is really
pewho
calledWhat
the police,
despite
culiar
thatwe
thisusually
print doesn’t
the
factisthat
partiedlook
durit was
made byuntil
a human
hand.
It’s
ing
weekdays
the wee
hours.
actually three
times
size of
the
Especially
in the
firstthe
years,
I was
handsort
of aofman,
long
still
half with
living
herebony
and finin
gers.Because
Then theI friend
is astonished
to
Rio.
was terribly
afraid of
realize Isuddenly
that Jacques
(who
flying,
always gave
a farewell
parmight
have
madethe
thedeparture,
mark on to
ty
on the
dayjust
before
the page)
hands
make
sureown
I would
getaren’t
in thehuman
plane
at all!tired
Theyand
have
changed.actually,
They are
very
hungover;
now
horriblyfears,
bony Iand
in
mytwo
innermost
didlong,
believe
alienevery
looking
hands.party
Jacques
seems
that
farewell
could
be
as astonished
as his
as he raismy
last good-bye
to friend
my friends.
es his hands in disbelief. Later in the
evening,
drives
backheld
home
But
sinceJacques
Femke still
hadn’t
a
and meets
his wife
in the
house
warming
party,
andkitchen.
since her
She then
a scream
of horror
house
wasreleases
much more
central
than
when she
sees his to
hands.
Jacques
mine,
we decided
locate
the New
raises his
look
at them
Year’s
Evehands
partyand
at her
new
place,
completely
again, like
he
which
was amystified
newly renovated,
spahad forgotten
whole
episodeclose
in
cious,
ground the
floor
apartment,
histhe
friend’s
office.
to
Eberswalderstrasse
U-bahn
3rd
Dream
her half-Colombian
boyfriend, the
In a small
town.
At around
noon
gone
to visit
his mother
in Bogota.
someday, in this calm and backward
littleafter
place,
with roadswhen
paved
with
Just
Christmas,
Femke
Invasion The
of
the
Killer Frogs
The
Party
Party
padded
dirthad
without
street
lights,
and
Chloe
returned
from
their
there was afamilies
commotion
in traffic
respective
in Holland
and
where the—two
main streets
cross
England
I stayed
working
at
each other.
Maybe
twowecars
home
with my
cat —
metalmost
in her
collided
thethe
crossing,
or mayhouse
to in
plan
party. After
a tour
be therethe
was
a misunderstanding
around
house,
we regrouped
between
a mantohorse
in
the kitchen
have riding
drinksand
and
another man
in a car.
cigarettes.
Chloe,
whoWhichever
was a very
the reason
it’s
close
friendorofvehicles
Femke,involved,
was a short,
clear that itartist,
was acompletely
quarrel between
a
red-haired
covered
youngster
and with
an overweight
man.
with
freckles,
the Centaur
conIn the heatsprinkled
of the argument
between
stellation
on her face.
She
them,usthe
youngster
droppedthrills
an
told
about
her Christmas
insinuation
concerning
possible
in
a small coastal
town the
in England,
sexual in
orientation
of the overweight
where
a truly regressive
experiman, that
indeed
born in
a very
efence,
she had
to sleep
the bunk
feminate
at all times.
Theand,
bed
of herstance
10-year-old
nephew,
man takes
the rained
insult to
heart, andshe
in
while
outside
miserably,
order
hisroom
pride,watching
and maybe
sat
in to
thesave
living
her
to prove drive
his manhood,
challenges
nephew
an orangehePorsche
in
the youngster
a duel.
They should
circles
with histonew
PlayStation.
meet precisely
there
three from
days:
Because
she had
justin
moved
each one
bringing
their
own
revolvParis
where
she had
been
living
for
er. Next
day, years,
the youngster
wakes
the
past five
she couldn’t
conup feeling
terrible,
asguests
if fromfor
a bad
tribute
so much
with
the
dream.which
There’s
a great
party,
turned
outfear
to betwisting
cominside his
But curiously,
pletely
finestomach.
with Femke
who was
he noticed about
that more
thantoo
fearing
concerned
having
many
for his own
heend
dreaded
the idea
people
who life,
might
up wrecking
of having
blood on his hands. After
her
new apartment.
breakfast he mounted on his horse
and bought
rode to the
a desert
the town,
We
drinksnear
together,
but I
where
practiced
a
was
in he
charge
of theshooting
food — with
which
pistol he
his father,
would
beinherited
Brazilianfrom
of course
— and
who took
served
in the
Army
when he
they
care
of the
decoration
had setting
his ownup
age.
melanand
theWhile
space.he
During
the
cholically of
gathered
cans
andIbotafternoon
the 31st,
while
cooked
he findsthey
littered
forfilhis
atles
feijoada,
hungaround
colorful
practice,
keepsinpondering
ters
on thehelamps
the livingabout
room
the duel,
coming
to the
and,
because
Carlos
wasrealization
paranoid
either way,
there
will
be nosteal
that people
in the
party
would
happy
ending
thatcovered
story. When
his
books,
the to
girls
the he
returned
to thewith
city,a he
looked
for
book
shelves
gold
aluminum
the overweight
man everywhere,
foil,
shielding Carlos’
books from
but gaze
there’s
sign of him.inclined
On the
the
of no
intellectually
evening though, the youngster went
thieves.
to a small fruit shop and ran into
the man.
bit idea
embarrassed
The
threeBoth
of usare
hada no
how
with one
another,
and awkwardly
many
people
to expect;
Berlin was
start to speak
various
things,
blooming
withabout
Silvester
parties
to
going around
at hand.
compete
with,the
in matter
our neighborhood
Maybethere
because
of be
thedozens
unexpectalone
would
and
ed openness
of his
antagonist,
the to
dozens
of house
parties
for people
youngster
senses our
thatassessment
he would bewas
choose
between;
willing
to call
the duel.
But,
that
about
fiftyoff
guests
would
come
he now
realizes,
thatexpected
actually that
it’s
—
in fact
I secretly
impossible
it because
there
at
least fiftytoofcancel
my friends
would
were many
around them,
and
come.
It waspeople
our aspiration
that after
social dictate
theywould
lived by
emathe fireworks,
people
stay
to
nated from the corner of the people’s
dance.
eyes. Feeling heavier than the groceries
he all
wasvery
carrying,
youngWe
were
excitedtheand
anxster returned
home
and wentwould
to talk
ious
to see how
everything
to hisout.
mother
doubts
play
I hadtoa unload
special his
reason
for
on her. Although
she already
knew
having
certain anxieties
because
my
aboutfling
the duel,
that
her
new
mightmeaning
come that
night.
son could
two days,
she
Soraya
wasbea dead
small,inplumpy
Lebaseemed
it was
nese
girlstrangely
who wasserene.
a good But
friend
of
exactlyand
because
hisI had
mother
Chloe,
whom
metnever
during
to party
be optimistic
andsummer.
gay with
afailed
dinner
back in the
life had
and been
the future,
is why
he came
to
We
in touch
for almost
two
talk to her.
She was
certain
evmonths
through
e-mails
andthat
longerything calls,
wouldwhile
turn out
her
distance
she fine
wasfor
abroad
son.
In the end
wasn’t convinced,
in
Romania
andhe
Lebanon.
We had
so hebrisk,
wentfeverish
to talk tonights
his grandtwo
before she
mother,
who knewwhere
nothing
went
to Romania,
sheabout
took it,
and because
sheresidency
was already
very
part
in an artist
close
to
old, despiteShe
being
sharper
Bucharest.
hadstill
invited
me than
to
any pocket
knifeI he
owned,On
visit
her, which
hadever
accepted.
he decided
notthat
to distress
He
the
same day
I boughther.
an expenthen,ticket,
made her
up some
of analosive
fatherkind
suffered
a fatal
gy, however
accurate
inadequate,
heart
attack in
Beirut, or
causing
her to
to get to
some
advicethe
from
The
leave
Lebanon
nexther.
day.
morning after he woke up feeling yet
more tenseher
andfather’s
strained.
Again
he
Somehow
death
seemed
went
back
to theus
remote
to
have
brought
closer,location
as if I to
practice
shooting.
quite
melanhad
entered
her lifeStill
so her
father
cholic,leave
he anyway
a techcould
it. Oncedeveloped
I was back
from
nique, which
consisted
a sequence
Bucharest,
where
I wentinanyway
of movements
that
he repeated
over
—
I couldn’t get
a refund
— and
and over
through
themyself,
course of
stayed
in again
a cheap
hotel by
the day.aItterrific
simplytime
comprised
in first
having
encountercrouching,
drawing
thedogs
gun, in
ing
packs ofthan
ravenous
stray
then aiming
then daily
finally
dark
streets, and
we kept
contact
shooting.
On the calls
end of
thee-mails.
afterby
long distance
and
noon, after
after more
practicing
several
times,
Now,
than one
month
we
he wasfinally
possessed
by a quite
would
see each
other irratioagain. I
nal fit when
ran out
ammunididn’t
know he
it then,
butofI was
seDetail
Detail
ofnightmare,
installation
installation
tion. Like
he was
in aof
cretly
becoming
very
attached
to her
Photo
Photohaving
by
by Fulano
Fulano
de tal
tal
he pictured
himself
to de
go
already;
even
though
I consciously
to thetoduel
any
tried
not next
haveday
too without
many expectabullets.with
After
moment of panic,
tions,
theapresentiment
that
he managed
get aand
hold
of himself
she
was just to
needy
lonely
while
and simplyher
rode
backand
intoonce
town
and
mourning
father
back
bought
parcellet
of me
.45 down.
bullets
in
Berlina new
she would
in a shop. On the day of the duel,
put on histoo
darkest
clothing,
a
Ihediscovered
late that
my feelings
black suit,
which
to have
behaved
then
likeseemed
vines that
would
15
13
13
Transcription
Femke,
Chloe
were Around
organizing
been used
onlyand
oneI time.
his
awaist,
Newhe
Year’s
party
together.
It was
strapped a leather holster
the
winter
of 2005,
and we
where
he puts
the pistol
andall
thestill
two
lived
in
Prenzlauer
Berg,
just
about
extra clips. He mounted his horse
the
ofof
thethe
younger
andtime
rodewhen
to themost
center
town.
artists
and
hipsters
were
leaving
There he found the whole of the en
masse
hilleither
to Kreuzberg,
peopledown
of thethe
town
waiting
which
was
fully
flourishing
as the
around to watch the duel or preparnew
place-to-be,
starting
its
ing a street party to celebrateown
whoself-obliteration
towards
total gentriever that would be
left standing.
The
fication,
same
cycleexactly
that Prenother manthewas
already
on
zlauer
Bergofwas
the middle
thecompleting
crossing ofthen.
the two
But
we
were
already
not that
dusty main thoroughfares.
Heyoung
was
—
we weremadly
in our through
mid-thirties
— so
transpiring
a white
we
had
no
plans
to
leave.
Besides,
t-shirt that was completely soaked
Prenzlauer
and stuck toBerg
his still had some rough
edges
left
and
flabby torso. wasn’t completely
taken
over by armies of baby strollThe youngster
ers
like
nowadays.
dismounted
off
his horse and
I had
already been living in Berlin
in
an impulse,
for
five
years then and had hosted
he approached
several
parties,
the overweight always with the help
of
Femke
and her boyfriend. I used
man,
smelling
to
live
in
a
large loft near Wedding,
the strong stench
with
incredibly
of hard liquor tolerant neighbors
who
never
called
exuding
from
his the police, despite
the
fact
that
we
body. He whis- usually partied during
weekdays
until the wee hours.
pered
on his ear:
Especially
in
the
“We can still stopfirst years, I was
still
of half
all ofsort
this.”
The living here and in
Rio.
Because
man answeredI was terribly afraid of
flying,
I always
shouting
so that gave a farewell party
on
the
before the departure, to
everyone day
could
make
sure
I
would
get in the plane
hear: “Are you
very
tired
and
hungover;
actually,
crazy?! You
in
my
innermost
fears,
I
did
believe
defamed me!
that
every
farewell
party
could
be
Now you’ll have
my
last
good-bye
to
my
friends.
to pay!!” They
both start to walk in opposite direcBut
hadn’t twenty
held a
tions,since
and Femke
set theirstill
positions
house
warming
party,
and
since
her
or twenty-four steps apart of each
house
was
much
more
central
than
other. There’s was a short interval of
mine,
wewhile
decided
to locate
New
silence,
all the
peoplethe
watched
Year’s
Eve
party
at
her
new
place,
in expectation, the only sound being
which
was a against
newly renovated,
the scraping
the groundspaof a
cious,
ground
floor
apartment,
close
scrap of newspaper being carried
by
to
Eberswalderstrasse
U-bahn
thethe
wind.
Then someone fired
a shot
station,
had moved
with
into the where
air. Theshe
youngster
crouched
her
half-Colombian
boyfriend,
just missing the bullets that flewthe
writer
Carlos,
at thethe
time
had
over his
head. who
He drew
pistol,
gone
to
visit
his
mother
in
Bogota.
aimed and then shot and kept shooting until the clip was empty. He
Just
Christmas,
when
stoodafter
up and
waited for
theFemke
cloud
16
12
12
2014
2014
The
Party
2015
and
Chloe
hadwith
returned
from their
of dust
mixed
gun powder
to
respective
families
in
Holland
and
settle down. He then saw the plump
England
— other
I stayed
working
at on
body of the
man
stretched
home
with
my
cat
—
we
met
in her
the street. The crowd on all sides
house
to
plan
the
party.
After
a
came to congratulate him. Theytour
around
house,
regrouped
hugged,the
kissed,
andwe
then
raised the
in
the
kitchen
to
have
drinks
and
reluctant youngster on their shoulcigarettes.
Chloe,
who
was
a
ders and paraded him around.very
He
close
friend of Femke,
wasstomach
a short,
felt completely
sick in his
red-haired
completely
and as soonartist,
he was
put back covered
on the
with
freckles,
with
the
Centaur
conground he ran to his horse
and rode
stellation
sprinkled
on
her
face.
She
out of the town. Near where he practold
us
about
her
Christmas
thrills
ticed shooting, he galloped slowly,
in
a smallfrom
coastal
townofinwhiskey
England,
drinking
a bottle
where
in
a
truly
regressive
experiand crying.
her new apartment.
4th people
Dreamin the party would steal
that
In a small
town,
people
been
book
shelves
with
a goldhave
aluminum
foundshielding
dead with
no obvious
foil,
Carlos’
books cause
from
of death.
In intellectually
every case, witnesses
the
gaze of
inclined alluded to sighting frogs in the vicinithieves.
ties of the crimes. Those reports unleashed
a wave
of rumors
swept
The
three
of us had
no ideathat
how
the town.
It was
believedBerlin
that an
inmany
people
to expect;
was
surrection with
of theSilvester
frogs might
be to
takblooming
parties
ing place.with,
In order
to find
the truth
compete
in our
neighborhood
about there
the cause
of be
those
deaths,
alone
would
dozens
andand
therefore
keepparties
the population
dozens
ofto
house
for people to
from panicking,
group
of out- was
choose
between;aour
assessment
Transcription
that
aboutmen
fiftyofguests
would
come
standing
the town,
resolved
—
in
fact
I
secretly
expected
that
to get together and start an investiat
least
fifty
of
my
friends
would
gation. They were respectively, the
come.
wasof
our
after
richestItman
theaspiration
town, thethat
sheriff,
the
fireworks,
people
would
stay
to
an intellectual (probably a psycholdance.
ogist), and maybe a journalist. I’m
one of these men, and like the rest I
We
were
verythat
excited
and broad
anxwear
tightallpants
go very
ious
to
see
how
everything
would
by the calves, a shirt with oversized
play
out.asI well
had aasspecial
reason
for
collars
a bushy
mustache
having
certain
anxieties
because
together with a Beatles haircut —my
new
fling
might
that night.
beside
a suit
withcome
a stripped
tie. We
Soraya
was
a
small,
plumpy
decided to go together to an Lebaisolated
nese
whoone
wasofa good
friend used
of
housegirl
where
the victims
Chloe,
and
whom
I
had
met
during
to live. It was a basic log-cabin, the
a dinner party back interior
in the summer.
was very
We had been in touch
for one
almost
two
plain,
of the
months through e-mails
and
longonly furniture
distance calls, whilewas
sheawas
abroad
table
that
in Romania and Lebanon.
We
stood in thehad
midtwo brisk, feverish nights
before
she
dle of the
main
went to Romania, where
she
took
room, covered
part in an artist residency
with a close
towel.to
Bucharest. She had While
invitedwe
melooked
to
visit her, which I had
accepted.
for evidenceOn
the same day that I around
bought the
an expenhouse,
sive ticket, her father
suffered
a fatal
we small-talked
heart attack in Beirut,
causing
her to
about
the ridicleave to Lebanon the
next
day.
ulous inference
that the rumors
Somehow her father’s
death
made
thatseemed
frogs
to have brought us closer,
as if killed
I
could have
had entered her life those
so herpeople.
father
could leave it. OnceHow
I wascould
backafrom
Bucharest, where I went
anyway
frog possibly kill
— I couldn’t get a refund
— and
someone?
Only
stayed in a cheap hotel
by
if they myself,
could
having a terrific time
encounterrepulse
someone
ing packs of ravenous
stray dogs
in
to death
for being
dark
streets,
we
kept
daily
contact
gross. About then, what sounded
by
distance
and e-mails.
likelong
an ice
storm calls
precipitated
on
Now,
after
more
than
one
month we
top of the cabin. It was completewould
finallynot
seeonly
eachbecause
other again.
ly abnormal
it I
didn’t
know
it
then,
but
I
was
sewas either Summer
or Spring, and
cretly
becoming
very
attached
to her
had been
a sunny
day
until then,
already;
even
though
I
consciously
but because the ice that landed,
tried
to not
have too amany
making
particularly
lot ofexpectarattle
tions,
with
the
presentiment
thatof
on the thin roof, sounded kind
she
was
just
needy
and
lonely
while
soft, like it was raining snow-balls.
mourning
her
father
and
once
back
Just as soon as it started, it ended.
in
Berlin she
would
let me
down.
Gradually
things
rolled
down
from
the roof and shifted
slushily
on
Detail
Detail of
of installation
installationthe
in
in Die
Die
Iyard.
discovered
tooof
late
that
my
The four
us looked
atfeelings
each
Raum,
Raum,
Berlin,
Berlin,
2014.
2014.
Photo
Photo by
by
behaved
like
that would
other, notthen
moving,
and
waited
for
Jan
Janvines
Windszus.
Windszus.
13
Femke,
Chloe and
a few moments
thatI were
felt toorganizing
stretch
aindefinitely.
New Year’sThen,
partygradually,
together. Itlike
was
the
winter
of
2005,
and
we
all
still
a quire where each singer start to
lived
in Prenzlauer
Berg,
sing one
by one until
theyjust
areabout
all in
the
time
when
most
of
the
younger
unison, we started to hear what first
artists
andlike
hipsters
were
leaving
en
sounded
hiccups
coming
from
masse
down
the
hill
to
Kreuzberg,
the yard. As it got louder and louder,
which
was believing
fully flourishing
as the
we started
in our ears
and
new
place-to-be,
starting
its
accepted for what they were:own
croaks.
self-obliteration
towards
totalhave
gentriIt got so loud, that
we would
to
fication,
the
same
cycle
that
Prenshout to be able to hear each other,
zlauer
wasacompleting
then.
but no Berg
one said
word. We just
But
we
were
already
not
that
young
kept staring at each other. Finally,
—
we
were
in
our
mid-thirties
— so
the sheriff broke the spell and got
we
had
no
plans
to
leave.
Besides,
close to one of the windows, which
Prenzlauer
still
had
some rough
like all the Berg
others,
was
covered
by a
edges
left
and
wasn’t
completely
plastic shutter. Widening a gap with
taken
over byhearmies
baby strolltwo fingers,
lookedofthrough
one
ers
like
nowadays.
of them. He immediately jumped
backwards almost turning over the
I hadon
already
been of
living
in Berlin
table
the center
the room.
for
five
years
then
and
had
Before he could answer anyhosted
of our
several
parties,
always
with the
help
questions
we were
shouting
at him,
of
Femke
and
her
boyfriend.
I
used
we realized that behind the shutto
live
loft near
ters
allin
thea large
windows
wereWedding,
open, as
with
incredibly
tolerant
neighbors
all kinds and sizes of frogs
started
who
never
called
police,
despite
to slip
behind
the the
shutters
into
the
the
fact
that
we
usually
partied
durhut, making a squashy stump when
ing
weekdays
until
the
wee
hours.
landing on the wooden floor like
Especially
first tomatoes.
years, I was
they wouldinbethe
rotten
still
sort
of
half
living
and as
in
For a second there washere
silence
Rio.
Because
I
was
terribly
afraid
they looked at us with their stupidof
flying,
always
a farewell
bulged Ieyes,
andgave
we looked
backparat
ty
on
the
day
before
the
departure,
them. They started to croak again to
make
sureto
I would
get in the
plane
and jump
our direction,
letting
very
tired
and
hungover;
actually,
more frogs slip in behind them.
in
innermost
fears,
I didofbelieve
Wemy
gathered
on the
center
the
that
every
farewell
party
couldthe
be
cabin, with our backs around
my
last
good-bye
to
my
friends.
table. We still didn’t know what to
do or what to think, each trying in
But
Femke
still hadn’t
held a
vainsince
to find
a rational
subterfuge
house
warming
party,
and
since
in our minds that would explain her
house
washappening.
much moreI central
what was
think I than
was
mine,
we
decided
to
locate
New
the first to crouch and hide the
beneath
Year’s
Eve
party
at
her
new
place,
the table, behind the towel, and
which
a newly
renovated,
spathey allwas
followed
me.
The rational
cious,
ground
floor
apartment,
close
wasn’t very strong, but I believed
to
the
Eberswalderstrasse
U-bahn
that if these frogs were hungry and
station,
she
had
moved
with
we werewhere
“food”
and
they
didn’t
see
her
half-Colombian
boyfriend,
the
us, they would stop approaching.
writer
Carlos,
at the
time
had
Of course
thatwho
proved
to be
a comgone
to
visit
his
mother
in
Bogota.
pletely fallacious line of thought as
we could tell by the vibration on the
Just
afterfloor
Christmas,
Femke
wooden
and by when
their croaking
Invasion The
of
the
Killer Frogs
The
Party
Party
and
had right
returned
their
that Chloe
they were
therefrom
beside
us.
respective
families
in
Holland
andthe
Maybe as a way of not panicking
England
I stayed
workingunder
at
four of us—started
discussing
home
with
my
cat
—
we
met
in her
the table how, in practical terms,
house
to
plan
the
party.
After
a
tour
could these frogs hurt us. It’s true,
around
the
house,
we
regrouped
someone said, that there are poisonin
kitchen
to have
and
ousthe
toddles
deep
in thedrinks
Amazon’s
cigarettes.
Chloe,
who
was
a
rain forest, that Natives there very
smear
close
friend
of Femke,
a short,
the point
of their
arrowswas
or such
red-haired
projectiles artist,
on thecompletely
poison thatcovered
their
with
freckles,
with
thethem
Centaur
skin secrete, to make
moreconstellation
sprinkled There
on herare
face.
She
effective weapons.
even
told
us
about
her
Christmas
thrills
some, that like cobras, that can spit
in
small coastal
England,
theapoison.
But thetown
frogsinoutsides
where
in
a
truly
regressive
aren’t the tiny 1 inch long, experishiny and
ence,
shetoddles;
had to sleep
in the
colorful
they are
justbunk
your
bed
of her
10-year-old
nephew, lake
and,
average
brownish
and greenish
while
outside
rained
miserably,
she
frogs, albeit there were some quite
sat
theout
living
room watching
big in
ones
there...So
how can her
they
nephew
drive
an
orange
Porsche in
harm us if they aren’t poisonous?
circles
with known
his newtoPlayStation.
I was never
be a very
Because
she
patient man, had
and just
I gotmoved
tired offrom
the
Paris
where
she
had
been
living
for
debate quite fast and decided
to conthe
past
five
years,
she
couldn’t
confront those fat bastards to see what
tribute
sowaiting
much with
guests
for the
they had
for me.
I swept
party,
which
turned
out
to
be
comfrom under the table and stepping
pletely
fine
with
Femke
who
around the frogs that were allwas
over
concerned
about
having
too many
the floor, but
weren’t
moving
that
people
who
might end
up wrecking
much, as
I grabbed
a stool
that was
her
new
apartment.
standing somewhere and turned it
up-side-down. I approached the bigWe
the drinks
but I
gestbought
son-of-a-bitch
thattogether,
was entering
was
in
charge
of
the
food
—
which
grumpily by the entrance door we
would
be Brazilian
of courseit—with
and
left half-open,
and squashed
they
took
care
of
the
decoration
the stool’s top. To my wonder, its
and
upquite
the space.
the
masssetting
gave in
easily,During
like it was
afternoon
of
the
31st,
while
I
cooked
made of pudding, and when removaing
feijoada,
they
hung
the stool
from
thecolorful
ground, filI saw
ters
on
the
lamps
in
the
living
room
— feeling simultaneously
a certain
and,
becauseand
Carlos
was paranoid
amusement
aversion
— that
that
people
in
the
party
would steal
the frog was rendered perfectly
flat
his
the girls
covered
likebooks,
a greenish
pizza,
which the
instead
book
shelves
with awith
goldham
aluminum
of having
an olive
topfoil,
shielding
Carlos’
books
from
ping, had a pair of bulged eyes
and
the
gaze
of
intellectually
inclined
a stretched tongue. For a moment I
thieves.
became inflamed with a blood lust
as I thought we could actually just
The
three them
of us had
no But
ideasoon,
how
terminate
easily.
many
people
to
expect;
Berlin
was
dozens and dozens of those pathetic
blooming
with
Silvester
parties
to
looking amphibians were surroundcompete
with,
in
our
neighborhood
ing me and croaking, making it clear
alone
andI bethat it there
wouldwould
take abelotdozens
of work.
dozens
of
house
parties
for
people
to
gan then to wonder again how could
choose
between;
our
assessment
was
they possibly harm me? How...?
—
fact I secretly expected that
5thinDream
come.
was our
aspiration
after
Zurich,It1970s.
Deep
within that
a series
the
fireworks,
people
would
stay
to
of courtyards of a residential builddance.
ing, there’s a hide-out of an Asian
terrorist cell. The cell’s leader is a
We
were who
all very
excited
and anx- in
Chinese,
leaves
the courtyard
ious
to
see
how
everything
a Mercedes. He’s seen then would
driving
play
I had
a special
for
alongout.
a long
road
alignedreason
with many
having
certain
anxieties
because
trees on the sides, which means my
new
fling
might
night. of
that he
might
be come
on thethat
outskirts
Soraya
was
a
small,
plumpy
Lebathe city, or it could be that he’s
just
nese
girl
who
was
a
good
friend
of
crossing a large park. A police patrol
Chloe,
and
whom
I
had
met
during
on a motorcycle crosses his way
acoming
dinnerfrom
partythe
back
in the summer.
opposite
direction.
We
had
been
in
touch
for almost
The police officer signals
anothertwo
car
months
through
e-mails
longto pull over,
relieving
theand
Chinese
distance
calls, while
shefailing
was abroad
from worrying
that his
headin
Romania
and
Lebanon.
We had
lights — they are weakly oscillating
two
feverish
nights by
before
she
like brisk,
two candles
blowing
a waft
went
to
Romania,
where
she
took
of air — would attract the police
part
in an
artist residency
close to
patrol’s
attention.
Soon enough,
Bucharest.
She
had
invited
me toon
though, the motorcycle appears
visit
her,
which
I
had
accepted.
his left side, and the policeman,On
who
the
same
day that
I bought
an signals
expenwears
typical
rider’s
goggles,
sive
herhand
father
a fatal
with ticket,
his right
to suffered
him to stop.
heart
attack
in
Beirut,
causing
herofto
The Chinese proves to be a man
leave
to
Lebanon
the
next
day.
great charisma, very sympathetic,
but who at the same time, bears the
Somehow
heranfather’s
death
seemed
demeanor of
important
academic
to
have
brought
us
closer,
as
I
or doctor of some kind, whichif might
had
entered
her
life
so
her
father
be attributed to his large prescription
could
it. Once
I was back
from
glassesleave
and his
nice tweed
suit. He
Bucharest,
where
I
went
anyway
speaks calmly and with a soft voice
—
I couldn’t
refund —toand
to the
officer, get
andamanages
disstayed
in
a
cheap
hotel
suade him of asking hisby
i.d.myself,
and the
having
a terrific time
encountercar’s documents.
Suddenly,
the tape
ing
packs
of
ravenous
stray is
dogs
is rewound, and everything
set in
dark
streets,
we
kept
daily
contact
back in time. Everything takes place
by
long distance
calls and
e-mails.
as before:
in the same
backyard,
Now,
after
more
than
one
month
we
there’s a hide-out of a terrorist cell.
would
finally
see
each
other
again.
Except that this time the terrorist I
didn’t
know it they
then,are
butinI fact
was Swiss.
searen’t Asians,
Detail
Detail of
of installation
installation
cretly
becoming
very
attached
to her
And the leader is now a gray haired
Photo
Photo by
by Fulano
Fulano de
de tal
already;
even
though
I
consciously
man with piercing green eyes andtala
tried
to notcold
havemetallic
too many
expectasomewhat
expression
tions,
with
the
presentiment
thatHe
wrapped tight around his face.
she
was
just
needy
and
lonely
also leaves in a Mercedes and while
he’s
mourning
herby
father
and officer
once back
also stopped
a police
on
in
Berlin sheBut
would
let me
motorcycle.
instead
of down.
smoothtalking the officer, he shoots him
Iwith
discovered
late that
feelings
a pistol too
attached
to amy
silencer,
behaved
then
like
vines
that
would
and then hides the body and the mo13
13
17
Transcription
Above and on page 16,
photos by Angie VanI had
already
been living in Berlin
dyk.
On page
15, photo
for
five
years
then
by Andrew de Freitas. and had hosted
On page 18,
photo byalways with the help
several
parties,
Daniel
Jablonski.
of
Femke
and her boyfriend. I used
torcycle
in the midst
of the
bushes
with
incredibly
tolerant
neighbors
next never
to the called
road —the
it’spolice,
night.despite
When
who
he returns
theusually
cell, hepartied
tells hisdurthe
fact thattowe
comrades
whatuntil
happened,
ing
weekdays
the weeerupting,
hours.
therefore, aincrisis
in his
leaderEspecially
the first
years,
I was
ship.sort
Theofleader’s
wife,here
whoand
is the
still
half living
in
second
in command,
opposes
his of
Rio.
Because
I was terribly
afraid
husbands
plans, gave
whicha is
to abandon
flying,
I always
farewell
partheon
hide-out.
agrees to
ty
the day Although
before theshe
departure,
that it sure
would
be bestget
if in
they
make
I would
thecould
plane
leave,tired
she and
believes
that they
are
very
hungover;
actually,
now
theyfears,
will Ibedid
certainly
in
mytrapped;
innermost
believe
caught
if they
leaveparty
the hide-out.
that
every
farewell
could be
Thelast
leader
furiously
orders
them to
my
good-bye
to my
friends.
leave. Still stunned from the news
of the
deadFemke
policeman,
his comrades
But
since
still hadn’t
held a
reluctantly
obey.party,
Sometime
later,her
afhouse
warming
and since
ter theywas
leave
in different
cars,than
they
house
much
more central
catch the
of police
roadblocks
mine,
we sight
decided
to locate
the New
everywhere.
Eventually,
the place,
terrorYear’s
Eve party
at her new
ists retrocede
back to
the courtyard.
which
was a newly
renovated,
spaThe leader
then,
does
something
cious,
ground
floor
apartment,
close
completely
despotic that infuriates
to
the Eberswalderstrasse
U-bahn
everyonewhere
fromshe
the had
cell moved
— specialstation,
with
ly his
wife — puttingboyfriend,
them all in
her
half-Colombian
the
unnecessary
by
writer
Carlos,danger,
who atmotivated
the time had
a sicktopride
that
gone
visitand
his stubbornness
mother in Bogota.
follows a dogmatic idealism. Maybe
he wanted
them to continue
to flee
Just
after Christmas,
when Femke
18
12
12
2014
The
2014
Party
2015
and
had returned
from their
fromChloe
the hide-out
and attempt
to
respective
families
in
Holland
and
brake through the roadblocks —
it’s
England
—
I
stayed
working
at
not exactly clear what he did. Shut
home
my cat
— you!
we met
her
up andwith
do what
I tell
He in
shouts
house
to
plan
the
party.
After
a
tour
to someone over the walkie-talkie.
around
the house,
When they
are backwe
inregrouped
the hideout’s
in
the
kitchen
to
have
courtyard, it’s evident drinks
that theand
leader
cigarettes.
Chloe,
who was
a very—
— who wasn’t
obeyed
this time
close
of Femke,
was
a short,
has tofriend
be deposed
for the
sake
of
red-haired
artist,
completely
covered
the cell. He knows it and there’s
a
with
freckles,
with
Centaur
tangible
tension
in the thick
coldconair
stellation
sprinkled
herbreath,
face. She
of the courtyard
thatonthey
as
told
about
hertheir
Christmas
thrills
they us
walk
from
cars towards
in
smalltocoastal
townwhere
in England,
theadoor
the cellar,
lays the
where
in
a
truly
regressive
experihide-out. In that darkness that
covers
ence,
she had
to the
sleep
in theaims
bunk
the parked
cars,
leader
his
bed
ofather
nephew,
and,
pistol
his10-year-old
wife’s back,
who walks
while
outside
rained
miserably,
she
in front
of him.
But as
he pulls the
sat
in
the
living
room
watching
her
trigger he realizes too late that it’s
nephew
drive
an stops
orange
Porsche
in
empty. The
wife
and
turns to
circles
with
his
new
PlayStation.
her husband who is pressing the trigBecause
she had just
from
ger with irritation
andmoved
disbelief.
She
Paris
where
she
had
been
living
for
draws from her purse a small pistol
the
pastshe
five
years,
shehusband’s
couldn’t conwhich
aims
at her
face
tribute
so
much
with
guests
foror
the
at point-blank. As a challenge,
party,
which turned
outforward
to be comas an affront,
he steps
and
pletely
fine
with
Femke
whomuzzle,
was
kisses the tip of her pistol’s
concerned
about
tooeyes
many
looking deep
intohaving
her blue
that
people
who
might
end
up
wrecking
sustains a firm and decisive gaze.
her
apartment.
Shenew
shoots.
The leader drops dead
on the ground. Two comrades —
We
the—drinks
together,
but I
alsobought
a couple
witness
the whole
was
in
charge
of
the
food
—
which
incident and scream in horror at
would
be As
Brazilian
of course
and
the sight.
if she just
wants —
to go
they
took
care
of
the
decoration
away from those screams that echo
and
setting
space. During
through
all up
thethe
backyards
of the the
afternoon
of
the
31st,
while
I cooked
building, the leader’s wife runs
back
atofeijoada,
they
hung
colorful
fil- in
the Mercedes and drives away
ters
on the lamps
thenot
living
full throttle.
Now,init’s
clearroom
if
and,
because
Carlos
was
paranoid
what happens actually happens, or
that
people
in inside
the party
happens
only
herwould
mind, steal
but
his
books,
the
girls
covered
the the
she seems to be driving towards
book
shelves
withOr
a gold
aluminum
country’s
border.
maybe
she is
foil,
shielding
Carlos’
books
from
actually going towards the airport,
the
gaze
of
intellectually
inclined
where she could buy a ticket to Rio
thieves.
(?). How much time until the police
arrives to the hideout’s courtyard?
The
us go
hadthrough
no ideaall
how
Howthree
couldofshe
the
many
people
to
expect;
Berlin
was
roadblocks or the border control
or
blooming
with
Silvester
parties
to
the airport security??? Maybe she
compete
with,toinboard
our neighborhood
does manage
a plane goalone
there
would
dozens
andthe
ing to Mexico City,betaking
only
dozens
of
house
parties
for
people
to
clothing on her body, a white leather
choose
between;
our
assessment
was
purse and a gray cardigan on one
Transcription
Transcription
that
about
fifty guests
would
come
hand.
Somehow
she now
is walking
—
in
fact
I
secretly
expected
with a nice suntan around thethat
streets
at
fiftygoes
of my
friends
would
ofleast
DF, and
into
a branch
of her
come.
It was she
our tries
aspiration
that after
bank, where
to withdraw
the
fireworks,
would
stay to
all her
money people
from her
account
dance.
—wasn’t it already blocked by the
police?
We were all very excited and anxious
see how everything would
LasttoDream
having
certain
I’m black
and Ianxieties
have no because
eyes. I’mmy
new
fling
might
come
that
night.
having an affair with an ex-lover
Soraya
was
a
small,
plumpy
Lebaof mine, who was a Dutch girl
who
nese
girl
who
was
a
good
friend
looked and dressed like Marilynof
Chloe,
and
whom
hadme
met
Monroe.
First
she Ileft
forduring
Thomaas,
dinner
party
back
in
the
summer.
who is an experimental filmmakWe
had whom
been inshe
touch
forthese
almost
two
er with
lives
days.
months
through
e-mails
and
longBut later she left him to return to
distance
calls, while
was abroad
me. Sometime
after, she
Thomas
rang
in
Romania
and
Lebanon.
had
her door sharing tears likeWe
a baby.
two
brisk,
feverish
nights
before
That’s when she left me for a sec-she
went
to Romania,
sheI have
took
ond time.
As I saidwhere
before,
part
in
an
artist
residency
close
no eyes, and in my flat I walk toto
Bucharest.
SheI had
me It’s
to
a white statue
owninvited
of a bird.
visit
her,
which
I
had
accepted.
On
about three feet high, and somehow
the
same
day
that
I
bought
an
expenI open it digging my fingers as if it
sive
hera father
suffered like
a fatal
was ticket,
made of
soft substance
heart
attack
in
Beirut,
causing
to
bread. Inside of it I find layingher
a pair
leave
to
Lebanon
the
next
day.
of bird’s eyes. I fetch them and put
them on my face. I leave towards
Somehow
father’s
seemed
Maartje’s. her
In her
placedeath
she tells
to
have
brought
us
closer,
as
I
me that she will always love ifme.
had
entered
her
life
so
her
father
When I’m about to leave she asks
could
it. the
Once
I was
backatfrom
me to leave
tell her
same.
I stare
her
Bucharest,
where
I
went
anyway
with my bird’s eyes and say: “I’’ll
—
refundBack
— and
tryItocouldn’t
always get
lovea you.”
in
stayed
in
a
cheap
hotel
by
my flat, I take the eyes off myself,
my face
having
terrific
time
encounterand putathem
back
inside
the stating
packs
of
ravenous
strayopen
dogsonin
ue, which is still standing
dark
streets,
we
kept
daily
contact
my living-room. I startle to realize
by
long
calls
andthe
e-mails.
then
thatdistance
all along
inside
statue
Now,
after
more
than
one
month
there was a real living bird, whenwe
it
would
finally
each
again.
emerges
fromsee
deep
theother
statue’s
en- I
didn’t
know
it then,the
buteyes.
I was
setrails and
devours
I forgot
cretly
becoming
very
attached
to her
to mention that during this whole
already;
even
though
I
consciously
time I was wearing a red baseball
tried
cap. to not have too many expectations, with the presentiment that
she
was just needy and lonely while
Epilogue
mourning her father and once back
in
Berlin
down.to
I can
see she
thatwould
the sunletisme
starting
rise. I’m afraid Detail
we’ll
have
to leave.
Detailof
of
installation
installation
in
inDie
Die
II’m
discovered
toobe
late
that
feelings
sure we’ll
able
to my
find
the
Raum,
Raum,
Berlin,
Berlin,
2014.
2014.
Photo
Photoby
by
behaved
thenyour
like
vines
that would
way out by
own.
Have
a good
Jan
Jan
Windszus.
Windszus.
13
Femke,
Femke, Chloe
Chloe and
and II were
were organizing
organizing
day.
aa New
NewYear’s
Year’s party
party together.
together. ItIt was
was
the
the winter
winter of
of 2005,
2005, and
and we
we all
all still
still
lived
lived in
in Prenzlauer
Prenzlauer Berg,
Berg, just
just about
about
the
the time
time when
when most
most of
of the
the younger
younger
artists
artists and
and hipsters
hipsters were
were leaving
leaving en
en
masse
masse down
down the
the hill
hill to
to Kreuzberg,
Kreuzberg,
which
which was
was fully
fully flourishing
flourishing as
as the
the
new
new place-to-be,
place-to-be, starting
starting its
its own
own
self-obliteration
self-obliteration towards
towards total
total gentrigentrification,
fication, the
the same
same cycle
cycle that
that PrenPrenzlauer
zlauer Berg
Berg was
was completing
completing then.
then.
But
But we
we were
were already
already not
not that
that young
young
—
— we
we were
were in
in our
our mid-thirties
mid-thirties —
— so
so
we
we had
had no
no plans
plans to
to leave.
leave. Besides,
Besides,
Prenzlauer
Prenzlauer Berg
Berg still
still had
had some
some rough
rough
edges
edges left
left and
and wasn’t
wasn’t completely
completely
taken
taken over
over by
by armies
armies of
of baby
baby strollstrollers
ers like
like nowadays.
nowadays.
II had
had already
already been
been living
living in
in Berlin
Berlin
for
for five
five years
years then
then and
and had
had hosted
hosted
several
several parties,
parties, always
always with
with the
the help
help
of
of Femke
Femke and
and her
her boyfriend.
boyfriend. II used
used
to
to live
live in
in aa large
large loft
loft near
near Wedding,
Wedding,
with
with incredibly
incredibly tolerant
tolerant neighbors
neighbors
who
who never
never called
called the
the police,
police, despite
despite
the
the fact
fact that
that we
we usually
usually partied
partied durduring
ing weekdays
weekdays until
until the
the wee
wee hours.
hours.
Especially
Especially in
in the
the first
first years,
years, II was
was
still
still sort
sort of
of half
half living
living here
here and
and in
in
Rio.
Rio. Because
Because II was
was terribly
terribly afraid
afraid of
of
flying,
flying, II always
always gave
gave aa farewell
farewell parparty
ty on
on the
the day
day before
before the
the departure,
departure, to
to
make
make sure
sure II would
would get
get in
in the
the plane
plane
very
very tired
tired and
and hungover;
hungover; actually,
actually,
in
in my
my innermost
innermost fears,
fears, II did
did believe
believe
that
that every
every farewell
farewell party
party could
could be
be
my
my last
last good-bye
good-bye to
to my
my friends.
friends.
But
But since
since Femke
Femke still
still hadn’t
hadn’t held
held aa
house
house warming
warming party,
party, and
and since
since her
her
house
house was
was much
much more
more central
central than
than
mine,
mine, we
we decided
decided to
to locate
locate the
the New
New
Year’s
Year’s Eve
Eve party
party at
at her
her new
new place,
place,
which
which was
was aa newly
newly renovated,
renovated, spaspacious,
cious, ground
ground floor
floor apartment,
apartment, close
close
to
to the
the Eberswalderstrasse
Eberswalderstrasse U-bahn
U-bahn
station,
station, where
where she
she had
had moved
moved with
with
her
her half-Colombian
half-Colombian boyfriend,
boyfriend, the
the
writer
writer Carlos,
Carlos, who
who at
at the
the time
time had
had
gone
gone to
to visit
visit his
his mother
mother in
in Bogota.
Bogota.
Just
Just after
after Christmas,
Christmas, when
when Femke
Femke
Invasion The
of
the
Killer Frogs
The
Party
Party
and
and Chloe
Chloe had
had returned
returned from
from their
their
respective
respective families
families in
in Holland
Holland and
and
England
England —
— II stayed
stayed working
working at
at
home
home with
with my
my cat
cat —
— we
we met
met in
in her
her
house
house to
to plan
plan the
the party.
party.After
After aa tour
tour
around
around the
the house,
house, we
we regrouped
regrouped
in
in the
the kitchen
kitchen to
to have
have drinks
drinks and
and
cigarettes.
cigarettes. Chloe,
Chloe, who
who was
was aa very
very
close
close friend
friend of
of Femke,
Femke, was
was aa short,
short,
red-haired
red-haired artist,
artist, completely
completely covered
covered
with
with freckles,
freckles, with
with the
the Centaur
Centaur conconstellation
stellation sprinkled
sprinkled on
on her
her face.
face. She
She
told
told us
us about
about her
her Christmas
Christmas thrills
thrills
in
in aa small
small coastal
coastal town
town in
in England,
England,
where
where in
in aa truly
truly regressive
regressive experiexperience,
ence, she
she had
had to
to sleep
sleep in
in the
the bunk
bunk
bed
bed of
of her
her 10-year-old
10-year-old nephew,
nephew, and,
and,
while
while outside
outside rained
rained miserably,
miserably, she
she
sat
sat in
in the
the living
living room
room watching
watching her
her
nephew
nephew drive
drive an
an orange
orange Porsche
Porsche in
in
circles
circles with
with his
his new
new PlayStation.
PlayStation.
Because
Because she
she had
had just
just moved
moved from
from
Paris
Paris where
where she
she had
had been
been living
living for
for
the
the past
past five
five years,
years, she
she couldn’t
couldn’t concontribute
tribute so
so much
much with
with guests
guests for
for the
the
party,
party, which
which turned
turned out
out to
to be
be comcompletely
pletely fine
fine with
with Femke
Femke who
who was
was
concerned
concerned about
about having
having too
too many
many
people
people who
who might
might end
end up
up wrecking
wrecking
her
her new
new apartment.
apartment.
We
We bought
bought the
the drinks
drinks together,
together, but
but II
was
was in
in charge
charge of
of the
the food
food —
— which
which
would
would be
be Brazilian
Brazilian of
of course
course —
— and
and
they
they took
took care
care of
of the
the decoration
decoration
and
and setting
setting up
up the
the space.
space. During
During the
the
afternoon
afternoon of
of the
the 31st,
31st, while
while II cooked
cooked
aa feijoada,
feijoada, they
they hung
hung colorful
colorful filfilters
ters on
on the
the lamps
lamps in
in the
the living
living room
room
and,
and, because
because Carlos
Carlos was
was paranoid
paranoid
that
that people
people in
in the
the party
party would
would steal
steal
his
his books,
books, the
the girls
girls covered
covered the
the
book
book shelves
shelves with
with aa gold
gold aluminum
aluminum
foil,
foil, shielding
shielding Carlos’
Carlos’books
books from
from
the
the gaze
gaze of
of intellectually
intellectually inclined
inclined
thieves.
thieves.
that
that about
about fifty
fifty guests
guests would
would come
come
—
— in
in fact
fact II secretly
secretly expected
expected that
that
at
at least
least fifty
fifty of
of my
my friends
friends would
would
come.
come. ItIt was
was our
our aspiration
aspiration that
that after
after
the
the fireworks,
fireworks, people
people would
would stay
stay to
to
dance.
dance.
We
We were
were all
all very
very excited
excited and
and anxanxious
ious to
to see
see how
how everything
everything would
would
play
play out.
out. II had
had aa special
special reason
reason for
for
having
having certain
certain anxieties
anxieties because
because my
my
new
new fling
fling might
might come
come that
that night.
night.
Soraya
Soraya was
was aa small,
small, plumpy
plumpy LebaLebanese
nese girl
girl who
who was
was aa good
good friend
friend of
of
Chloe,
Chloe, and
and whom
whom II had
had met
met during
during
aa dinner
dinner party
party back
back in
in the
the summer.
summer.
We
We had
had been
been in
in touch
touch for
for almost
almost two
two
months
months through
through e-mails
e-mails and
and longlongdistance
distance calls,
calls, while
while she
she was
was abroad
abroad
in
in Romania
Romania and
and Lebanon.
Lebanon. We
We had
had
two
two brisk,
brisk, feverish
feverish nights
nights before
before she
she
went
went to
to Romania,
Romania, where
where she
she took
took
part
part in
in an
an artist
artist residency
residency close
close to
to
Bucharest.
Bucharest. She
She had
had invited
invited me
me to
to
visit
visit her,
her, which
which II had
had accepted.
accepted. On
On
the
the same
same day
day that
that II bought
bought an
an expenexpensive
sive ticket,
ticket, her
her father
father suffered
suffered aa fatal
fatal
heart
heart attack
attack in
in Beirut,
Beirut, causing
causing her
her to
to
leave
leave to
to Lebanon
Lebanon the
the next
next day.
day.
Somehow
Somehow her
her father’s
father’s death
death seemed
seemed
to
to have
have brought
brought us
us closer,
closer, as
as ifif II
had
had entered
entered her
her life
life so
so her
her father
father
could
could leave
leave it.
it. Once
Once II was
was back
back from
from
Bucharest,
Bucharest, where
where II went
went anyway
anyway
—
— II couldn’t
couldn’t get
get aa refund
refund —
— and
and
stayed
stayed in
in aa cheap
cheap hotel
hotel by
by myself,
myself,
having
having aa terrific
terrific time
time encounterencountering
ing packs
packs of
of ravenous
ravenous stray
stray dogs
dogs in
in
dark
dark streets,
streets, we
we kept
kept daily
daily contact
contact
by
by long
long distance
distance calls
calls and
and e-mails.
e-mails.
Now,
Now, after
after more
more than
than one
one month
month we
we
would
would finally
finally see
see each
each other
other again.
again. II
didn’t
didn’t know
know itit then,
then, but
but II was
was seseDetail
Detailof
installation
installation
cretly
cretly becoming
becoming
very
veryofattached
attached
to
to her
her
Photo
Photoby
byFulano
Fulanode
detal
tal
already;
already; even
even though
though
II consciously
consciously
tried
tried to
to not
not have
have too
too many
many expectaexpectations,
tions, with
with the
the presentiment
presentiment that
that
she
she was
was just
just needy
needy and
and lonely
lonely while
while
mourning
mourning her
her father
father and
and once
once back
back
in
in Berlin
Berlin she
she would
would let
let me
me down.
down.
The
The three
three of
of us
us had
had no
no idea
idea how
how
many
many people
people to
to expect;
expect; Berlin
Berlin was
was
blooming
blooming with
with Silvester
Silvester parties
parties to
to
compete
compete with,
with, in
in our
our neighborhood
neighborhood
alone
alone there
there would
would be
be dozens
dozens and
and
dozens
dozens of
of house
house parties
parties for
for people
people to
to II discovered
discovered too
too late
late that
that my
my feelings
feelings
choose
choose between;
between; our
our assessment
assessment was
was behaved
behaved then
then like
like vines
vines that
that would
would
19
13
13
2014
CDposters,
played on
loop,
12’ and party debris
60
found
stereo
2015
2014
10
20
12
The frente
Party ao oceano
Em
The
Party
a site
specific instalSecond
of is
three
site-specific
works
lation
tailored for
commissioned
forthe
theoff-space
group show
Die
Raum
in Berlin.
A Mão
Negativa,
thatThe
tookspace
placeis
located
near
to Eberswalder
Straße,
in Parque
Lage,
Rio de Janeiro.
in
Prenzlauer
Berg;
a district which
Spoken
text was
appropriated
and
in
its heydays
— until roughly
translated
to Portuguese,
from less
than
ten years
ago —
be the
Marguerite
Dura’s
filmused
LestoMains
cool
hip area.
Sincewhich
then itisdrastinegatièves
(1977),
based
cally
into ainpredominantly
on themorphed
marks found
the caves of
bourgeois
neighborhood
and became
South of France
left by cavemen
aback
sortin
ofimmemorial
cautionary tale
of how
fast
times.
Togethgentrification
cansound
change
characer with recorded
of the
braking
ter
of a the
place.
waves,
audio piece was installed
in a fake cave built with cement,
Because
of the local
which allegedly
was neighborhood’s
used for singrecent
history,
thought
was pertiing practice
byIthe
park’sit former
nent
to tackle
Berlin
emblem that
owner’s
wife, afor
its accustics.
started to be exploited more recently,
which
localinformal
party culture;
Duringisa the
typical
work
considered
one of
the mentioned
main traits of
meeting in Rio,
I had
the
German
capital,
what started
as a
Dura’s
film to
the curator,
Bernardo
consequence
for he
being
cheap me
place
de Souza, while
wasatelling
populated
with thefor
creative
class,
about his concept
the show
as
in
the lasttogether
years became
more
an
it being,
with the
parkofand
industry
forwithin
tourists,
hordesa of
everything
its with
premises,
young
people
taking cheap artifacts
flights
collection
of reconstructed
for
weekend
to party
in increasandthe
scenaries
made
by a future
civiingly
expensive
lization,
of whatclubs.
once was supposed
to have been the past — our present
— before a forthcoming ecological
doomsday came and the world as we
Iknow
wroteitaceased
short-story
which is a
to exist.
fictionalization of a new year’s party
ISometime
had thrown
together
with
friends,
later,
I got to
know
that
few
months
which
had gothe was
goingbefore,
to install
a particular
ten
a bit
of hand.
I transferred
piece
byout
Daniel
Steegmann
in one of
the story
vaultstoofthe
thearea
fakenear
caveDie
—Raum,
titled
in
the turn
the year
between
2005
simply
^ —ofwhich
I had
seen before.
and
effectively
the time
that
That2006,
triggered
me to want
to make
gentrification
from
the areapart
hit of
its the
the audio piece
in another
maximum
point, making
hordesSteeof
cave, to tangentially
permeate
young
artist
andbyhipster
rollitdown
gmann’s
work
washing
with
the hill
towards
nextand
coolthe
place
sound
of thethe
waves
text,
then:
appropriated
Die
whichKreuzberg.
would lendI it
an interesting
Raum’s
silkscreen
infrastructure
conotation,
and reciprocally
have
—
they
print their
flyers to
into
amustheir
meaning
amplified
different
ingly
large posters
and divided
directions;
and as a—
result,
making it
the
story into sixty
posters (includa collaboration
of sorts.
ing plain colored ones that served
to
brake
the story
that
Little
I knew
that into
sincechapters)
our converwere
split
four
grids
sation,
de into
Souza
hadgeometrical
watched Les
designed
for each of
three
comMains negatièves
andthe
had
become
pletely
irregular
space.
so enchanted
by walls
it thatof
hethe
decided
In
opening
evening
we of
threw
to the
make
it the center
work
his exahibiton,
party that
easily
the small
as well
asfilled
adopting
its title.
fifteen
squaresome
feet gallery.
Later
the
That created
objection
from
debris
party were
in the
his partofinthe
accepting
my left
piece,
as he
space
props for thetoinstallation.
found as
it tautological
have it parallel to the original film, which he was
going to show in a large flatscreen
Detail
installation
Die
Installation
in Die in
Raum,
inside the villa. But
inof
the
end,
Raum,
Berlin,
Photo
by
Berlin,
2014.2014.
Photo
by Jan
Steegmann had loved
the idea, and
JanWindszus.
Windszus.
Transcription
Left entrance of fake cave
to
the Eberswalderstrasse U-bahn
in Parque Lage.
The Party
her new apartment.
thieves.
dance.
to have brought us closer, as if I
had entered her life so her father
could leave it. Once I was back from
Bucharest, where I went anyway
— I couldn’t get a refund — and
stayed in a cheap hotel by myself,
having a terrific time encountering packs of ravenous stray dogs in
dark streets, we kept daily contact
Now, after more than one month we
would finally see each other again. I
didn’t know it then, but I was seDetail of installation
cretly becoming
very attached to her
already; even though
I consciously
tried to not have too many expectations, with the presentiment that
she was just needy and lonely while
I discovered too late that my feelings
behaved then like vines that would
21
13
11
Transcription
Femke,
andsupport,
I were organizing
togetherChloe
with his
I managed
atoNew
Year’s
party
together.
It was
finally convince de
Souza that
the winter
of
2005,
and
we
all
work would be like an echostill
of
lived
Prenzlauer
Berg, just
about
Dura’sinfilm,
reverberating
inside
the
the
mostnew
of the
younger
cavetime
withwhen
a totally
resonance.
—
we were in our mid-thirties — so
Transcription.
edges
left and
wasn’t completely
Em frente
ao oceano
taken
over
by
armies
of baby strolldebaixo da rocha
ers
like
nowadays.
sobre a parede de granito
essas mãos abertas
for
five years then and had hosted
Azuis
several
E pretasparties, always with the help
to
a large loft near Wedding,
Dolive
azulindʼágua
with
incredibly
tolerant neighbors
Do preto da noite
the
fact thatveio
we só
usually
partied durO homem
à gruta
ing
weekdays
until
the
wee
hours.
em frente ao oceano
still
sort
halftinham
living here
and in
Todas
as of
mãos
o mesmo
Rio.
Because
I
was
terribly
afraid of
tamanho
flying, I always gave a farewell party
the day
eleon
estava
só before the departure, to
very
tired and
hungover;
actually,
O homem
só na
gruta observou
no
in
my
innermost
fears,
I
did
believe
ruído
that
everydofarewell
no ruído
mar party could be
my
last
good-bye
to my friends.
a imensidão das coisas
But
Femke still hadn’t held a
E elesince
gritou
house
wastem
much
Você que
ummore
nomecentral than
mine,
we
decided
locate
the New
você que é providotode
identidade
Year’s
Eve
party
at
her
new
place,
eu te amo
which was a newly renovated, spacious,
ground floor apartment, close
Estas mãos
to
the
Eberswalderstrasse
U-bahn
do azul da água do preto do
céu
station,
where
she
had
moved
with
Espalmadas
her
half-Colombian
boyfriend,
Dispostas lado a lado no granitothe
writer
cinza Carlos, who at the time had
gone
to visit
his mother
Bogota.
Para que
qualquer
um asinvejam
22
12
12
2014
The
2014
Party
2015
respective
families
Eu sou o que
chamain Holland and
home
my que
cat —
we met
in her
Eu souwith
aquele
chama
quem
house
to
plan
the
party.
After
a
gritou há trinta mil anos atrás tour
in
kitchen to have drinks and
Euthe
te amo
close
friend
Femke,
was aeushort,
Eu grito
queof
quero
te amar,
te
red-haired
artist,
completely
covered
amo
with
freckles, with the Centaur con
stellation
Eu amareisprinkled
qualquer on
umher
queface.
ouçaShe
o
told
us
about
her
Christmas
thrills
que grito
where
a truly
regressive
experiSobre ainterra
vazia
restará essas
ence,
she
had
to
sleep
in
the
bunk
mãos sobre a parede de granito
em
bed
of
her
10-year-old
nephew,
and,
frente ao quebrar do oceano
sat
in the living room watching her
Insustentável
circles
with
his ouvirá
new PlayStation.
Ninguém
mais
Because
she
had
just moved from
Nem verá
the
pastmil
five
years, she couldn’t conTrinta
anos
tribute so much with guests for the
party,
whichlá,
turned
Estas mãos
pretasout to be completely fine with Femke who was
concerned
many
A refração about
da luzhaving
sobre otoo
mar
faz
people
who
might
end
up
wrecking
trepidar a parede da rocha
her new apartment.
Eu sou quem chama aquele que
We
bought
theluz
drinks
together, but I
gritava
nesta
branca
would
be Brazilian of course — and
O desejo
they
took
care ofnão
thefoi
decoration
a palavra ainda
inventada
afternoon
of athe
31st, while
cooked
Ele observa
imensidão
dasIcoisas
anofeijoada,
they
hung
colorful
filquebrar das ondas, a imensidão
ters
on
the
lamps
in
the
living
room
de sua força
and,
because
Carlos
was
paranoid
e depois ele gritou
his
books,
covered
the
Acima
delethe
as girls
florestas
das Améribook
shelves
with
a
gold
aluminum
cas, sem fim
the
of intellectually
inclined
Ele gaze
está no
centro
thieves.
da pedra
de corredores
The
three of us
no idea how
de caminhos
de had
pedra
many
people
to
expect;
Berlin was
de todas as partes
compete
in our neighborhood
Você quewith,
tem nome
alone
there
would
be dozens and
que é dotado de identidade
Transcription
that
guests
come
eu teabout
amo fifty
de um
amorwould
indefinido
at
fifty
of mya rocha
friends would
É least
preciso
descer
come.
It
was
our
aspiration
that after
vencer o medo
dance.
O vento assopra do continente
ele rechaça o oceano
We were all very excited and anxious
to seelutam
how everything
would
As ondas
contra o vento
play
out.
I
had
a
special
reason
for
Elas avançam
having
certain
anxieties
because
my
abrandadas por sua força
new
fling
might
come
that
night.
e pacientemente
Soraya
wasa arocha
small, plumpy Lebaalcançam
Chloe,
whom I had met during
Tudo seand
apaga
We
had
been
in touch
almost
two
Eu te
amo
mais
longe for
do que
você
months through e-mails and longdistance
calls,
while um
she que
wasouvir
abroad
Eu amarei
qualquer
in
Romania
and
Lebanon.
We
que eu grito que eu te amo had
went
Romania,
Trintatomil
anos where she took
Bucharest.
She had invited me to
Eu te chamo
the
that Ique
bought
an expenEu same
chamoday
aquele
me responderá
sive ticket, her father suffered a fatal
heart
attack
Beirut, causing her to
Eu quero
te in
amar
leave
to
Lebanon
the next day.
eu te amo
Somehow
hermil
father’s
death
seemed
Desde trinta
anos eu
grito
to
have
brought
us
closer,
as
if I
em frente ao mar
had
entered
her
life
so
her
father
o espectro branco
Bucharest,
where
went anyway
Eu sou aquele
queI gritava
—
I
couldn’t
get
a
refund
— and
que te amava, você.
cretly becoming
I consciously
Detail
Detail of
of installation
installation in
in Die
Die
I discovered tooRaum,
late that
my
feelings
Raum,
Berlin,
Berlin,
2014.
2014.
Photo
Photo by
by
behaved then like
vines
that
would
Jan
Jan Windszus.
Windszus.
13
Em frente
ao oceano
The
The Party
Party
her new apartment.
thieves.
dance.
didn’t know it then, but I was seDetail
Detail of
installation
installation
cretly becoming
veryofattached
to her
Photo
Photo by
by Fulano
Fulano de
de tal
tal
already; even though I consciously
mourning
her
father and once back
Above: Daniel
Steeginmann’s
Berlin
she
would
^. Left: Entrance let me down.
to the chamber where
Ithe
discovered
too late that my feelings
audio-piece was
installed. then like vines that would
behaved
13
13
23
2015
2014
Textposters,
on vinylfound stereo and party debris
60
60 posters, found stereo and party debris
Now
We’ll Go Until The End
The Party
The Party
The
Party
is a site
specific instalThird
of three
site-specific
works
lation
tailored for
commissioned
forthe
theoff-space
group show
Die
Raum
in Berlin.
A Mão
Negativa,
thatThe
tookspace
placeisin
located
near toRio
Eberswalder
Parque Lage,
de Janeiro.Straße,
Text
in
Prenzlauer
a district
was
pasted to Berg;
the floor
of the which
terrace
in
its heydays
— until
roughly
from
Parque Lage’s
villa,
whereless
than
ten scene
years of
agothe
—seminal
used to Earth
be the
the first
cool
hip area.
Since
it drastiEntranced
(1967)
bythen
Glauber
Rocha
cally
morphed
predominantly
was filmed.
Theinto
texta is
a transcripbourgeois
tion of the neighborhood
dialogue fromand
the became
film
abetween
sort of cautionary
tale that
of how
fast
two characters
speak
gentrification
change
the councharacabout the fate can
of the
fictional
ter
place. The text follows the
try of
El aDorado.
steps of the characters, who agitatBecause
of the
local as
neighborhood’s
edly circled
around,
they spoke
recent
history, I thought it was pertiand argued.
nent to tackle a Berlin emblem that
which is the local party culture;
considered one of the main traits of
the German capital, what started as a
consequence for being a cheap place
industry for tourists, with hordes of
young people taking cheap flights
IThe
wrote
a short-story
which is a
film,
which is provocatively
fictionalization
of a new year’s
party
anti-populist, synthesizes
the ever
Irepeating
had thrown
together
with
friends,
struggle
of the
dogmatic
few
months the
before,
which had
gotleft against
conservative
right,
ten
a bit out aofdispute
hand. Ibetween
transferred
subscribing
idethe
story
the area nearasDie
alism
andtopragmatism,
the Raum,
main
in
the turnisoftorn
the between
year between
2005
character
the two
and
2006,
effectively
theof
time
fronts.
Upon
the release
thethat
film,
gentrification
from the
area hit its
Rocha was himself
considered
a fasmaximum
point,
making
of a
cist under the
eyes
of the hordes
Left, and
young
artistby
and
roll
down
subversive
thehipster
sensors
from
the
the
hill towards
the next
coolevenplace
military
dictatorship
which
then:
appropriated
Die
tuallyKreuzberg.
prohibited Ithe
film, forcing
Raum’s
infrastructure
Rocha tosilkscreen
illegally smuggle
a copy
—
print
their flyers
into
amusoutthey
of the
country,
to have
it presentingly
posters
—itand
ed in large
Cannes,
where
wondivided
the Luis
the
storyprize.
into sixty posters (includBuñuel
to
the the
story
into
chapters)
In brake
the film,
villa
was
made inthat
were
split
into four geometrical
grids
into the
Governor’s
Palace, where
designed
for each
of the three comhis right arm,
the nonconformist
pletely
irregular
walls of the
space.
journalist
Paulo Martins,
proves
to
In
opening evening
be the
an extremist,
urging we
himthrew
to take
aarms
partyagainst
that easily
filled the small
the president’s
troops
fifteen
square
feet gallery.
Later the
that were
marching
into Alecrim,
debris
of theTaking
party were
left inthat
the
the capital.
advantage
space
as props
the installation.
the floor
in the for
rooftop
is gridded
by square flagstones, I gave the
dialogue between the two disputing
characters, respectively
monochroBerlin, 2014. Photo by Jan
matic colors, as inWindszus.
a chess game.
10
24
2014
The Party is a site specific installation tailored for the off-space
Die Raum in Berlin. The space is
located near to Eberswalder Straße,
in Prenzlauer Berg; a district which
in its heydays — until roughly less
than ten years ago — used to be the
cool hip area. Since then it drastically morphed into a predominantly
bourgeois neighborhood and became
a sort of cautionary tale of how fast
gentrification can change the character of a place.
Because of the local neighborhood’s
recent history, I thought it was pertinent to tackle a Berlin emblem that
which is the local party culture;
considered one of the main traits of
the German capital, what started as a
consequence for being a cheap place
industry for tourists, with hordes of
I wrote a short-story which is a
fictionalization of a new year’s party
I had thrown together with friends,
few months before, which had gotten a bit out of hand. I transferred
the story to the area near Die Raum,
and 2006, effectively the time that
gentrification from the area hit its
maximum point, making hordes of
young artist and hipster roll down
the hill towards the next cool place
then: Kreuzberg. I appropriated Die
Raum’s silkscreen infrastructure
— they print their flyers into amusingly large posters — and divided
the story into sixty posters (including plain colored ones that served
to brake the story into chapters) that
were split into four geometrical grids
designed for each of the three completely irregular walls of the space.
In the opening evening we threw
a party that easily filled the small
fifteen square feet gallery. Later the
andleft
the next
picdebris of the party This
were
in the
tures:
details
of
work,
space as props for the installation.
pasted on the rooftop of
the villa from Parque
Lage, Rio deinJaneiro.
Installation
Die Raum,
Right photo
Angieby Jan
Berlin,
2014.by
Photo
Vandyk.
Windszus.
25
11
10
Transcription
12
26
2015
The2014
Party
her new apartment.
thieves.
Transcription
dance.
in
hbiRomania and Lebanon. We had
cretly becoming
I consciously
Detail of installation in Die
I discovered too late
my2014.
feelings
Raum,that
Berlin,
Photo by
behaved then likeJanvines
that
would
Windszus.
13
Now We’ll Go until the End
The Party
her new apartment.
thieves.
dance.
cretly becoming
I consciously
27
13
Transcription
Transcription.
28
12
2015
The2014
Party
Calm
down!!!
and
Chloe
had returned from their
Now we’ll
until the
end. at
England
—go
I stayed
working
I said to
it already:
people’s
house
plan the The
party.
After a blood
tour
is sacred.
around
the house, we regrouped
The blood Chloe,
isn’t important.
be
cigarettes.
who was It’ll
a very
the beginning
our history.
If we
close
friend of of
Femke,
was a short,
loose, Diazartist,
will raise
to power.
red-haired
completely
covered
with freckles, with the Centaur conA worthless
fight. We’ll
crushed!
stellation
sprinkled
on herbeface.
She
‘Can’t
betray
us! town in England,
in
a small
coastal
where in a truly regressive experiOur adventure’s
finished.
ence,
she had to sleep
in the bunk
Adventure?
You call
while
outsideAdventure?!
rained miserably,
sheall
her new apartment.
thieves.
Transcription
that
fifty
guests would come
our about
work an
adventure!?
at
least fifty
myorders!
friendsDisperse
would
Stop!!!
Obeyofthe
come.
It
was
our
aspiration
thatlog.
after
the resistants. Sara! Open the
the
fireworks,
people
would
stay
to
Note it down:
dance.
“The contradiction of the forces
which direct our lives have thrown
We
werethis
all political
very excited
and anxus into
stalemate,
so
ious
to
see
how
everything
would
common to those that actively
take
play
reason for
part out.
in theI had
greata special
decisions...”
new
that night.What
...Tofling
whommight
is thiscome
document...?
Soraya
was
a
small,
plumpy
Lebais it for...?
Chloe,
andconsummated
whom I had met
“...hence,
ourduring
fate toawards
dinnerthe
party
back
in
the
summer.
great national decisions...”
months
through e-mails
and long...The speeches!
The promises...
cretly becoming
I consciously
I discovered too late
my2014.
feelings
Raum,that
Berlin,
Photo by
behaved then likeJanvines
that
would
Windszus.
13
“...Certain that to resist will unleash
aBut
pratricidal
war between
theheld
inno-a
since Femke
still hadn’t
cents...”
...Who
aredecided
the innocents?
mine, we
to locate the New
“...I
deliver
fate renovated,
to God. With
which
was amy
newly
spa-the
hope
oncefloor
again,
He will bless
cious,that
ground
apartment,
close
El
Dorado
with His divineU-bahn
grace
to the
Eberswalderstrasse
that
dances
in the
hearts.
The
station,
where
shehuman
had moved
with
love
that unites us all.”
her half-Colombian
boyfriend, the
Do
Do you
who
goneyou
to see
visitSara?
his mother
insee
Bogota.
was our leader? OUR GREAT
LEADER!!!
Now We’ll Go until the End
The Party
her new apartment.
thieves.
dance.
cretly becoming
I consciously
29
13
2014
31
9
60
60posters,
posters,found
foundstereo
stereoand
andparty
partydebris
debris
2014
2014
The
TheParty
Party
The
TheParty
Partyisisa asite
sitespecific
specificinstalinstallation
tailored
for
the
lation tailored for theoff-space
off-space
Die
DieRaum
RaumininBerlin.
Berlin.The
Thespace
spaceisis
located
near
to
Eberswalder
located near to EberswalderStraße,
Straße,
ininPrenzlauer
PrenzlauerBerg;
Berg;a adistrict
districtwhich
which
ininitsitsheydays
heydays——until
untilroughly
roughlyless
less
than
thanten
tenyears
yearsago
ago——used
usedtotobebethe
the
cool
coolhip
hiparea.
area.Since
Sincethen
thenit itdrastidrastically
callymorphed
morphedinto
intoa apredominantly
predominantly
bourgeois
neighborhood
bourgeois neighborhoodand
andbecame
became
a asort
of
cautionary
tale
of
sort of cautionary tale ofhow
howfast
fast
gentrification
gentrificationcan
canchange
changethe
thecharaccharacterterofofa aplace.
place.
Because
Becauseofofthe
thelocal
localneighborhood’s
neighborhood’s
recent
history,
I
thought
recent history, I thoughtit itwas
waspertipertinent
to
tackle
a
Berlin
emblem
nent to tackle a Berlin emblemthat
that
started
startedtotobebeexploited
exploitedmore
morerecently,
recently,
which
whichisisthe
thelocal
localparty
partyculture;
culture;
considered
one
of
the
considered one of themain
maintraits
traitsofof
the
German
capital,
what
started
the German capital, what startedasasa a
consequence
consequencefor
forbeing
beinga acheap
cheapplace
place
populated
with
the
creative
populated with the creativeclass,
class,
ininthe
thelast
lastyears
yearsbecame
becamemore
moreofofanan
industry
for
tourists,
with
industry for tourists, withhordes
hordesofof
young
people
taking
cheap
flights
for
forthe
theweekend
weekendtotoparty
partyininincreasincreasingly
expensive
clubs.
ingly expensive clubs.
To download pdf of posters, please
press here.
1010
32
I wrote
I wrotea ashort-story
short-storywhich
whichisisa a
fictionalization
fictionalizationofofa anew
newyear’s
year’sparty
party
I had
I hadthrown
throwntogether
togetherwith
withfriends,
friends,
few
fewmonths
monthsbefore,
before,which
whichhad
hadgotgotten
tena abitbitout
outofofhand.
hand.I transferred
I transferred
the
thestory
storytotothe
thearea
areanear
nearDie
DieRaum,
Raum,
ininthe
theturn
turnofofthe
theyear
yearbetween
between2005
2005
and
and2006,
2006,effectively
effectivelythe
thetime
timethat
that
gentrification
gentrificationfrom
fromthe
thearea
areahithititsits
maximum
maximumpoint,
point,making
makinghordes
hordesofof
young
youngartist
artistand
andhipster
hipsterroll
rolldown
down
the
thehill
hilltowards
towardsthe
thenext
nextcool
coolplace
place
then:
then:Kreuzberg.
Kreuzberg.I appropriated
I appropriatedDie
Die
Raum’s
Raum’ssilkscreen
silkscreeninfrastructure
infrastructure
——they
theyprint
printtheir
theirflyers
flyersinto
intoamusamusingly
inglylarge
largeposters
posters——and
anddivided
divided
the
thestory
storyinto
intosixty
sixtyposters
posters(includ(including
ingplain
plaincolored
coloredones
onesthat
thatserved
served
totobrake
brakethe
thestory
storyinto
intochapters)
chapters)that
that
were
weresplit
splitinto
intofour
fourgeometrical
geometricalgrids
grids
designed
designedfor
foreach
eachofofthe
thethree
threecomcompletely
pletelyirregular
irregularwalls
wallsofofthe
thespace.
space.
InInthe
theopening
openingevening
eveningwe
wethrew
threw
a aparty
partythat
thateasily
easilyfilled
filledthe
thesmall
small
fifteen
fifteensquare
squarefeet
feetgallery.
gallery.Later
Laterthe
the
debris
debrisofofthe
theparty
partywere
wereleft
leftininthe
the
space
spaceasasprops
propsfor
forthe
theinstallation.
installation.
Installation
in in
Die
Raum,
Installation
Die
Raum,
Berlin,
2014.
Photo
byby
Jan
Berlin,
2014.
Photo
Jan
Windszus.
Windszus.
1133
11
2014
Transcription
Raum, Berlin, 2014. Photo by
Jan Windszus.
34
12
The Party
her new apartment.
thieves.
dance.
cretly becoming
I consciously
35
13
2014
climb from under my chair, coiling
and snaking around my feet without
me paying any notice while I emailed or talked to her on the phone;
for my surprise later, when suddenly
things went wrong and we had to
go our separate ways, I trampled,
falling face down, then was dragged
by Soraya, scraping against the
ground as she walked away, leaving
a bloody trail behind.
Initially, Soraya was supposed to
come only one week after the New
Year’s, but unexpectedly she decided
to come back earlier on the 31st,
because she was bored in Beirut and
wanted to escape the eerie atmosphere that permeated her stay there.
Before I knew that Soraya would
come, I, subconsciously perhaps,
had been trying to prevent those
vines from climbing over my legs
by not putting all my eggs in one
basket, and had invited a hot Vietnamese girl to the party. So it was
with mixed feelings that I received
her e-mail saying she would be arriving that day. But to make things
more complicated, Soraya threw in
some charm by playing hard to get,
saying that she wasn’t sure if she
would make it to my party because
her roommate had other plans.
Bruno, a young Italian art-book
publisher arrived surprisingly early;
one hour before the official scheduled time to start, meaning two
hours before anyone else would start
arriving. I found that shockingly
rude — in Brazil to arrive on time
is considered impolite — but my
two North-European friends thought
nothing of it. Bruno looked smart in
black, matching his handsome dark
beard that smelled of the Marlboro
cigarettes that he was constantly
chain smoking. He had brought
some gratinéed Italian dish as his
contribution and sat in the kitchen
with us as we finished cooking.
Suddenly we were already past the
36
14
hour and still not finished when a
second guest arrived, Kai, a skinny
androgynous German, who was also
elegantly in black. Bruno was very
happy to see her there, they seemed
to resume something left unfinished
or pending from another night, and
stayed flirting with each other by the
stove, blocking my way.
We had just finished putting all the
food that we had, the wine bottles,
paper cups and plastic cutlery in
Femke’s studio which had been
converted into a dining room, when
friends from an art collective called
Magog arrived, bringing more
friends, dishes and drinks. After
resting the food in the studio, everybody tried to fit into the kitchen, but
it got too crowded so some stayed
in the hallway. We all had aperitifs
as I made a round of caipiroskas for
everyone.
Soon more people arrived and all
the guests fitted around a long dinner table that had been arranged by
putting desks together in Femke’s
studio. As we finished eating, shortly
before midnight, suddenly throngs of
more people arrived, and the house
became rapidly totally filled with
more than a hundred people, mostly
completely unknown to Femke. I
pretended bewilderment, while I in
fact had secretly invited more people
than I had first admitted and encouraged everyone to bring other friends.
Things were quickly getting out of
hand as both the apartment’s and the
building’s doors were left ajar with
people coming in and out, some just
looting the food and drinks. Then
things returned under control all of
a sudden when the countdown for
New Year’s started and everyone just
went outside for the fireworks.
The streets were already in the
process of being swallowed by the
sinister gun powder smoke, what in
the war front they like to call the Fog
The Party
of War. Everywhere rockets could be
heard hissing above; fireworks that
more closely resembled road bombs
exploded in the middle of Schönhauser Allee not giving any special
light effect except for producing a
blinding glare accompanied by a
deafening sound; small, white-trash
German kids would light up little
bombs that were attached to each
other in a chain, like ammo for a machine-gun, making rattling sounds of
bullet bursts. As the volleys of fireworks mounted to their climax at the
stroke of midnight, I wouldn’t have
been surprised at all if a tank squadron of the Red Army had suddenly
stormed from Danziger Strasse.
While I didn’t dare to actively take
part in the collective unconsciousness of my European friends, Bruno,
together with a German friend of
Femke’s called Hanzel — who
looked exactly like Jean-Pierre
Léaud, always with a trench coat and
a cigarette dangling from his mouth
— seemed unabashed and like true
pyromaniacs, fitted rockets into
empty champagne bottles, lifting
them diagonally upwards, their right
arms converted into rocket launchers.
Back inside it was time for dancing, but the speakers were giving
distorted, quirky sounds. Somehow,
they had been mysteriously ruptured
while everyone was outside. My
main suspect was Kai, who stayed
inside by the DJ post and who was
already completely drunk since supper, having repeatedly annoyed me
into trying to take over the music
before people were ready to dance.
My guess was that she had put the
volume too loud when everyone
went outside, cracking the speakers.
The dance floor was crowded and
everyone was just standing awkwardly. The party was quickly
dying; people were leaving as they
phoned and texted friends in parties
Jan Windszus.
15
37
The Party
2014
MTV garbage. So, under the pleas
of mystified friends, I was forced
to intervene. I had brought some
20 records in a red leather LP suitcase from the 60s that had belonged
to my grandfather, and that’s all I
would play, refusing to even touch
the laptop as I was a very committed
audiophile then. Unfortunately there
was only one turntable and although
I tried to be very fast — which I
wasn’t — there was always a long
pause between songs. Nonetheless,
in a flash, the dance floor was burning with people dancing whenever
the vinyl was spinning.
that were really rocking. Two Austrian friends, Thomas and Klaus, from
the Magog art collective, were trying
in vain to reconnect the speakers; I
knew that the best and fastest option
was that I simply get on my bike and
pick up my speakers from home,
but I was certain that they would
get blown up too, and I didn’t want
to bother. When one of the Austrians mentioned that he lived around
the corner, I jumped at the idea and
pleaded for his help, pointing out
how guests were oozing out towards
other parties.
In the mean time, in the dining
room:
Frank and Elke, a German couple
38
16
friends with Femke, after being
together for years in an orthodox
relationship had switched to an
‘open’ one. Frank, who was an art
historian that found fridges unnecessary, noisy machines and kept
his food outside the window of his
ground-floor apartment, had, in addition to his girlfriend number one,
brought his new girlfriend, a young
Egyptian who had the airs of an
Arabic Elizabeth Taylor. Apparently,
Cleopatra here was indeed aware of
Elke, who was a roundish, innocentlooking curator, but seemed to have
found the confrontation of being in
the same party with her simply too
much to handle. After Frank had
helped Elke open a wine bottle, he
felt the air near his head move as
a glass missed him by an inch, and
Jan Windszus.
subsequently exploded on the wall
next to him. The shattered pieces
of glass showered over the buffet,
including my lovely Brazilian black
bean stew, rendering most of the rest
of the food into a sword-swallower’s
meal.
The Austrians returned with the
speakers and the party resumed
— more people arrived and some
started to try dancing. That was
when Chloe demonstrated that as
a DJ, she was a very good visual
artist. Or maybe most of the guests
just didn’t share her ultra-sophisticated ironic taste, and for them, her
cheesy song list simply sounded like
A few songs later, Soraya came in
with her roommate. I stopped playing records and Chloe took over
again, so that I could instead play
host to her. To my surprise she was
more interested in the company of
her lesbian roommate, who not only
had an extremely unsavory personality, but was also endowed with
the head of an overweight person
on a very thin body. Despite this,
my heart started secretly to sink, I
was amused to later discover that a
friend of mine, a beautiful lesbian
who was there turned out to know
Soraya’s roommate and in fact had
had a blind date with her. I laughed
very hard to myself with the image
unraveling in front of my eyes of
my rendering of how their date had
unfolded: meeting in a place like
Barbie Deinhoff’s, my friend Carolina facing her bloated-faced date
not knowing how to escape her harrowing fate, then locking herself in a
toilet stall and calling friends to ask
whoever was available to ‘incidentally’ arrive in the bar to rescue her.
Not finding the attention I sought
from the Lebanese girl, I went back
to the dance-floor, where a song
from Jennifer Lopez was playing.
Friends again begged me to play. In
the middle of the room, Frank’s girlfriend, Elke, was being slowly seduced by a big butch bearing a thin
mustache. I was also a bit startled to
see Mubawa, the Nigerian boyfriend
of a German friend of mine, slowly
dancing with the Egyptian girl.
I could have gone with my roommate.
Bruno, on his part, since Kai had
already collapsed on a couch, was
throwing all of his charm toward
Chloe on the dance floor.
Soraya went to a corner, where she
sat sulking.
At this point, I received a message
from one of my dearest friends.
Hey P, in Kreuzberg in a spacey
party, come in case you wanna chill.
Crestfallen I quickly typed into my
phone.
Thanks but I can’t leave my own
party.
Then I realized I had also gotten a
message from the Vietnamese girl.
Where are you?
At this moment I let go a sigh.
I’m at my party.
I then put on Transmission by Joy
Division and the crowd went into
a fever. Soraya came and held my
arm.
Can we go now? I’m tired.
Baffled, I took another record into
my hands.
Uh...I’m deejaying?
Can’t you ask someone to take your
place?
...this is also my party you know.
I tried explaining that I had a responsibility with Femke’s house,
being that most of the guests were
my guests.
Until when do you think you’re staying here?
...I have no idea. Maybe for 1 or 2
hours more? Maybe longer?
Why didn’t you tell me this before?
What? When?
I received another message from the
Vietnamese girl:
Sorry, still not there...
I slipped my cell-phone into my hip
pocket and played Bela Lugosi’s
Dead by Bauhaus. I was wearing
a suit and tie and, under the dark
spell of that song, I moved onto the
dance-floor, unbuttoned my jacket
and started flapping it backwards
and forwards as if it were a cape.
Even though I was mostly responsible for it, I realized only then that
there was a great incongruence
between the numbers of men and
women at the party — for every man
there were at least three women.
This made sense, since the apartment was actually filled mostly with
my guests who were, not by chance,
overwhelmingly female.
Then, on the dance-floor, two towering blonde Germans closed in, one
from the back and the other from
the front and were about to trap me.
Their voracity and purposefulness
were very intimidating, causing me
to spin, using my ‘cape’ to parry
the women’s hands, managing to
dodge them and go back to my DJ
post. I saw then, one of my few male
friends that was there, became the
next victim of the ravenous pair. He
was cornered against
a wall; I swear
Fulano de tal
I could see the Photo
whitesbyof
his eyes
from where I stood. Defenceless, he
succumbed and disappeared underneath the tall valkyries.
Chloe pushed me from the DJ post
and someone took the cue to ask
me to make some more caipiroskas.
In the kitchen, which was crowded
17
39
2014
The Party
with people veiled behind the cloud
of cigarette smoke, I met a younger
Brazilian friend, Paula who had
brought a young British couple with
her. All three of them were wearing
matching clothes in a flowery patterned, 70’s psychedelic style. The
British boy was extremely skinny
and tall, with thick-rimmed glasses.
They put themselves on the waiting
list for caipiroskas while drinking
pure vodka shots.
Genna started having a fight at the
kitchen’s entrance with Mubawa
when he came over with the Egyptian girl. Cleopatra disengaged from
him and went nonchalantly to the
dining room. I followed behind her,
but was repealed from entering the
room when confronted from within
by the sight of huge white buttocks,
shining like the full moon, that were
protruding from the butch’s back,
who was bent over Elke in very
loose pants, completely oblivious
of any draft that might have warned
her of the lack of gracefulness with
which she found herself.
Mubawa disentangled himself from
the fight and came next to me. He
pointed toward the dancing room at
the end of the hallway, from which a
song by Mariah Carey was echoing.
What the fuck is that music?
Happening/party during
opening in Die Raum, Berlin,
May, 2014. Photos by Jesper
Dyrehauge.
40
18
I dutifully conceded and went back
to the DJ post, having to push Chloe
away and put to play a very danceable Caetano Veloso song called
Alfaomega from 1969 that sounded
like Moldy Peaches in Portuguese,
which Bruno recognized and danced
to with hip-hop moves at the same
time as he swirled around the Egyptian girl. Chloe, who had perhaps
taken their previous dancing a bit
too seriously, as if it had indicated a
promise of a future romance, broke
down with Bruno’s apparent new
interest — never mind that he had
been flirting with Kai earlier. She
started crying in the middle of the
dance-floor. Femke, who had been
dancing by herself somewhere
wearing a panama hat, came to her
aid, and promptly took her into the
bathroom.
Soraya’s roommate returned. She,
who had still been sulking in the
corner, suddenly got up and started
to dance with her froggy roommate.
I approached her on the dance-floor
with smooth moves, but she seemed
all but oblivious to me. Disenchanted, I went back to the DJ post and
played a song by the Beastie Boys.
I received another message from the
Vietnamese girl:
We are at Kastanienallee 21.
I’m still at my own party.
Sorry I meant to message someone
else...
Soraya appeared next to me.
So, are you going home with me, or
should I go with Katti?
At 2 a.m., which is still quite early
for a New Year’s party, the house
was completely packed. I didn’t
even look at her.
Go with your roommate.
Soraya put on her winter jacket and
left, infuriated.
Yeah, sure.
In front of us, the butch was making out with Frank’s girlfriend, and
another female couple danced very
close.
It’s funny how there are only girls
kissing tonight.
We could change that.
How?
I dragged her into a hidden dark
nook by the window. Although I
didn’t manage to really get aroused
with her as I kept thinking about
Soraya, I felt her plenty while making out, each squeeze feeling like a
small redemption.
After some fifteen minutes we both
emerged from our hideout exactly
before Femke came out of the toilet
with Chloe, who had a puffy face
from crying and would have surely
snitched on me to Soraya if she
had seen me earlier. I danced with
the German girl for a bit, keeping a
distance.
Suddenly the British boy, the friend
of Paula, appeared leading two
young lesbians, the three completely
out of place in the older crowd. I
was glad he approached me, as I
used it as a cue to disengage myself
from the German who was dumbfounded, and left fuming.
There had been a dark-haired German in her late twenties or early
thirties with thick, voluptuous lips
that had been eyeing me in the
kitchen earlier. Frustrated with both
the Lebanese and the Vietnamese
girls, and taking advantage of the
fact that Chloe was in the toilet with
Femke, I came up to her in the living room to make some small talk.
Excuse me. I’m terribly sorry to disturb you, Paulo. But have you seen
Paula?
Having fun?
Oh dear, I really need to find her...
No, I saw her leaving with you.
Could I, by any chance, use your
phone to call her?
Sure. Oh no! My phone’s dead!
41
19
The Party
The Party
2014
2014
She said she was coming back, but
She said
was
coming
back,
you’re
sureshe
you
haven’t
seen
her?but
you’re sure you haven’t seen her?
Yes, I’m sure.
Yes, I’m sure.
I’m very sorry to ask you this, I’m
I’mvery
verysorry;
sorry to
you this,
I’m
very
butask
if there
is any
very
very
sorry;
but
if
there
is
any
way that you could retrieve the
way that
retrieve
number
foryou
me,could
maybe
I couldthe
find
number
for
me,
maybe
could
find
someone that will let me Iuse
their
someone
that
will
let
me
use
their
phone...
phone...
Uh...sure I’ll try to turn it on again...
I’llturn
try to
turn it on again...
I Uh...sure
managed to
it on.
I managed to turn it on.
Can I tell you?
Can I tell you?
Wait, wait, I’m not good with
Wait, wait, I’m not good with
phones...
phones...
The kid borrowed a phone from one
borrowed a phone from one
ofThe
the kid
lesbians.
of the lesbians.
Wait? You don’t have a phone?
Wait? You don’t have a phone?
No, no, I’m not good with phones...
No, no, I’m not good with phones...
He called, but no one answered.
He called, but no one answered.
The music went off a second time.
Thelaptop
musichad
went
offput
a second
The
been
on toptime.
of
The
laptop
had
been
put
top of
the amplifier, causing it toon
overheat.
amplifier,
causing
it tostarted
overheat.
Athe
new
crisis. More
people
to
A
new
crisis.
More
people
started to
gush out. But again the Austrians
gush the
out.night,
But again
the Austrians
saved
and went
to fetch
saved
the
night,
and
went
to fetch
their amplifier. Once the
amplifier
their
amplifier.
Once
the
amplifier
was back only the core of the party
wasstill
back
only—the
corethirty
of thepeople.
party
was
there
some
was
still
there
—
some
thirty
people.
The British kid returned with anThe request.
British kid returned with another
other request.
I’m terribly terribly sorry to bother
I’magain
terribly
terribly
to bother
you
Paulo;
you sorry
have been
a
you
again
Paulo;
you
have
terrific host tonight; but if bybeen
any a
terrificyou
hosthappen
tonight;
by any
chance
to but
haveif any
chance
you
happen
to
have
any
drugs or know of someone that
drugs
or
know
of
someone
that
might have them, I would be etermight
have them, I would be eternally
grateful.
nally grateful.
I scratched my head.
I scratched my head.
Uh...I don’t have but...maybe...wait
don’t have but...maybe...wait
a Uh...I
minute.
a minute.
20
42
20
I put Chloe in my place in the DJ
I put
Chloe
in the
post
and
wentintomy
theplace
kitchen,
theDJ
kid
post
and
went
to
the
kitchen,
closely behind me. I found onethe
of kid
closely
behind
me. I found
one ofif
the
Austrians,
Thomas,
and asked
the
Austrians,
Thomas,
and
asked if
he had anything.
he had anything.
Yeah, sure. Just a moment.
Yeah, sure. Just a moment.
The kid went with Thomas who
The to
kidhiswent
who by
went
coatwith
that Thomas
was hanging
went
to
his
coat
that
was
hanging
by
the entrance.
the entrance.
that looked like vitamin D12 pills.
that looked like vitamin D12 pills.
Mubawa picked one of the biggest
Mubawa
picked
the biggest
ones
and gave
it toone
me.ofDrunk
and
ones
and
gave
it
to
me.
Drunk
and
not knowing how to refuse
it, I swalnot
knowing
how
to
refuse
it,
I
swallowed it with a gulp of beer.
lowed it with a gulp of beer.
I went back to dancing but I didn’t
I went
back to
dancing
but I tired
didn’t
feel
anything,
and
soon grew
feel
anything,
and
soon
grew
and sat down. Femke sat next totired
me
andsaid
sat that
down.
Femke
nexthave
to me
and
they
wouldsatsoon
that theyout.
would
soon
have
toand
kicksaid
everybody
It was
almost
to
kick
everybody
out.
It
was
almost
8 a.m. and she wanted to go to sleep.
8 a.m.
andtall
sheblondes,
wanted to
to sleep.
In the meantime, I went back to the
One
of the
thegobeautiful
In
the
meantime,
I
went
back
to
the
One
of
the
tall
blondes,
the
beautiful
dance room, being careful to avoid
Kerstin, was deejaying amazingly,
dance
being
careful to avoid playing
Kerstin,
was deejaying
the
girl Iroom,
had just
kissed.
Grace
Jones. Theamazingly,
thirty or so
the girl I had just kissed.
playing
Grace
thirty
people left, whoJones.
mostlyThe
were
fromor so
people
left,
who
mostly
were
Chloe was playing a song by the
the first group to have arrived infrom
the
Chloe
was
playing
a
song
by
the
the first
group
to have arrived
in the
Spice Girls. Genna demanded that
party,
were
still dancing,
probably
Gennabut
demanded
that
party,
were still
dancing,
probably
I Spice
changeGirls.
the music,
I could see
full
of vitamin
D in
their blood.
At
I
change
the
music,
but
I
could
see
full
of
vitamin
D
in
their
blood.
At
that Chloe literally still had tears in
8 a.m. Femke cut the music.
Kerstin
that
Chloe
literally
still
had
tears
in
8
a.m.
Femke
cut
the
music.
Kerstin
her eyes. I thought that deejaying
invited me to go with her and some
herhelping
eyes. I thought
thather
deejaying
me to gopeople
with her
some
was
to distract
from her
ofinvited
the remaining
to aand
club.
was
helping
to
distract
her
from
her
of
the
remaining
people
to
a
club.
distress, so I let her be.
distress, so I let her be.
*
*
Bored, I asked the British kid about
Bored,
I
asked
the
British
kid
about
the pill, just to make conversation.
It was about 9 a.m. when the splinthe pill, just to make conversation. tered
It was
about
a.m.
whenentered
the splingroup
of 9ten
people
a
tered
group
of
ten
people
Oh, I’ve put it in a drink to dissolve, large electronic-music clubentered
under- a
Oh,
largesome
electronic-music
underI’ll
goI’ve
get put
it... it in a drink to dissolve, neath
elevated trainclub
tracks.
I’ll go get it...
neath
some
elevated
train
tracks.
Beside Kerstin, the Magog collective
Beside
Kerstin,
collective
I never saw him again at that party.
was
there,
and so the
wasMagog
Mubawa
and
I
never
saw
him
again
at
that
party.
was
there,
and
so
was
Mubawa
I was by then a bit restless. I went
Genny and the Egyptian girl, whoand
I was
a bit where
restless.
I went
Genny
Egyptian
back
to by
thethen
kitchen,
Thomas
sat
on myand
lapthe
in the
cab. girl, who
back
to
the
kitchen,
where
Thomas
sat
on
my
lap
in
the
cab.
grabbed me by the shoulder.
grabbed me by the shoulder.
Hey did you see the British guy?
Inside the club’s packed dance-floor,
Hey did you see the British guy?
Inside
the British
club’s packed
we
met the
kid anddance-floor,
the two
we
met
the
British
kid andinthe
Yeah, I think he left.
lesbians who were dancing
a two
Yeah, I think he left.
lesbians
who
were
dancing
in
a
trance and didn’t acknowledge us.
trance
and
didn’t
acknowledge
us.
Did he give you the stuff?
All of a sudden everything became
Did he give you the stuff?
All
of
a
sudden
everything
became
rhythm to me; nothing mattered
rhythm to
me; nothing
Oh, not really.
anymore
except
obeyingmattered
the beats
Oh, not really.
anymore
except
obeying
the beats
by moving my body.
The Egyptian
Detail
of The
installation
by
moving
my
body.
Egyptian
Oh that asshole. He said he was gowas grazing against
me
her
Detail
of with
installation
Photo byme
Fulano
de
tal
Ohtothat
asshole.
said
he was
go- eyes
wasclosed.
grazingItagainst
with
her
ing
share
it withHe
you.
I only
gave
was
a great
feeling,
Photo
by Fulano
de tal
ing
to
share
it
with
you.
I
only
gave
eyes
closed.
It
was
a
great
feeling,
it to him because he said he was go- but in a few minutes I felt a terrible,
it to
said he was go- dry
butthirst.
in a few
I felt
a terrible,
ing
to him
sharebecause
it with he
you!
My minutes
mouth was
pure
white
ing to share it with you!
dry
thirst.
My
mouth
was
pure
white
saliva, and when someone handed
saliva,
and
when
someone
handed
Thomas tapped Mubawa on the
me a glass of water, I poured it into
Thomasand
tapped
Mubawa
memouth
a glassasofif water,
pouredand
it into
shoulder
whispered
onon
histhe
ear.
my
it was Ioxygen
shoulder
and
whispered
on
his
ear.
my
mouth
as
if
it
was
oxygen
and
The Nigerian produced a small,
immediately I knew that it was not
The
Nigerian
produced
a
small,
immediately
I
knew
that
it
was
not
metal, round canister for mints.
enough, that I needed to leave that
metal,
round
canister
for
mints.
enough,
that
I
needed
to
leave
that
Inside were dozens of brown tablets
place or I would have a seizure.
Inside were dozens of brown tablets
place or I would have a seizure.
I ran out, passing the heavy-set
I ran out,
passing
the aheavy-set
bouncer
who
gave me
curious
bouncer
who
gave
me aidiots
curious
glance, as if he had seen
like
glance,
as
if
he
had
seen
idiots like
me many times before. I walked
me many
times before.
walked
down
the freezing
streets,I lit
by the
down
the
freezing
streets,
lit bya the
cold overcast sun, wearing only
coldand
overcast
sun, wearing
only a
shirt
a disheveled
tie. I wasn’t
shirt
and
a
disheveled
tie.
I
wasn’t
yet feeling much better, although
yet
feeling
much
better,
although
the fresh air and the lack of music
the fresh
and the lack
music
helped
withaircontrolling
myofhearthelped
with
controlling
my
heartbeat and easing my blood pressure
beat and
my blood
pressureI
down.
Buteasing
if the effect
of whatever
down.
But
if
the
effect
of
whatever
had taken was yet to reach its cli- I
had Itaken
yet tohave
reach
its climax,
knewwas
I might
a stroke,
max,
I
knew
I
might
have
a
stroke,
or even a heart-attack.
or even a heart-attack.
I walked in the direction of an UI walked
in thenext
direction
an had
Ubahn.
The road
to the of
club
bahn.
The
road
next
to
the
club
had
been cornered off by the police with
been
cornered
off
by
the
police
with
yellow barrier tape. Four patrol cars
yellow
barrier
Four
stood
within
thetape.
closed
areapatrol
flash-cars
stood
within
the
closed
area
ing their siren lights. I walkedflashpast
ing their
siren lights.
I walked
past
them
and observed
from
the other
them
and
observed
from
the
other
side of the street as an ambulance
side ofdown
the street
as an ambulance
slowed
and stopped,
while a
slowed
down
and
stopped,
while a
police officer opened
a path through
police
officer
opened
a
path
through
the blockage. The ambulance parked
the
blockage.
The
ambulance
parked
between the cars and paramedics
between
the
cars
and
paramedics
emerged from its rear doors with a
emergedAfter
fromsome
its rear
doors
with a
stretcher.
five
minutes,
stretcher.
After
some
five
minutes,
someone was transported on the
someonefrom
wasthe
transported
stretcher
club into on
thethe
amstretcher
from
the
club
into
ambulance. The man was a latinothe
with
bulance.
The
man
was
a
latino
with
a shaved head who reminded me of
a shaved
head who
reminded
myself
— maybe
it was
me? —me
I of
myself
—
maybe
it
was
me?
—
even had the same tie on — didn’tI I?
even had the same tie on — didn’t I?
I turned around and continued walkI turned
continued
walking
to the around
U-bahn.and
I went
down the
ing
to
the
U-bahn.
I
went
down
the
stairs to the platform where I medistairs
to
the
platform
where
I
meditated for what felt like a long time,
tated forifwhat
felt the
likelife
a long
time,
thinking
this was
I thought
thinking
if
this
was
the
life
I
thought
I would be leading at 35, never havI would
be leading
at 35,
never
having
had made
a feature
film,
never
ing
had
made
a
feature
film,
never
having written a novel, leaving basihaving
a novel,
cally
likewritten
a teenager,
whyleaving
didn’t Ibasically
like
a
teenager,
why
didn’t
I
stay with Clare? Was my Cat,
Madstay
with
Clare?
Was
my
Cat,
Madam, my only family now? Maybe
myget
only
family
now? When
Maybe
I am,
should
a hair
implant.
I
should
get
a
hair
implant.
When
would I finally go back to Jiu-Jitsu?
would
I
finally
go
back
to
Jiu-Jitsu?
When would I learn German? Why
WhenI write
wouldmore?
I learnWhat
German?
didn’t
aboutWhy
didn’t
I
write
more?
What
about
quitting smoking? And drinking?
quitting smoking? And drinking?
What about Law school? Should I
Whattoabout
Law school? Should I
return
Rio...?
return to Rio...?
I hated how my super-ego inflated
I hateda bad
howtrip.
my super-ego
during
I was cold,inflated
and
during
a
bad
trip.
I was
and
realized that I had left
all cold,
my belongrealized
that
I
had
left
all
my
ings in the night club, so I stoodbelongup
ings
in the
night
club, so
up
and
went
back.
Leaving
theI stood
U-bahn
and
went
back.
Leaving
the
U-bahn
station and crossing the street to the
station
and see
crossing
the street
the
club
I didn’t
any sign
of the to
poclub
I
didn’t
see
any
sign
of
the
police cars or of the ambulance or even
or of
the ambulance
or even
oflice
thecars
yellow
barrier
tapes. Inside,
of
the
yellow
barrier
tapes.
Inside,
the bouncer let me in as if I had left
theminutes
bouncerago,
let me
if I had
left
five
andinI as
found
everyfive
minutes
ago,
and
I
found
everyone still dancing, the club packed as
one still
dancing,
thegirl
club
packed
before.
The
Egyptian
was
mak-as
before.
The
Egyptian
girl
was
making out with the British kid.
ing out with the British kid.
It was 2006. I packed my stuff and
It was
2006. I packed my stuff and
left
à l’anglaise...”
left à l’anglaise...”
DetailBerlin,
of installation
in Die
Raum,
2014. Photo
by
Raum,
Berlin, 2014. Photo by
Jan
Windszus.
Jan Windszus.
21
43
21
Live telephone conversation and slide show
2014
Casa da Michèle
Casa da Michèle was a live interview. I invited the artist Adaire Reeford to talk to me in the Galerie Juliette Jongma in Amsterdam, about
a film he was trying to make in Rio
de Janeiro while staying in the house
of the famous French artist Michèle
Gálvez Forst, alongside a slide-show
of photographs he had made there
while location-scouting.
As it happened, Reeford got stuck
in one of the now infamous traffic jams of the Wonderful City, as
roads are being opened and freeways
demolished while Rio gears up for
the 2016 Olympics, and he never
made it to his BA flight. Therefore
we improvised a phone conversation. When the time came and I was
alone on ‘the stage’ he didn’t pick
up the call the first time. Smiling at
the audience I made up some excuse, while my heart secretly sank. I
tried again some five minutes later,
and indeed, in this second attempt,
he was there. (I learned later that he
had tripped in the cord of the old
land line braking it, and had to find a
spare one.)
44
22
The first thing he told me over the
phone was the improbable story of
how Hitchcock came about commissioning the script for North by
Northwest to the script writer Ernest
Lehman. Hitchcock wanted Lehman
to write a script where the opening
scene took place in an UN meeting
where, say, the Danish diplomat at
the moment of his speech said: “I
will only speak when the representative of [for instance] Peru, wakes
up!”. Someone approaches the
Peruvian diplomat who seems to be
sleeping bent over his desk and finds
out that he is in fact dead. Under
his head they find a notepad where
the picture of the head of a moose
had been drawn. And then, for the
ending, Hitchcock said he wanted
a chase across Mount Rushmore
— “...always wanted that in a film.”
At a loss of how to even start writing something that would connect
such disparate points in a timeline,
Lehman decided to catch a train to
Mount Rushmore. In the way, many
incidents took place in the trip which
took a couple of days; so that by the
time he arrived to Mount Rushmore,
Top: found-photo sent in the invitation as a
portrait of Adaire Reeford. Right: performance
in Galerie Juliette Jongma, March 2014. Below:
a few moments before the performance started.
Photos by Andreea Peterfi.
PICTURE OF PERFORMANCE HELD IN GALERIE JULIETTE JONGMA, MARCH 1ST, 2014
45
23
2014
he had his script ready in his mind to
be written.
From then on, for close to an hour
Reeford told me through the phone
— which was amplified to speakers
— the reasons that lead him never
to even start filming while staying at
Michèle’s house. While the audience
heard the forking narratives, they
could concentrate in the images of
the slides that sometimes randomly
connected to what was being said.
Michèle’s house, in the vernacular of
her own work, became a hub for narratives and tales told by an artist who
is an elusive individual, someone
who creates a fictional character of
himself by weaving a fog of mystery
around him.
Transcription
But actually there never was an
Adaire Reeford, just as there has
never been a real Michèle Gálvez
Forst either. In a collaboration, the
artist Daragh Reeves — who I met
in a residency in Rio — had helped
me forge those lines (the Hitchcock
story was his idea). Later, he used
that script as a base to improvise
while speaking over the phone to me
from Berlin. The photographs were
actually of my authorship, so that is
to say that it was indeed a fictional
interview. Michèle Gálvez Forst was
a fictional character based in Dominique Gonzales-Foester who has a
real house in Rio, which a common
friend takes care, and where I stayed
for a sejour once.
I went to a wild party at Emery’s in
Belleville, Paris: at one point someone offered around some MDMA,
and when it was already dawn, we
played poker. I lost around fifty
euros, and left back home — not before behaving like a very bad loser.
Earlier in the night, I met for the first
time the artist Michèle Gálvez Forst;
this is when it was still a well behaved dinner party, from which she
left early. Michèle and I immediately
stroke up a friendship that night. We
shared a common interest in Brazil
and in Rio, and also some mutual
friends in Paris. Even our work had
some parallels, however Michèle is a
world known artist — and also older
— and I have just achieved a more
modest level of success.
SATURDAY
Image from slide
projector.
finger prints he was collecting were
most probably those of my friends
from the night before.
ONE MONTH AGO
A week after meeting her, Michèle
asked me if I wanted to fly out to her
house in Rio for New Year’s. Sure,
why not? It had been a hard winter,
and also I just had been dumped by
this girl Nina, and I felt that at least
I could go there and finish a script
I’ve been working on. So I flew out
and stayed ten days with her, and I
decided in the end to extend my stay.
She went back to Paris and left me
the keys and asked me to keep an
eye on her house renovations from
her courtyard that had slid down
the hill a couple years back due to
torrential rainfall. As it happened the
workers never showed up anymore
once she was gone.
46
24
Casa da Michèle
A week ago, someone broke through
a small window at the back of the
house that lead to the American
kitchen. Nothing was taken but the
visitor left many half finished bottles
of my booze around the house. And
also moved some furniture around,
including some beanbag seats piled
into a tower and two dining chairs
MONDAY
I woke up again to find the same
window smashed and the furniture
laid out in even more disconcerting
places and more of my booze collection drained. I wondered to myself
how come I don’t hear anything!
The new discoveries totally put me
out of the mood for working, so I
decided to try the race tracks myself.
Image from slide projector.
that were in top of the couch.
I called the police. A pair of nonchalant officers arrived and pretended
to scribble things on a notepad with
a ballpoint pen. As they’re leaving,
I asked — in my pidgin Portuguese
— why they didn’t take some finger
prints? The officers shrugged; upon
my insistence that some extra investigation be made, they called someone and then left. That evening, after
having the window fixed, I tried to
forget about this incident: there was
a French curator that I knew that
was staying in a hotel next door,
so she brought some of her friends
and I called some of my friends,
and we threw a nice dinner party in
Michèle’s house.
SUNDAY
The day after the party, I went over
to have breakfast in the hotel next
door with my friend. And the communal table I met Samuel Moses, an
American writer and academic who
had come to Rio for only one night
in order to interview the journalist
Greenstein for a biography. We had
a pleasant conversation, while wolfing down the buffet breakfast.
We talked about Greenstein, whose
columns in The Times about the
dissident NSA’s secret agent, Sutherland I had been following. He had
become persecuted himself for handling the leaked confidential NSA
files. I was surprised to discover that
Greenstein lived in Rio (my guess
is he was in hiding from the CIA).
Samuel was going to meet him in
the horse track in Gávea, a place
Greenstein loved to go.
When I returned to the house next
door, I found a short man who was
waiting for me by the gate. He had
a severe expression on his face. As
I opened the door I asked what he
wanted and he informed me that he
was a forensic specialist from the
police. He started to poor dust in
every wine glass and door handle in
the house, and took pictures. I tried
to explain to the little man that the
Once there I experienced immediate beginners’ luck. So I remained
there until evening. Each time there
would be a new race I would leave
my table on the balcony and run
downstairs where they had a type
of a cat walk for the horses. Here
the stable assistants paraded the
horses by their tethers, and after the
jockeys had being weighted, the
horses would return with the jockeys
mounted on them. That day I developed a curious gambling theory: I
observed that more often than not,
jockeys with longer noses on less
favorable horses won against high
odds. So for every race, I looked for
the most pinocchio rider. And with
this stupid method I actually turned
a profit!
TUESDAY
I woke, came into the American
kitchen, and checked for signs of
the burglar but noticed nothing. I
had not bother to fix the window so
it stood glassless. While I started to
get the morning
coffee going, I saw
by Fulano de tal
a trash bag on Photo
the kitchen
counter. It
was closed with a knot, and whatever was inside was about the size of
a melon or a football. I picked it up
and it seemed to weight around four
kilos and it was neither hard or soft.
I called the local police station — a
47
46
25
2014
tiny place in the main touristic street
of Santa Teresa. Two hours later the
patrol car arrived with two new cops
and I had to explain everything to
them from the beginning. Paying no
attention whatsoever to the trash bag
they asked if I would like to come
to the station to make a report, but
warned me that such an effort would
be worthless. As they tried leaving
I pointed out for a second time the
ominous trash bag on the kitchen
counter, to which they shrugged and
laughed saying ‘He left a gift for
you’ and left
I was left alone with the mysterious
bag on the counter. I felt it with my
hands and again could not determined what was inside. . . I took a
deep breath and dug my nails into
the plastic bag ripping it open. Inside
there was another trash bag exactly
like the one I had just ripped. Once
more I ripped into the bag and once
again I encountered another identical bag inside of that. Again I ripped
it open and same thing. I started to
rip numerous trash bags in rhythm
just to find yet another one just like
it — in total some 30 bags — until
I reached a white shopping bag from
the Mundial supermarket chain.
of the horses he circled for the next
race. I bet on his horses — Aerosol
and Mojito — as well as on Sutil
whose Jockey who hadn’t a particular long nose, but had the longest. It
was a close call with a photo-finish.
Sutil won by a nose!
I cashed in my humble winnings and
I tried to approach the man to invite
him for a drink. As soon as he saw
me coming, he left to the popular
stand area. Somehow I scared him
off. Later, also because I never been
to the other side, and because his
flight sparkled my curiosity further,
I too crossed over to the popular
seats leaving behind the area where
only properly dressed members
are admitted, protected by security.
Although the popular area was also
a beautifully conserved building
from the 1920s, it felt like entering
another world.
Here instead of seeing old retired
gentlemen with their binoculars or
fat rich nouveaux riches sipping
their Martinis, were battered gamblers in wretched surf shorts and
Havaiana flip-flops. A long haired
Indian with blood shot eyes almost
The Party
bumped into me while crumpling his
race sheet into a tiny ball, shouting
an unpleasant curse in Portuguese.
I saw the man I imagined could be
Greenstein talking with a scruffy
looking man in a wheelchair that
was being pushed by a middle-aged
mulata, who you could tell that in
better years had been a beauty and
that regardless of her sagging face,
still possessed considerable sex-appeal. The ‘French-Greenstein’ saw
me across the room and quickly
whispered something before taking his leave. I ran towards him but
I was stopped by the mulata who
expertly hooked one of her arms
around my left elbow and fixed me
with her seductive smile, hypnotizing me with such charm that I forgot
about the man for a moment. Once
I had disentangled myself from the
mulata, the man was gone.
WEDNESDAY
Next day, I had my first actual
encounter with the burglar. I was
returning from the beach, wearing espadrilles and shades, when I
saw him climbing the wall that ran
At this point I could tell that it was
probably not a body part. That
soothed me and encourage me to
open the final bag. This one I did not
rip open, but slowly untied the knot.
Inside the blender that usually sat by
the sink in the kitchen. Incredulous,
I looked to the sink and indeed the
blender was not there.
That day I went back to the Jockey
Club. As I stood there waiting for a
race to start, I spotted a handsome
man, casually, yet, elegantly dressed.
He was sitting near to where I stood
and was checking his race sheet.
I thought he might be Greenstein,
even though he looked way more
French than American. I positioned
myself behind him and took note
48
26
around Michèle’s house. He also
saw me and froze while sitting on
the top of the wall, holding a trash
bag that was probably full of my
stuff. He was very thin, dark, and
wore a disheveled shirt which in
bold letters read ‘Búzios’. This very
strong territorial instinct took over
me and I started shouting to him
Hey! What’re you doing there!? Get
out! He remained impassive. After
a minute or two, I ran inside the
house’s ground to get closer to him;
by which time he was gone.
Inside the house I received a text
from a friend that invited me to
participate in a demonstration. It was
true Carioca fashion to notify me of
such thing on the last minute, but I
ran from Michèle’s house loading
my small camera on the way. A bus
took me by surprise as I was hurrying down the slope, it came speeding
off a blind curve, pushing me backwards to the ground.
I hit my head against the sidewalk
and fell unconscious.
I woke up with a circle of heads
staring down at me. They seemed
surprised when I opened my eyes.
Curses coming from somewhere
made me sit up, irritating a doctor
who apparently had come out of
her SUV to help me. Ignoring her, I
saw that the bus had stopped some
30 feet away; its driver was one of
the people surrounding me; and the
passengers were furious, demanding
the driver to return to the bus and
resume their journey.
For everybody’s astonishment, I
stood up to leave. I was tired of waiting for the ambulance, it was Friday
evening, and there was an opening
and a party I wanted to attend. I
would certainly miss if I ended up
in a Brazilian hospital waiting for
hours in line. The doctor grabbed me
by the arm, but I shrugged her off,
saying Tá tudo bem, even though my
head was throbbing madly. I left the
small crowd behind, to the applause
of the bus’ passengers, and walked
back up the hill, towards Michèle’s
house.
In the house I took note of my
wounds. I felt like I had just been
beaten up by a mob. Something
similar could have happened to my
body, had I gone to the demonstration in the end, as the police were
been reported to have acted brutally.
I took ice packs from the freezer
and wrapped around my body with
plastic bags and cloths. I balanced
the biggest one on my head like one
of those ladies from Bahia who sell
coconut couscous on the beach.
I had made an appointment with
some guests from the hotel next
door, whom I had met during breakfast, to go to the opening and the
party. I decided that would do me
good to ignore my pains and continue as planned. I greeted everyone
and explained what had happened.
They were completely appalled
— more because I insisted in going than what had happened to me.
Luckily one of them, a Greek, was
a doctor. He quickly examined me
looking at my pupils and asked me
if I felt any dizziness and discharged
me as good to go. . .we caught a big
cab.
Driving down the hill towards
Glória, the car began to fill with a
terrible stench. One of our companions, a husky old Scottish filmmaker,
asked the driver if he was carrying
a dead body in the trunk. That’s
when I remembered seeing some old
frozen fish laying in the freezer that
I took the ice packs out of. By the
time we arrived at the opening I had
to confess that it was me who was
causing the stench. When we arrived
my new friends helped me dispose
of the ice packsDetail
in some
drains.
of installation
At the opening, which was held in a
large old apartment I went directly
to the bathroom so that I could wash
myself in the sink — the stench
was unbearable. Afterwards I took a
shower with all the perfume bottles
I could find: Infinity, L’Homme,
L’Odyssée, Cinéma, Channel Nº5...
Doused in this cocktail of fragrance,
27
49
The Party
2014
I would still had to keep my distance
from the friends and acquaintances
that I met there.
After a while we went to another
opening, which was more like a
street party organized by a famous
Brazilian artist for the gallery. By
then my doctor friend allowed me to
take painkillers and to drink. Happy
to be still alive, I danced like there
was no tomorrow. I had my best suit
on which attracted a lot of attention
attenin
a city
its citizens
wearwear
fliption
in a where
city where
its citizens
flops
most
of
the
time.
A
beautiful
flip-flops most of the time. A beautigirl,
I knew
from
a residency
I had
ful girl
I knew
from
the residency,
done
in
Rio
a
few
years
ago,
called
Miriam, made eye contact with me
Miriam,
made eye contact with me
on the side-walk-cum-dance-floor.
on
the
side-walk-cum-dance-floor.
I approached her and we danced. AtI
approached
her and
we danced.
At
some point they
played
a slow song
some
point
they
played
a
slow
song
and I tried to dance close to her, but
and
I tried
dance close
to her,
she left
andtodisappear
in the
crowd.
but she left and disappeared in the
crowd.
I looked for her and soon found
her with her husband. Transfixed
I looked
her and
soon
foundShe
stoppedfor
dancing
and
waved.
her
with
her
husband.
Transfixed
blushed and even covered her mouth
Iwith
stopped
dancing
and waved. She
her hand
in embarrassment
or
blushed
and
even
covered
her that
mouth
shyness. I had the impression
with
her handkept
in embarrassment
or
her husband
looking at me for
shyness.
I
had
the
impression
that
the rest of the party.
her husband kept looking at me for
the
rest of the party.
THURSDAY
THURSDAY
I was laying by the pool which was
very dirty because since I got there
Ithe
was
laying
theworking.
pool which
was
pump
wasbynot
João,
the
very
dirty
because
since
I
got
there
caretaker, came by to take the pump
the
pump
was
working.
the
to the
shop.
Henot
showed
me aJoão,
photo
caretaker,
came
by
to
take
the
pump
on his cell phone that he had taken
to
theashop.
He showed
meburglar
a photo
from
TV screen
with the
on his
cell
phone
that
he
had
taken
it. He had finally been captured
from
a
TV
screen
with
the
burglar
by the police, when he had tried to
on
it. He
finally
beenApparently
captured
brake
in ahad
nearby
house.
by
the
police,
when
he
had
triedbytoa
he had been bitten in his groin
brake
in
a
nearby
house.
Apparently
watchdog that wouldn’t let him go.
he
had been
bitten
his groin by
Because
of my
badinPortuguese,
I a
watchdog
that
wouldn’t
let
him
go.
hadn’t followed the news, but apparBecause
of my
badbraking
Portuguese,
I
ently he had
been
in many
hadn’t
followed
the
news,
but
apparhouses of Santa Teresa, primarily to
ently
he had been breaking in many
steal alcohol.
houses of Santa Teresa, primarily to
steal
To myalcohol.
surprise, a couple of hours
later, I was invited by the two first
50
28
To my agents
surprise,
couple
of hours
police
to acome
to the
central
later, I station
was invited
by the
first
police
in Glória
to two
identify
police
agents
to come
to the
central
the
thief.
For some
crazy
bureaupolicereason
stationthey
in Glória
to identify
cratic
need eye
witthe thief.
bureaunesses
forFor
himsome
to beinsane
charged.
So
cratic reason
theythere
needed
wityesterday
I went
andeye
immedinessesinfor
to be
charged.
So
ately
thehim
lobby
I was
confronted
yesterday
I went
andexpression
immediwith
the kid
with there
a blank
ately inbeside
the lobby
I wasmother
confronted
sitting
his poor
who
withcrying.
the kid They
with atake
blank
was
meexpression
to a dark
sittingwith
beside
his poor
mother
who
room
two-way
glass
and the
was comes
crying.all
They
meThe
to acops
dark
kid
benttook
over.
roomjust
withsaw
two-way
glass at
and
thein
who
me looking
him
kid lobby
came in
bent
over.
the
askallme
if he
wasThe
thecops
man.
meactually
lookingunsure.
at him in
Iwho
say just
thatsaw
I was
the lobby ask
he wasout
theof
man.
Moments
later,me
heifwalked
the
I say that
I was
station
with
his actually
mother aunsure.
bit ahead
Moments
he walked out of the
of
me intolater,
the sun.
station with his mother a bit ahead
of me into the sun.*
I went then to take a stroll.
Flamego
I was eating an açai in Flamengo
when I saw the same man, the
‘French-Greenstein’, crossing a
street light. I quickly paid without
finishing my expensive açai bowl —
I was
standing
in the
bestbest
place
in
—
I was
standing
in the
place
town
forfor
açais
——
I ran
in in
hishis
direcin
town
açais
I ran
tion. I hadIintended
to slow
down
direction.
had intended
to slow
once Ionce
was about
50 feet50away
down
I was about
feet from
away
him, but
hadheunexpectely
stopped
from
him,hebut
had unexpectto look
at a newspaper
by a
edly
stopped
to look at hanging
a newspaper
news-stand
then intuitively
turnhanging
by aand
news-stand
and then
ed towardsturned
me. I stopped
myI
intuitively
towardsinme.
tracks, and
he started
run.
destopped
in my
tracks, to
and
he Istarted
cided
pursue him;
thinking
if I
to
run.toI decided
to pursue
him;
caught him
could exthatexI
thinking
if IIcaught
himplain
I could
meantthat
no harm.
plain
I meant no harm.
He ran into a metro station and I followed. Distracted,
I boarded
thethe
followed.
Distracted,
I boarded
carriage I thought he was in. When
the doors shut behind me, I saw that
I was mistaken — it was someone
else with a white shirt. However,
seated just 15 feet away was an exgirlfriend, called
Clare.
SheShe
waswas
ex-girlfriend,
called
Clare.
wearing a formal working dress. She
still looked beautiful. I had last seen
her in
Brussels
yearsI before.
She
still
lookedmany
beautiful.
had last
Things
endedmany
well between
seen
herhadn’t
in Brussels
years
me and Things
her, so Ihadn’t
decideended
to pretend
before.
well
I hadn’t seen
her.her,
After
minute,
between
me and
so aI decided
Clare
stoodI hadn’t
up andseen
furiousap- a
to
pretend
her. ly
After
proachedClare
me, You
really
didn’t
see
minute,
stood
up and
furiousmeapproached
or are you me,
ignoring
me!? Ididn’t
was
ly
You really
ignoring
After
an instant
of I
see
me oryou.
are you
ignoring
me!?
silence
she offered
a large
was
ignoring
you. After
an spurious
instant of
smile which
she maintained
for the
silence
she offered
a large spurious
rest ofwhich
the conversation.
Shefor
toldtheme
smile
she maintained
that of
shethe
had
been sober for
rest
conversation.
Shealmost
told me
yearshe
andhad
thatbeen
she worked
shitty job
that
sober fora almost
in a hotel
in Copacabana.
year
and that
she worked a shitty job
in a hotel in Copacabana.
Our entire conversation lasted only
the span
a subway stop
but itonly
felt
Our
entireofconversation
lasted
endless.
I excused
myself
and itleft
the
span of
a subway
stop but
felt
the trainIinexcused
the nextmyself
station,
with
endless.
and
left
great
relief
even
though
wasgreat
not
the
train
in the
next
stop,itwith
the right
one.
relief
even
though it was not my
stop.
I got an e-mail from Miriam inviting
Natural
History
Museum
Ime
gottoanthe
e-mail
from
Miriam
inviting
thattoafternoon.
It was
an extremely
me
the Natural
History
Museum
hot day.
The museum
was
inside a
that
afternoon.
It was an
extremely
desolated
park
in the North
Zoneaof
hot
day. The
museum
was inside
the city. We
both
walked
down
desolated
park
in the
North
Zonetheof
spacious
hallways
of the down
colonial
the
city. We
both walked
the
building,hallways
trying to of
pretend
that we
spacious
the colonial
were theretrying
only to
to pretend
admire the
building,
thatmuwe
seum’s
collection.
She hadthe
brought
were
there
only to admire
mualong an
old Pentax
camera
— probseum’s
collection.
She
had brought
ably toanimpress
me the
romantic
along
old Pentax
camera
— probnostalgic.
ably
to impress me the romantic
nostalgic.
What was supposed to be a romantic
encounter,
began having
eerie
What
was supposed
to bean
a romantic
feel to it; every
wean
entered
encounter,
beganroom
having
eerie feel
there
were either
a mummy,
or an
to
it; every
room we
entered there
skeleton
or even
preserved
fetuses.
were
corpses.
It felt
like a warm
It felt like
a warm humid morgue.
humid
morgue.
Looking at
at aa display
display of
of tribal
tribal weapweapLooking
ons, II told
told her
her about
about some
some essay
essay II
ons,
had once
once read,
read, that
that stated
stated that
that the
the
had
main difference
difference between
between human’s
human’s
main
of installation
and animals
animals is
is Detail
that because
because
of our
our
and
that
of
intelligence, we
we have
have memory
memory and
and
intelligence,
foresight, while
while animals
animals only
only think
think
foresight,
about the
the present.
present. The
The unfortunate
unfortunate
about
example II gave
gave her
her was
was the
the folfollowexample
ing: when
twotwo
males
dispute
a felowing:
when
males
dispute
in the
animal
kingdom,
nothing
amale
female
in the
animal
kingdom,
stops thestops
looser
trying
at
nothing
thefrom
looser
fromagain
trying
a laterattime.
Humans,
on the other
again
a later
time. Humans,
on
hand,
simply
the
other
handby
byremembering
rememberingpast
past
disputes can predict that the threat
that of an opponent posed is a constant. In response he takes a more
practical approach and eliminates
the opponent there and then to avoid
any similar problems in the future.
The argument concludes intelligence
has the effect of heightening man’s
viciousness. By developing tools and
technology man extends and refines
his propensity for violence against
his own kind. Miriam stared at me
blankly.
We continued to wander around
those monumental halls filled with
death. I caught sight her olive green
eyes with their long curvy lashes that
seemed to want to devour me like
two carnivorous plants.
At some point she focused her attention on a vitrine displaying a
collection of tiny Greek sculptures
about the size of fingers — she
photographed these figures with her
BlackBerry, completely neglecting
her Pentax camera that hung from
her neck like an oversized amulet.
We left the museum in a daze. The
reddish earth soil of the park that
surrounded the museum’s palace was
baking. Everything at a distance was
out of focus behind a transparent
haze. We zigzagged towards one the
of the park’s entrances, while drops
of sweat stung our eyes and our wet
flesh shone in the fiery sun. Honestly
I was at a loss as what to do; the
whole salaciousness of this adulterous encounter both repelled and attracted me. Physically it seemed unfathomable to do anything — I was
sure that the moment I would touch
her in the heat, she would combust
spontaneously into a ball of fire.
Finally, she stopped by the canal that
crossed the park, as if admiring her
reflection in the water lifting her hair
from her neck to make a ponytail.
This was my cue. I held her waist
and pulled her towards me. Drops
of sweat rolled down our faces and
mixed in our lips. She pulled me
away, without showing any expression on her face. We left the park
and got in a cab.
FRIDAY
Just last night, I went to one of my
favorite bars in Rio to read a book
which I had bought in Shakespeare
& Co in Saint-German a long time
ago. Originally this book totaled
1100 pages plus, but because I found
it too cumbersome to carry around
with me I used a big paper cropper to guillotine this copy into the
original 5 volumes — just like the
author had actually desired in his
deathbed. I then proceed to read the
volumes in a random order which
made perfect sense for that novel
which was anyway a constellation of
stories that silhouetted a mysterious
center.
On the way back from the bar I
walked on the top of a steep motorway that cuts through a large rock.
It is considered dangerous because
if one encounters an assailant there
you are as trapped as if it were a
tunnel. There I ran into Clare again;
she was probably on her way to her
parents who live nearby. At first
she was scared that I would rape or
murder her, but once she recognized
me we hugged.
We went then back to the bar and she
told me this bizarre story that earlier
that day, someone had jumped out
of window from the hotel she works
in. It was a Frenchman that had
shown up there a few times before.
He had visited the hotel many times
on the last weeks — for a few hours
each time. On this occasion Clare’s
colleague had refused him a room,
sensing that something was out of
place. But the man insisted emphatically putting all the money on the
counter as if spreading out cards in
a game. Later on from his room he
called down to reception and asked
to talk to Clare. Clare had been the
only one who had ever been remotely friendly to him. But for some
reason whoever was there told him
that she was busy. Within moments,
there was a big commotion outside
on the street. The Frenchman had
leapt from the window.
Image from slide projector
29
51
Text printed into an A3 and folded into an A5
2014
Pareciam ser d e u m c i n z a
translúcido
For my fourth solo show in the
Dutch gallery Galerie Juliette
Jongma, with the same title in Portuguese (They Seemed Made Of A
Translucent Grey), I appropriated the
convention of the Press Release and
wrote for it a short story which was
printed in an A3 and then folded in
the middle twice, acquiring the size
equivalent to a novel. The narrative is a fiction loosely based in a
trip I did to Antwerp for a meeting
with curators, that culminated in an
absurdly (and premature) large retrospective, when I was barely 26 years
old; it received many luke-warm
reviews. The title doesn’t directly
corresponds to the text, it was actually rather arbitrarily ripped from
a dialogue from one of the films
— Lucas — that was being shown in
the exhibition in Amsterdam, which
deals with the notion of idiosyncrasy
and randomness in language and its
latent poetic potential.
To download pdf of press-release
please press here.
Transcription
Clare was in Amsterdam for two
weeks in order to do an admission
interview for the local art academy.
After the interview, while waiting
for the verdict, she was hanging
out and getting to know the town,
considering to move there next year.
Immediately during her wanderings
around the canals, that in her world
meant lots of bars separated by
bridges, she made up her mind: she
detested Amsterdam. She couldn’t
care less for all the ancient buildings which she considered tacky, or
the bicycles which she perceived
as noiseless stealthy vehicles that
would sneak up behind her, and suddenly ring nigglingly, making her
jump sideways in panic.
I decided to relieve her from her suffering by offering her to come along
to Antwerp for a day. I was going
there with a six foot six tall curator
friend, who had recently hosted my
first solo exhibition, called Alexander, for a meeting with a curator couple who had seen the show and were
Press Release Pareciam ser
de um cinza translúcido.
52
30
53
31
2014
Pareciam ser de um cinza translúcido
interested in organizing something
with me. As it happened, Alexander
was going to visit a nihilist sculptor
who lived close to the border of Belgium; since the curator couple were
supposed to be friends of his, and
being proud of all the feedback that
the show was receiving, he offered
to take me to Antwerp in his car.
During the three hour trip from
Amsterdam to Antwerp, Clare
sat quietly in the back, wearing
her sunglasses, looking out of the
window with a slight melancholic
disposition; she always bore a certain resigned air, as if she just went
through a midlife crisis at age 21 and
decided that all her dreams were far
too remote already, something of a
youthful immature fantasy that were
better forgotten; there was nothing
to do now but drink and wait for the
unavoidable end. I must confess that
the mixture of her irrefutable beauty
and this fatalism made her completely irresistible to me.
Once we arrived in the space in
Antwerp, the reception of the couple
towards Alexander was very cold.
It became clear that it had been a
mistake to come with him, and that
they would have been much happier to have me alone to talk shop
in private; through the course of the
afternoon they made clear that they
despised Alexander, or any Dutch
for that matter, who they appreciated
as complete philistines. Also, Clare’s
presence disturbed the woman who,
very beautiful herself, was bothered
by a younger female in her presence.
Despite the awkwardness — they
treated me very nicely, regardless
— we went to the new space, which
they planned to use temporarily for
a huge solo show with me. It was a
gigantic former city administration
hall, in the city center.
When we went inside the building, Clare decided to go for a walk,
having agreed to meet us back there
54
32
two hours later. After having looked
at the space, all very excited, imagining where every piece would be
installed, including Alexander who
seemed completely aloof of their
hostility towards him, we went outside. There was no sign of Clare.
We talked a bit more on the street in
front of the former administration
building and after a while the couple
went away and Alexander and I
waited for as long as an hour, but
still no sign of Clare. Clearly she had
gotten lost. Alexander needed to go
to his appointment with the nihilistic
sculptor, and in his cold calvinistic
reasoning he told me to not worry
that Clare would find her way back
to Amsterdam.
She’s from Rio. She’ll be alright.
There was no way that I would let
the sister of my best friend behind
in a strange town, so I protested and
asked him to drive me around the
city to try and find her.
Let the sculptor wait, Alexander.
You’re the curator!
We got into his car and drove around
for an hour around the center, but we
couldn’t find her. We returned to the
entrance of the register hall. Alexander said he was going to Holland
with or without me.
I’m going to work with this artist, I
can’t delay any longer.
Before he went, I asked if I could
use his phone to call her family in
Rio in case she called them for help.
Her brother, Barros, answered and
became furious in a fit of incoherent
paranoia, as if I had kidnapped Clare
and would certainly rape and mangle
her body at some point. Then the
mother took the phone over from
him and was also a bit apprehensive, but more reasonable. I assured
them that I would find her and that
Antwerp, compared to Rio, was like
Disneyland — no harm could come
Clare’s way.
It was getting dark. As soon as Alexander left me behind, I came to the
conclusion that the only course to
be taken was to try and walk in the
same random way that she would,
trying not to think too much, just
like a tourist, and eventually our
paths would cross. I started wandering aimlessly through the narrow
cobble-stoned streets of that medieval city, letting myself be drawn
by an invisible tide, as if I was
swimming in one of the many arms
of a huge river that would snake
towards the main body of water.
After five minutes, I ended up in the
main pedestrian shopping avenue,
called Meir. I must not have walked
more than about a dozen paces then,
before I spotted Clare walking towards me. She opened her arms and
hugged me drowsily like a drunken
seaman who had been lost at open
sea in a small rowing boat with a
bottle of rum.
Oh, you found me! You found me...!
The first thing we did was look for
a bar with a pay phone, in order
for her to call her family and her
boyfriend Paulo. After she calmed
everyone down, we had some drinks,
and we went to the main train station. We found out we had just
missed the last train to Amsterdam.
We now had to find a hotel, and
the thought of possibly staying in
the same room with Clare really
pleased me. But we needed to eat
something first, so we went to a chic
local restaurant that we spotted by a
square. It was full, so we had to wait
installation
at the bar for a Detail
table.ofClare
ordered
a Duvel, and fell over backwards as
soon as she tried to sit on a stool.
It was somehow a graceful fall; I
remember staring at her, our eyes
locking, and then, almost imperceptibly, she rocked backwards, away
from me very slowly, steadily like
in slow-motion, until she was on the
floor on her back, resting there for a
few moments holding her beer, stool
and all, as if sitting horizontally on
the floor.
Everybody in the restaurant was
very attentive and kind, helping Clare stand up. She acted as
if nothing had happened, her beer
unscathed in her hand, just smiling
and quickly drinking while I paid. I
took her arm and walked her outside
feeling completely embarrassed.
We ate pizza in a random Turkish
place, and went off to find a hotel;
Clare was completely sedated by
now and couldn’t even finish her
slice. There was a decent looking
place in a corner, and we booked a
room with two beds.
and a cloud of steam, a soapy fragrance filling the air, as I pretended
to read a book. I decided to take a
shower myself; when I came out she
was already deep in alcoholic slumber in the other bed. I tried to go to
sleep in my own bed, but my Carioca macho super ego wouldn’t let
me, so I got up and tried to get under
Clare’s blanket. Without opening
her eyes, she pushed me away, and
kicked me back to my own bed.
The next day, we decided to not
pay for the room, and tried to sneak
past the reception desk, but we were
caught.”
While Clare was taking a shower
I sat on my bed feeling the excitement build up, thinking about how
we stared at each other in the restaurant and imagining her soaping her
body — despite some small nagging feelings of guilt towards Paulo.
The sound of the shower ceased,
and suddenly there was a very loud
thud coming from the bathroom.
I knocked on the door and called
her name but there was no answer.
There was an unsettling silence
and I tried to open the door, but of
course it was locked from inside.
I grabbed the room’s phone and
waited for the receptionist to answer, hoping he could come up with
a master key, imagining Clare lying
with her skull open on the bathroom
floor, after drunkenly slipping on
the wet tiles. How could I possibly
break that news to Barros? I could
never go back to Rio again.
When the receptionist picked up the
phone I hung up; I thought: maybe I
should just leave, they’ll never find
me, we didn’t need to show our IDs.
Then all of a sudden, a loud series of
giggles started echoing from under
the door crack.
She came out wrapped in two towels
55
33
2013
35
57
Mp3 file being played mono on speaker, 15’ loop
2013
58
36
Lucas Goes to Church
One of the venues of the 2013
Contour Biennialof the MovingImage, in Mechelen, was a church,
for which I made an audio piece
installed inside a confessional — in
the kneeler’s side. The visitor would
sit in the priest’s compartment and
hear the story narrated (and interpreted) by the artist Daragh Reeves
through the screen that gives into
the kneeler. The audio is based on
a previous film of mine also called
Lucas which dealt with a story of
a tourist who accidentally enters a
covert brothel in the heart of downtown Buenos Aires. From then on
the character is confronted with his
doubts regarding fantasy and reality and his innermost desires. It’s
largely inspired by a book by Julio
Cortázar, Un Tal Lucas (A Certain
Lucas), which can be either interpreted as an incoherent, yet poetical,
novel, or a fictionalized diary, or a
collection of short stories. Although
this story is also thinly based on a
real incident, many parts were appropriated from this Cortázar book
along other writings of his. The main
theme here is subjectivity and idiosyncrasy of language; the thin line
between autism and poetry.
fragment of the story
To hear
hear aaudio-file
storyinterpreted by by
Daragh
Reeves,
please
interpreted
Daragh
Reeves,
press here.
codeThe
is “Church”.
please
pressThe
here.
code is
“Lucas”.
Above: Detail of
installation in
confessioner’s cell.
Left: Installation in
situ in Mechelen’s
Church. Photos by
Kristof Vrancken.
59
37
Transcription
So I wanna tell you about this one
time in Buenos Aires and I’m at the
Cordoba avenue — a very big place
— very hot afternoon and the streets
are very crowded with office workers, tourists; it’s pretty crazy. And
I’m totally dying for the toilet — I
really need a piss and there are lots
of packed out cafés around and they
just seem not the right place. But then
this one place in the corner: had these
white curtains on them. A very fancy
looking little French bistro called ‘Orleans’. So I headed over there, ‘cause it
looked quiet too, and opened the door
and as I opened the door all this whole
row of girls that were sitting on stools
just looked up and stared over at me,
very welcomely. Door closes behind
me and I realize:’Oh shit, uh... this
place is probably not just a French bistro. And huh...it also got this general
fakey feel like, uh — well I can’t tell
if it’s a really old nice bistro café? Or a
kind of kitschy uh nouveau version. So
ah, so I’m dying for the toilet otherwise I would probably just immediately leave. I head over in direction
of the girls... looking for the toilet.
There’s hardly anybody in there
except a couple that looked like tourists, like, similarly lost people who
also found this place and they are
having a drink. And so I head past
the girls — all these girls by the way
are drinking water, which adds the
impression of something strange...
and also I quickly realize they’re
not—like as a group they seem very
like a lot of pretty girls but actually
they’re a sort of sad women with
a couple of young nicer ones in
the middle of them. So all of them
are staring at me, and I’m walking
across, the cafe towards this toilet
and I just stare at the floor—it’s just
too much and I reach this staircase
where I think the toilets are. And I
quickly order a coffee from this very
traditionally dressed waiter who’s
also...smiling at me weirdly and he’s
holding a shiny tray under his arm.
So I order this cortado, head down
60
38
Lucas
2013
the stairs and I’m imagining what’s
going to greet me down the stairs.
I’m imagining an orgy of some kind
happening down there, I formed this
impression of this salacious atmosphere and impression that all the
action is happening downstairs. I’m
imagining clients in ripped clothes
coming out of the toilet booths and
all these giggles and all these strange
things happening down there. And
I’m also half hoping that...one of the
girls is gonna follow me downstairs.
At the same time I’ve just gone
down there to have a piss.
So, I arrive to the toilet and nothing
is going on whatsoever; it’s a completely, completely normal bathroom
and in fact ah, it’s very clean, very
nice, one of the cleanest toilets I’ve
seen in the whole time I’ve been in
Buenos Aires. And so I take a leak
in this art nouveau pissoir. And I
start washing my hands afterwards
and ah...while I’m in that funny
world I look at my reflection on the
mirror. And this strange thing happens, this dreamy thing happens. I
start to doubt that I’m real and .that
my reflection seems like me and I
feel like my reflection. And is this
feeling that’s similar to when you’re
actually having a dream and you
realize while you having that dream
that you’re dreaming. Which gives
you this funny sense of control. At
the same time you’re absolutely not
in control of what presumably will
unfold in the dream.
Then I snap out of it and I get
back upstairs. When I re-enter the
restaurant, it’s like a whole new
place. Nobody’s looking at me
anymore...And even the people have
changed—there’s two new guys,
they’re wearing suits, businessmen.
And they’re at the counter ordering
drinks. I sit down to take my coffee,
I watch them choose where they’re
gonna sit. And they pick very wisely
the table with the youngest prettiest girls. There aren’t too many
nice girls but they quickly identify
them and they go over and sit by
the window. And I’m thinking that
was...I’m kind if admiring their,
ah...clear headiness. And I’m sitting
there with my coffee in a random
corner next to these tourists who
are...at first I guessed to be Germans
because they were drinking massive
beers and it was one o’clock. And
they were blond. So...just as I was
starting to feel a little bit lonely and
missing this attention from all these
women, the tourists made some
comment and we started talking and
we started joking a little bit about
how weird the cafe was. They were
not Germans. They were actually
Australians. And the weird thing
is that, they were there for skiing.
They had flown all this way to go
skiing in what is the equivalent of
the alps but in Argentina. And we
ended up getting completely drunk
together and while we were getting
along really well, I noticed that the
guy in the couple — he was an older
guy, around fifty — he has in the
inside of his arm, he has this quite
ugly tattoo of a kangaroo. So I asked
him, what is the story behind the
tattoo? And he tells me, he explains
that back in Australia, many years,
he was still a postal worker but
when he first began he was doing a
lot of work delivering packages in
the country side. And the road was
barricaded by a motorbike gang
who were hijacking people. So they
manage to stop his car and they are
all armed with cricket bats and it’s
a very scary situation but strangely
enough, prior to this road block, the
guy had hit, uh, a kangaroo in the
middle of the road
and feeling very
by Fulano de tal
sorry for it andPhoto
believing
he could
still save the kangaroo’s life he put
the kangaroo in the front seat of his
car. So when this road block happened and these muggers started
surrounding his car: One of them
flashes a light in his car and shines
up the dying kangaroo which completely throws the muggers which
means the post-office guy could just
quickly speed off.
So he got out of this very dangerous
situation because of the kangaroo
and that’s why he got the tattoo as
like a ‘thank god for kangaroos’
emblem.
So he’s telling me this story and
when in their drunkenness and our
drunkenness they decide they need
to go off and find a particular snack
that’s available in Argentina.
So they suddenly leave and I’m left
behind in the weird bistro place,
alone, drunk and not actually knowing what happened to the kangaroo.
And at that moment I notice this
really pretty girl behind a column
and guess she must have been hidden the whole time. She’s got this
very different atmosphere to the
others. She’s not looking over at me
but she knows I’m there and I think
she knows I know she’s there. And
she immediately reminds me of this
photograph of Clarice Lispector who
was a writer who this ex-girlfriend
of mine very pretentiously, I have to
say, used to use as an image on her
Facebook. Its one of these pictures
where she is just looking perfect and
about to utter something very witty.
And this girl has that same atmosphere like she’s not just ah a pretty
face, she’s got some power.
I was folding and refolding this
napkin, unconsciously and when I
realized it reminded me of this thing
I had once read in a novel, where the
novelist equates hesitation in life to
an image - and the image he came
up with is as if while reading a novel
you fold the next page of the novel
and therefore you never know what
happens. In other words if you don’t
do it’s basically like ripping a page
out of a book.
So I spontaneously get inspired to
go and sit down next to the girl. So I
sit next to the girl and she just starts
speaking to me. She starts telling
me this story. And the story is that
her colleague. I think it was her boss
or her colleague I don’t remember,
but this guy had completely fallen
in love with her, declared his love
and had left his wife and that morning had told this girl that he had left
his wife and wanted to be with her.
But this issue was that they hadn’t
actually formed any kind of relationship, it was all in his own mind. So
she had had this awkward day and
she asked me for advice, ‘What shall
I do?’.
And I was in no fit state to advise
and also a little bit wrapped up in
her beauty so I just didn’t know
what to say so I tried to change the
subject and uhmmmmm mumbled
something about Montevideo and
my impressions of it and found myself trying to fill the space with this
garbled, difficult to listen to memory
of the time I’d first been to Montevideo with my Brazilian grandmother
as a kid, which was the last time. It
was many years and and how it was
a very different city and because that
was so long ago, it was a childhood
memory but the thing I remember
was this crazy poem, I don’t know
why I told her all this, it came out
very strange, like we were eating
chocolate cake in this one place that
I remembered, there was cigarette
smoke wafting around. We were
dipping the chocolate cake into this
very technicoloured orange juice.
Obviously she had no interest in this
story because her mind was full of
this issue with the guy. there was
nothing you could say to it anyway,
so she excused her self and left the
table, and I’m left alone there again.
And she goes off through a door and
when she comes back through the
door she doesn’t come back over to
talk to me she just starts talking to
this old guy at the bar. and this kind
of em inflames my jealousy a little
bit.
So I‘m sitting there, feeling jealous,
and frustrated, I’m drunk, I don’t
know what the place is, I start fiddling with this sugar cube and I lose
control of it and it just skids across
the room. And for some reason I was
very focussed on the sugar cube and
so I go to it, I kind of em raise out of
my seat to just go over to retrieve it
but the waiter is crossing the room
to give the business guys their check
and he kicks the sugar cube across
into the other corner of the bistro in
the direction of most of the girls but
I’m like em, I’m like a dog, just focused on the sugar cube and I think
its gone under this table where another very nice, beautiful girl who’s
in there, who’s got this unbelievably
long legs stretched out under the table and I really remember her tights,
these semi transparent nylon tights.
So I just dive straight under the table
through her legs actually or past her
legs and I’m trying to grab at this
sugar cube, but no one knows I’m
after a sugar cube, maybe they think
its money, but I’m obviously focused
on something and while I’m down
there I get completely entangled in
the girls legs and she starts squeezing me with her legs and laughing
and my neck is completely jammed
between her thighs like a nutcracker
and she’s laughing and at a certain
point it got very sensual and I had
this very strong sense of being close
to the sea like at the presence of a
large body of salty water.
And when my head is between
her thighs, I start to think of the
first time I saw...Rio de La Plata.
Through a taxi window. And first
I thought it was a mirage. Like a
frozen ocean. And it looked like...
a painted backdrop of an old film.
Poorly painted, too flat, without any
trompe l’oeil.
61
39
12 post-cards 12 post-cards
12 post-cards
2013
2013
Nima
Nima
2013
Nima
In collaboration with curator
Transcription.
Jacob Fabricius, I designed twelve
with curator
In collaboration
with
postcards
thatcurator
tell a storyInforcollaboration
the Transcription.
“Everybody
somebody’s Transcription.
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40
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41
63
41
Nima
I hadn’t seem Nima for many
years and then, the other day,
still bearing a heavy heart, I ran
into him in Berlin. I first got to
know him through an ex-girlfriend — she and her identical
twin were Nima’s best friends.
I got closer to him when we joined
the same class to study photography
at art school. It was there I learned
about his background. Basically he
came from a family of criminals, although his parents had adjusted to a
normal life since moving to Holland
from Turkey where they had lived
many years. There they had worked
as ‘mules’ taking drugs into Europe.
I should mention that neither Nima
or his sister were criminals — at
least not full time. He is the youngest of four brothers, and back then,
the other three were all in prison,
each for committing a different
crime.
His eldest brother, like their parents, had already ‘retired’ . He ran a
legit business but was convicted of
attempted murder after shooting a
cop with a shotgun. He had taken up
hunting as a hobby and would often
go to the woods in Belgium to kill
game. One time he was cleaning his
double-barrel Ithaca when a neighbour saw him through the window
and called the police, an ‘Arab’ with
a gun seeming suspicious to him.
Well, this brother was taking a nap
on the couch after cleaning the
weapon, just before going on his
hunting trip,when he was woken
with a start by a team of armed
men breaking down his door. As an
instinctive reflex he rolled off his
couch onto to the floor, grabbed the
shotgun that he had leaned nearby
and fired it at the first man that
entered the room. When he saw the
policeman flying out of his house
(like the coffee cans he used for
target practice in the woods) he realized he wasn’t dreaming. Luckily
the officer’s kevlar vest stopped the
64
42
buck-shot — its impact only fractured a rib.
The middle brother was a dealer
that, for one reason or another, had
a bounty on his head. One night he
was parking his scooter when a hitman approached from the darkness
to shoot him pointblank. Agility
seems to run in the family’s blood
because this brother managed to
grab his assailant’s revolver by the
cylinder, blocking the trigger-action, before squarely head-butting
him as hard as he could. Because he
was still wearing his crash helmet
the man went straight down leaving the gun in his target’s hands.
Nima’s brother shot the hit-man six
times before he could recover himself and possibly pull out a second
gun. I don’t know the details but he
was caught by the police and even
though he pleaded self-defence he
was sentenced for voluntary manslaughter.
The story of the youngest brother
was a little more straightforward
case of armed robbery. At 24 this
brother was as impulsive and fearless as they come. When he was a
boy he was often bullied or taken
advantage of for being a Middle
Eastern kid. By the time he was a
teen he had taken up the profession
of his older brothers. He would very
‘subtly’ flash the gun he always had
tucked under his shirt to straighten
out anyone that bothered him. His 9
mm became an inextricable part of
his personality, in the way a camera
can be for a photographer. He felt as
though he could pin down the world
with the muzzle of his gun. Before
going to sleep he was more likely to
forget to brush his teeth than that to
neglect to put the pistol underneath
his pillow.
So one day he was strolling around
the sterilely clean streets of Rotterdam when he came across two
guards from an armoured car load-
2013
ing cash into an ATM. Without
thinking twice he pulled the pistol
from under his shirt and robbed
them. He walked off with one of the
moneybags like it was the day’s groceries but, quickly, he was caught
— probably there were surveillance
cameras and the police had been
warned before he even touched the
money.
While his brothers were tall and
muscular Nima, on the other hand,
is very short and slight. He is also
gay — a fact that his parents never
reproached him for since his father
was very open about his homosexual
experiences in a Turkish prison.
Nima has a huge nose that is only
surpassed by his enormous mouth,
from which, besides a devilish, funny smile, come words as powerful
as .44 bullets. In his own way Nima
was as tough or tougher than his
brothers; nobody could out-mouth
him. He would machine-gun down
anyone that stood in his way with
piercing arguments that came so fast
they never knew what hit ‘em.
One day in class he came to me
with a crazy story about how some
friend of his middle brother (who
was by then already in prison) had
stolen a Mercedes from him. Nima
asked me to help him get it back. I
agreed to help as long as he would
elucidate things a bit. He explained
that, before killing the hit-man, his
brother had asked if he could put a
car in Nima’s name. Since family is
such an important institution in Iranian culture he didn’t even question
it. It seemed his brother had lent the
car to a friend shortly before going
to prison who had then disappeared
with it. I think the possible consequences of having a car that might
be used for illegal activity in his
name had just occurred to Nima. He
knew where this friend lived so had
decided to get the car back. Calling
the cops was, of course, out of the
question. But, like many of his proj-
ects, nothing came of it and I forgot
all about my agreement to help steal
back the Mercedes.
Some months later Nima received
about ten notices for speeding fines
in his mail. It turned out that his
brother’s friend had been chased by
the police and had driven across the
country at full speed in the car in
Nima’s name. Since he felt he was
innocent Nima refused to pay the
fines. The penalties for late payment
soon built up, snowballing into a
huge sum. In time he received a letter from the judge warning him that
the police would come to his house
to confiscate his belongings. Eventually he started to pay off his debt in
instalments. I think he’s still paying
it now.
these kind of encounters are commonplace— but that I was walking
with that German friend to whom I
had just told Nima’s story in that bar
the night before. My friend was very
pleased to meet him but, if I’m honest, if I hadn’t wanted to illustrate
my story (and maybe also prove it
somehow) I might have let Nima
pass me by. In the end I never really
felt we were friends and besides, he
insisted in taking me to these gay
parties which I always found kind of
annoying.
Post-cards displayed in
the Contour exhibition,
Mechelen, 2013. Photo
Post-cards displayed in the Contour exhibition,
by Kristof Vrancken.
Mechelen, 2013. Photo by Kristof Vrancken.
Nima had always been closer to my
ex-girlfriend than he was to me, so
when their friendship broke down
and I left the art school where we
studied together I didn’t see much of
him. He had such a big mouth that
he — unwittingly perhaps — held
a certain oppressive control over
his group of friends. It was hard to
challenge him on any matter. As
a consequence he was always the
leader of the pack and everyone
would follow his ‘suggestions’ for
where to go or what to do. Whenever
he got in an argument with someone
my ex and her twin sister would side
with his opponent in the hope that
Nima would be finally dethroned.
The day that Nima met someone
with a sharper tongue than him his
friendship with the twins ended. He
couldn’t forgive their disloyalty and
ultimately he felt humiliated and
defeated. The fact that they had witnessed his fall from the top was too
much for him to bear.
The coincidence about running into
Nima in Berlin the other day wasn’t
just the fact that it had been so long
since I had seen him in Amsterdam
— Berlin is a big, busy hub where
65
43
Monologue workshop with three outcomes
2013
The Playmakers
In a joint collaboration with the
performance artist Giles Bailey, we
ran a monologue workshop with
inmates of Mechelen’s prison in
Belgium, as part of the 2013 Contour Biennial of the Moving-Image.
The first step started by creating
a proto-type version of the workshop which we launched in the
performance platform Scriptings,
in Berlin. There we tried and came
up with the fundaments of what we
wanted to achieve later with the
prisoners: collective based narratives that blur the auto-biographical
and the fiction, memory and spoken
word being the sole material that
the volunteers needed to bring and
use.
The title from the work is derived
from the novel by Thomas Keneally, The Playmaker, about the
real story of a play being put up in
the first penal colony in Australia;
which was itself adapted as a
(meta-)play called Our Country’s
Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker
in the 1980s.
In the workshop in Berlin as well
as later in the prison in Belgium,
66
44
we conducted experimental narrative and memory exercises and
games. It’s important to point out
when working with the prisoners
we made sure to stir away from
any therapeutic connotation, or
reformatory altruistic strategy. The
basic structure of each session was
teaching how to attain yourself into
details when telling a story, using
prompts such as colors, mundane
yet peculiar objects, images from
the day’s newspapers, themes
(‘something you lost’); invariably
you would be required to donate
your story to other members of
the class and adopt the story from
someone else and try to make it your
own. own.
In theInend
each
session,
your
theof
end
of each
ses-all
the participants
(we participated
sion,
all the participants
(we par- as
well) would
present
to the
rest oftothe
ticipated
as well)
would
present
classofwhichever
story endedstory
in their
rest
the class whichever
hands in
andtheir
thathands
they had
ended
andworked
that theyon.
The presentation
would culminate
work
on. The presentation
would
in telling the
story sitting
behind
a
culminate
in telling
the story
sitting
table facing
thefacing
audience.
behind
a table
the audience.
We did two weeks
of workshops
Unfortunately,
for security
reasons,
withweren’t
the inmates
where
some forty
we
allowed
to document
short-monologues
wereMechelen’s
created. In
anything
while within
the end during
theexcept
opening
the
prison’s
walls —
for of
soundBiennial, we
together
recording.
Weperformed
did two weeks
of
Object-prompts used
in the prototype-workObject-prompts used in the
prototype-workshop
shop
held in Scriptings,
by
held in Scriptings, Berlin,Berlin,
2013. 2013.
PhotosPhotos
by Achim
Achim Lengerer.
Lengerer.
45
67
2013
The Playmakers
with
the inmates
for inmates
a small group
workshops
with the
where
in
the forty
visitor’s
area. Unfortunately,
some
short-monologues
were
for
security
reasons,
we weren’t
created.
In the
end during
the openallowed
documentwe
anything
while
ing of thetoBiennial,
performed
within
Mechelen’s
prison’sfor
walls
—
together
with the inmates
a small
except
forthe
soundrecording.
group in
visitor’s
area.
Hello,
With the collected material from
the work-shops we made two other
permutations:
One spin-off was an installation
where a small high-definition monitor showed slides with the visual
prompts we used in exercises and
games to help triggering the memory
and the imagination of the participants. In front of it, laid four headphones where a reading-interpretation by various artists, of some of the
texts (translated to English) collected
in the prison, could be heard.
A third outcome was made within
a conference room of the prison’s
administrative staff, where once a
week, during two months, different
members of the staff from the prison
did readings of a selection of the
prisoner’s stories (in Flemish) using
a Teleprompter.
To watch/hear video documentation
of the installation version, please
here. The code is “The Playpress here.
.
. Fragment interpreted by
makers”
Giles Bailey.
46
68
of the many
One of the many One
newspaper’s
clipsnewsused
as a
as a prompt in thepaper’sclips
workshop inused
Mechprompt in the workshop
elen.
in Mechelen.
My name is ‘Aki’. It’s not my real
name err. I’ll tell you a story about
the color yellow, it has two sides
to it. It has a positive side and also
a negative side. Err, It’s actually a
color that I used to love, I used to
like yellow, but something happened
in my life that made me dislike this
color. I’ll start when, when I got
divorced. I’m about 42 years old and
I... basically I have a big company.
I build things. I build stadiums. I
build houses. Real estate and stuff.
And I’ve just build a huge stadium
and there’s this cat walk, this sort of
platform where young women are
presenting swim suits and clothes.
These women are walking down the
cat walk, down the platform. And
there’s a girl in a yellow bikini. I
think half Cuban, a black girl. She’s
very beautiful. But then the girl after
this girl wears a black swim suit.
She’s Hungarian and I walk up to
her and I ask her, her name and she
asks me my name and I’m not saying my name I’m saying “I’m your
future husband” and that’s the start
of a beautiful relationship with my
second wife. I had two children with
her, a boy and a girl. And I work a
lot. That was very important in my
life. I worked, built buildings and
stuff like that and I forgot my family a little bit. And that made me
also lose my family. I have beautiful long hair and dark skin and the
color yellow looks very good on me.
I like the color yellow but the color
yellow, in my language, is also the
color of sin, betrayal and my second
wife betrayed me. She met another
man and she betrayed me and my
family so this is one of the reasons
why I can’t stand the color I used to
love. I can’t wear it. I can’t see it.
It’s the worst color in my life now
because it reminds me of a person I
used to love and this happened when
my two children moved to Algeria. I
had just bought a farm in my native
country and my wife was spending
the summer there and in the horse
tracks she met a man that was in the
military or something and I think
they had a relationship and that’s...
that was, kind of like, why we got
divorced. And I also wanted to tell
you about a second story but that’s,
yeah, maybe I’ll just stop here and
say yellow is two colors.”
Above: One of the
colors used as prompts
in the workshop in
Mechelen’s
prison.
Above: One of the
colors used
as Left;
a transcript
of one of
prompts in the workshop
in Mechelen’s
the stories
colprison. Left; a transcript
of created
one of the
lectively bybythe
stories created collectively
theparticiparticipating in-mates. pating in-mates.
69
47
The Playmakers
2013
Reading by
Lien Houwen, member of the protection
committee of Mechelen’s
inside
theprotection
staff’s
Reading by Lien Houwen,prison,
member
of the
conference
room,
committee of Mechelen’s prison, inside the staff’s
October,
2013. Photos
conference room, October,
2013. Photos
by Chloé
by Chloé Op de Beeck.
Op de Beeck.
70
48
71
49
16 mm film loop, 12’, in Portuguese with
English subtitles
2013
Lucas
Lucas was inspired by Julio Cortázar’s novel A Certain Lucas which
assembles a portrait of the protagonist through idiosyncratic accounts
and disparate events. I employed a
similar narrative strategy in my film
shifting between elements of prose
and verse to blur the distinction
between nonsensical musings and
clairvoyant revelations; outmately
this film(ed performance) is an
exploration around the boundaries of
language: when does the disassociation of words from their common
meaning are just nonsense and when
they graze against the poetic?
When showing Lucas as part of an
exhibition, the film is played on a 16
mm looper, with English subtitles
for the Portuguese dialog.
ButBut
usudialogue.
ally
when
it’s it’s
screened
a single
time,
usually
when
screened
a single
Itime,
turn Iitturn
intoitainto
quasi-performance
a quasi-perfor- by
dubbing
live while
I mirror
mance byitdubbing
it live
while—I literally
my right
hand
mirrorusing
— literally
using
mywhile
rightin
the
I use
the my
movehandfilm
while
in my
the left
film—
I use
ments
signs I did with
hands
left — and
the movements
and my
gestures
or
armsthe
‘inside’
inside
film. the film.
To watch the
a fragment
of the
film,here.
film, please
click
please
press
here.
The
code
is
The code is “Lucas”.
“Lucas”
The ‘plot’ (which is loosely based in
autobiographical facts) consists of
a Brazilian tourist in Buenos Aires,
who while searching for a toilet accidentally stumbles upon a covert
brothel. The story is told through a
series of images that I hold before
the camera, a photographic bricolage
that traces the subjective associations and existential quandaries of
the story’s character.
Film-stills from Lucas.
72
50
51
73
Transcription
Lucas believes itʼs
his lucky day.
This optimism ends as soon
as the door shuts behind him.
Lucas
Slowly, he descends the stairway
towards the restroom.
Both fearing and desiring
that one of those women...
...will stalk him.
2013
who flew 20,000 miles...
beside him wearing a coat.
to ski in Bariloche.
Their inebriated faces pale
and glow in the dark...
Lucas asks about a tattoo
on the man’s arm:
A kangaroo wearing
boxing gloves.
Taking advantage of their shock,
he steps on the gas...
During his youth
the man used to be a pugilist.
...leaving them
in a cloud of dust.
Once he was driving
to a shunted town for a fight...
Next morning, he realizes
that his friend passed away.
and found himself
at night in a desert...
He buried him
underneath a dune...
Thefilm
film opened...in
opens...in Buenos
The
BuenosAires
Aires
in a busy avenue...
He’s also concerned with
what awaits in the restroom.
full
tourists
full
ofof
tourists
and
and
office
workers.
office
workers.
He imagines
an orgiastic carousal.
Amongthe
thecrowd
crowdwe
wefound
find
Among
Lucas searching for a toilet.
Where customers with
disheveled clothes...
This urge lead him
inside a fancy bistro.
and faces
smeared with lipstick...
Entering...
leave dark salacious laughs...
...when a kangaroo
crashed into his car.
he encounters
a crowd of lonely women.
echoing behind the stalls. . .
Heartbroken...
Upstairs, two executives arrive.
theyturned
turn totohim
they
him
offering suggestive smiles.
...when he saw
below the airplane...
He remarks that last week,
before landing in Montevideo...
...the city sunny
and harmless...
where he had a
connection...
...with a new airport.
the city seemed very different
than he remembered...
from another trip.
Then it had left the muddled
sensation of a fog...
The girl excuses herself
and goes to the restroom.
Lucas observes with resignation...
...how the back of her jeans
bulged more
swelled
more than
than expected.
expected.
that snuck up...
When he’s served
his second coffee...
...and left his boxing gloves
on the grave.
and hindered him for days
in streets without lights...
...he notices that the girl
is talking to an old man.
which he crossed
in fading grey taxis...
He gets distracted...
he placed the animal
on the passenger seat...
The Australians left to eat
an assado somewhere...
leaving a drunken Lucas behind.
They contemplate where to sit
among the smiles.
and carefully
warmed him with a jacket.
He spots a very cute girl
sitting behind a column...
notices the sexy clothes
Then he noticed
and the tired faces.
They pick the best table
or at least the one offering...
He began to drive
in search of help.
She reciprocates his stare;
now that he’s...
Feeling embarrassed
he’s inclined to leave.
the freshest hors-d’oeuvre.
Later that night, someone
signals with a flashlight.
...intoxicated, he can’t help...
that would merge
into the mist encircling...
...the airport that...
...the airport that...
whirled like cigarette smoke
whirled
cigarette
around
anlike
ashtray
insidesmoke
a diner
around an ashtray inside a diner...
where they served...
where they served...
huge slices of cake
hugedevoured
slices ofhim...
cake
that
that devoured him...
after diving into
a deepafter
jar ofdiving
orangeinjuice...
a deep jar of orange juice...
...in a dream in Technicolor...
...in a dream in Technicolor...
...sleeping in a musty hotel room...
...sleeping in a musty hotel room...
...with mildewed sunflower
...with
mildewed
sunflower
patterned
wall-paper.
patterned wall-paper.
For Lucas...
For Lucas...
...Montevideo now...
...Montevideo now...
...is the vanishing
...is
theremembrance...
vanishing
of that
hazy
of that hazy remembrance...
Upon noticing Lucas...
However, his bladder
has the upper-hand.
He directs himself
towards the opposite corner...
74
52
...horrified.
“Montevideo, ¿conoces?”
When Lucas returns
from the restroom. . .
he feels that the attention
towards him has faded away.
Instead of feeling relief...
which is empty
except for two lost tourists.
he is overcome by loneliness.
He hangs his coat
and orders a cortado.
The tourists at the next table
start to chat with him.
Eyes glued to the floor,
he crosses the bistro…
Drinking large pints,
they could pass for Germans...
feeling the hankering stares
around him.
but in fact they are
middle-aged Australians...
Slowing down he sees a girl
standing by a pick-up truck.
As he halts...
a drunken Aussie
grabs him by the neck.
In the darkness,
a group of men,...
armed with cricket clubs,
close in.
When the girl shines
the flashlight on the car...
they see the kangaroo sitting
...a heart beat...
...nor a voice that
whispers in his ear:
“What if this is
really just a bistro?”
He sits reluctant.
Then remembers all the moments
lost on account of a hesitation.
Suddenly he stands up
and sits beside her.
He asks...
...where she’s from.
...and lets a sugar cube
fall to the floor.
Before he can fetch it
the waiter walks by...
...towards the executives...
...and kicks the sugar cube.
Lucas dashes
from his chair to find it.
Until he spots it under the table
of a woman with long legs...
...he kneels under.
Startled, she kicks
the sugar cube...
Lucas squeezes
between her legs
to grab the cube before
it could skid away.
When he tries to stand...
...holding the sugar...
75
53
Lucas
...he’s entangled
by the woman’s tights.
Lucas...
...twists his body...
...in an attempt to free himself.
But the thighs have
a firm grip around him.
All he manages...
...is to feel...
...a salty odor...
...and remember...
...the first time
he saw the Rio de la Plata.
AndAnd
thought
it toitbe
thought
to abemirage.
a mirage.
A frozen ocean
without waves.
Like a photograph
on a billboard...
...that covered the horizon.
Or like a backdrop in an old film...
where the sea
was painted too flat...
without any trompe l’oeil.
76
54
2014
2012
9
[email protected]
79
9
2014
Transcription
60
posters, found
stereo
party
two-channels
16 mm
film,and
b&w,
12debris
min
2014
2012
80
12
10
The Party
Sebastian
The
Partyby
is aansite
specific
instalInformed
essay
written
in the
lation
for the off-space
1950s tailored
by my grandfather,
who had
Die
Raum
in Berlin. The in
space
is
become
a psychoanalyst
Buenos
located
near
to tries
Eberswalder
Straße,
Aires, the
film
to emulate
the
in
Prenzlauer
Berg; asignifier
district and
which
disconnect
between
in
its heydays
—allegedly
until roughly
signified,
which
takesless
than
years
agoof
—a used
to be the
placeten
in the
mind
psychotic,
cool
hip the
area.
Since
then
it drastithrough
use
of two
channels
cally
morphed
into
a predominantly
projection
which
aren’t
synchrobourgeois
neighborhood and became
nized.
a sort of cautionary tale of how fast
gentrification
can change
the characThe left projection,
containing
only
ter
of a place.
a black
screen and a voice-over,
spoken in Portuguese and Spanish
Because
of the
local neighborhood’s
with English
subtitles,
was originalrecent
history,
I thought
was pertily edited
in-sync
with theit right
nent
to tackle
a Berlin
emblem
that
projection,
which
has mute
images
started
to be exploited
more episodes
recently,
of illustrations
of psychotic
which
the local
partythe
culture;
and of is
dreams.
Along
course of
considered
oneboth
of the
of
the exhibition,
16main
mm traits
projecthe
what started
as a
tors,German
bearingcapital,
loop-systems,
are left
consequence
for own,
beingmeaning
a cheap place
running on their
that
populated
the creative
many otherwith
connections
are class,
made
in
the lastboth
years
of an
between
thebecame
imagesmore
and the
industry
for tourists, with hordes of
text.
for
theMito
weekend
to party
increasIn El
de la Torre
de in
Babel;
la
ingly
expensive
clubs.
Esquizofrenia
como
una Disociación
de la Lengua (The Myth of the
Tower of Babel; Schizophrenia as a
Disassociation of Language) my
Igrandfather
wrote a short-story
is bea
made an which
analogy
fictionalization
of a new
party
tween schizophrenia
andyear’s
the myth
of
Ithe
hadcreation
thrownof
together
withusing
friends,
language,
the
few
which had
gotcasemonths
study ofbefore,
an Armenian
medicine
ten
a bitwho
out of
hand.
I transferred
student
had
forgotten
his native
the
storyand
to the
Die Raum,
tongue
whoarea
wasnear
diagnosed
with
in
the turn of
year between
2005
symptoms
of the
an insurgent
psychosis
and
effectively
time that
that 2006,
manifested
with athe
symbolism
gentrification
from
the area hit
its
connected to the
Babylonian
myth.
maximum point, making hordes of
young
artistI and
rollschizoid
down
In the film
playhipster
both the
the
hill towards
the next coolthe
place
patient
and my grandfather,
then:
Kreuzberg. I appropriated Die
analyst.
Raum’s silkscreen infrastructure
—
their flyers
intofilm,
amusTo they
watchprint
a fragment
of the
ingly
— and
divided
pleaselarge
pressposters
here. The
code
is
the
story into sixty posters (includ“Sebastian”
to brake the story into chapters) that
were split into four geometrical grids
designed for each of the three completely irregular walls of the space.
In the opening evening we threw
a party that easily filled the small
fifteen square feet gallery. Later the
debris of the party were left in the
space as props for the installation.
Detail
of installation
Die
Installation
in Die in
Raum,
Production
stills,
Raum,
Berlin,
Photo
by
Berlin,
2014.2014.
Photo
by by
Jan
Javier Barrio
JanWindszus.
Windszus.
2014
to live 22in a large loft near Wedding,
Year’s 3Eve party at her new place,
which 3was a newly renovated, spacious, ground floor apartment, close
10
The Party
60 posters,
found
stereo
party
debris
respective
families
in Holland
and and
— in
fact I secretly
expected that
dance.
We were all very excited and anxclose friend of Femke, was a short,
red-haired artist, completely covered play out. I had a special reason for
with freckles, with the Centaur con- having certain anxieties because my
Soraya was a small, plumpy Lebain a small coastal town in England,
where in a truly regressive experiChloe, and whom I had met during
bed of her 10-year-old nephew, and, We had been in touch for almost two
months through e-mails and longsat in the living room watching her
Thepast
Party
is years,
a site specific
instal-con- Bucharest.
I wrote a short-story
which me
is ato
the
five
she couldn’t
She had invited
lation tailored
theguests
off-space
fictionalization
of
a
new
year’s
party
tribute
so muchfor
with
for
the
visit
her,
which
I
had
accepted.
On
1
1
Die Raum
in turned
Berlin.out
The
is
I had
thrown
with an
friends,
party,
which
tospace
be comthe
same
day together
that I bought
expenlocated fine
nearwith
to Eberswalder
few months
before,
hadagotpletely
Femke whoStraße,
was
sive
ticket, her
fatherwhich
suffered
fatal
in Prenzlauer
Berg;
a district
which
ten a bit
out in
ofBeirut,
hand. Icausing
transferred
concerned
about
having
too many
heart
attack
her to
in its heydays
— until
less
the story
to the area
people
who might
end roughly
up wrecking
leave
to Lebanon
thenear
nextDie
day.Raum,
thannew
ten apartment.
years ago — used to be the
her
cool hip area. Since then it drastiand 2006, her
effectively
time
that
Somehow
father’sthe
death
seemed
callybought
morphed
a predominantly
gentrification
from
the area
We
the into
drinks
together, but I to
have brought
us closer,
ashit
if Iits
bourgeois
neighborhood
became had
maximum
making
was
in charge
of the foodand
— which
enteredpoint,
her life
so herhordes
father of
a sort of
tale
of how
youngleave
artistit.
and
hipster
rollback
down
would
becautionary
Brazilian of
course
—fast
and could
Once
I was
from
gentrification
change
the charac- Bucharest,
the hill towards
next anyway
cool place
they
took carecan
of the
decoration
wherethe
I went
ter ofsetting
a place.
then:
Kreuzberg.
appropriated
and
up the space. During the
—
I couldn’t
get aI refund
— andDie
Raum’sinsilkscreen
infrastructure
afternoon of the 31st, while I cooked stayed
a cheap hotel
by myself,
ofthey
the local
— theyaprint
their
flyers
into amusaBecause
feijoada,
hungneighborhood’s
colorful filhaving
terrific
time
encounterrecent
I thought
it wasroom
pertiing
ingly
largeofposters
— and
ters
onhistory,
the lamps
in the living
packs
ravenous
straydivided
dogs in
nent because
to tackleCarlos
a Berlin
emblem
that
the story
intowe
sixty
(includand,
was
paranoid
dark
streets,
keptposters
daily contact
started
to beinexploited
recently,
inglong
plaindistance
coloredcalls
onesand
thate-mails.
served
that
people
the partymore
would
steal
by
which
is the
culture;
to brake
themore
storythan
intoone
chapters)
his
books,
thelocal
girlsparty
covered
the
Now,
after
monththat
we
considered
one
of the
main
traits of
were split
intosee
four
geometrical
grids
book
shelves
with
a gold
aluminum
would
finally
each
other again.
I
the German
capital,
what
started
designed
for iteach
ofbut
theIthree
comfoil,
shielding
Carlos’
books
fromas a didn’t
know
then,
was seDetail
of of
installation
consequence
for being4a cheap
place cretly
pletelybecoming
irregular
walls
the space.
the
gaze of intellectually
inclined
very
attached
to her
Photo
by
de tal
4
populated with the creative
class,
In the opening
evening
we threw
thieves.
already;
even though
I Fulano
consciously
a party
easilytoo
filled
theexpectasmall
tried
to that
not have
many
industry
with
fifteenwith
square
gallery. Later
The
threefor
of tourists,
us had no
ideahordes
how of
tions,
the feet
presentiment
that the
youngpeople
peopletotaking
cheap
flights
debris
theneedy
party were
left inwhile
the
many
expect;
Berlin
was
she
wasofjust
and lonely
for the weekend
to party parties
in increasspace as props
for theand
installation.
blooming
with Silvester
to
mourning
her father
once back
ingly expensive
compete
with, inclubs.
our neighborhood
dozens of house parties for people to I discovered too late
that my feelings
Berlin, 2014. Photo by Jan
choose between; our assessment was behaved then like vines
that would
Windszus.
The Party
81
13
11
Transcription
a NewFar
Year’s
together.
It was
away,party
lightning
joined
the winter
of
2005,
and
we
all
still
ocean and heavens together...
the timeflashing
when most
the younger
in theofhorizon.
masse down
the hilllike
to Kreuzberg,
Quickly,
ink
which was
fully
flourishing
spreading in water,...as the
self-obliteration
towards total
gentridark clouds swallowed
our ship.
fication, the same cycle that PrenzlauerInBerg
was completing
then.
the shadows,
we jolted
Butbetween
we weremy
already
not
that
young
mother’s prayers...
we and
had the
no plans
Besides,
cryingtoofleave.
my brothers.
edges
leftfather,
and wasn’t
completely
My
who slept
deeply
taken with
over aby
armies
of
baby strollbottle of yharaki,...
ers like nowadays.
was swinging madly
I had already
been
living in Berlin
in his
hammock.
several parties,
always
The ship
tiltedwith
and the help
of Femke
and
her
boyfriend.
I used
books were thrown around...
with incredibly
tolerant
neighbors
from one side
of the
cabin
who never called
the
police,
despite
to the other.
the fact that we usually partied during
weekdays
until covered
the wee hours.
I saw
the windows
by water
Especially
in
the
first
years,
I was
as solid as a brick
wall...
Rio. Because
I wasa terribly
and like
curtain, afraid of
flying,
I
always
gave
a farewell
parthe dark sky slid back
into view.
ty on the day before the departure, to
very tired
and hungover;
actually,
In a harbor
somewhere,...
that every farewell
party could be
maybe Dakar,
my last good-bye
to
my friends.
or perhaps Recife,...
But
since Femke
still
hadn’t of
held
a
merchants
hoisted
a basket
fruit
house warming
party,
and
since
her
aboard our ship.
mine, we
the New
Asdecided
I peeledtoalocate
banana,
Year’s
Eve
party
at
her
new
place,
a spider jumped from within...
which was a newly renovated, spacious, ground
close
and floor
bit myapartment,
hand.
her half-Colombian
boyfriend,
the
I needed to
die
writer Carlos,
who
at
the
time
had
so as to not die.
It’s crazy, but one day
Just after
Christmas,
when
Femke
a girl
hurt me so
much...
82
12
The
2014
Party
2015
respective
injumping
Holland and
thatfamilies
I felt like
England
—
I
stayed
working
onto the subway tracks.at
house to plan the
party. After a tour
Instead,
around the
house,
regrouped
I became awe
statue...
cigarettes.
whoanything.
was a very
so as Chloe,
to not feel
with freckles,
with thethe
Centaur
I was crossing
park constellationone
sprinkled
on
her
summer night.face. She
inUnderneath
a small coastal
town in England,
the trembling
shadows
where in a truly
regressive
of gas lamps... experience, she had to sleep in the bunk
bed of her
10-year-old
nephew, and,
many
lovers shivered
whilelike
outside
rained
miserably,
the leaves on the trees.she
nephew
drive
an warm
orangeinside...
Porsche in
I felt
very
Because
sheconnected
had just moved
from
as if I were
to everything
Paris where
she
had
been
living
for
that surrounded me:
the past five years, she couldn’t contribute
so much
withthe
guests
for the
the starlit
night,
vegetation
party, whichand
turned
out
to
be
the lovers. completely fine with Femke who was
concerned
about
havingthe
too
many
I started
to caress
grass,
people
who
might
end
up
wrecking
combing it with my fingers...
her new apartment.
and softly brushing the flowers
We bought the
together, but I
withdrinks
my face.
would
ofdissolving
course — into
and
Slowly,beI Brazilian
felt myself
they took
care
of
the
decoration
the dust of the pathway...
afternoon
of the
the plants
31st, while
I cooked
while
seemed
a feijoada,
they
hung
colorful
filto weave me in amongst them...
ters on the lamps in the living room
and,
because
was where
paranoid
I wasn’t
ableCarlos
to discern
I bethat
people
in
the
party
would
steal
gan and where the world ended.
book
shelves
withtogether
a gold aluminum
I pulled
myself
and ran.
foil,
shielding
Carlos’
from
At home I dived intobooks
my books.
thieves.“Confined on the ship,
The three
us had no
ideariver
how
he’s of
delivered
to the
many people
to
expect;
Berlin
with its thousand arms... was
compete with,tointhe
our
seaneighborhood
alone with
thereits
would
be
and
thousanddozens
routes...
choosetobetween;
our
assessment was
that great
uncertainty
Transcription
that about
fifty guests
would come
external
to everything.
at least
fifty
of my friends
He’s
a prisoner
in the would
midst
come. It wasofour
aspiration
the freest... that after
dance.
and the openest of the routes,...
We bound
were all
excitedcrossroad.
and anxat very
the infinite
play
had a special
for
He’sout.
theI passenger
par reason
excellence:
having
certain
anxieties
because
The prisoner of the passage. my
Soraya
small,
LebaAndwas
thealand
he plumpy
will come
to
nese girl whois was
a
good
friend
of
unknown...
a dinner
in the summer.
as is,party
onceback
he disembarks,...
months
through
andcomes.
longthe land
frome-mails
which he
inHeRomania
and Lebanon.
We had
has his truth
and his homeland...
wentonly
to Romania,
where she
took
in that fruitless
expanse
part inthat
an artist
residency
close
can’t belong to him.” to
the same day
I bought
X isthat
25 years
old.an expensive ticket, her father suffered a fatal
heart attack
Beirut, causing
He’s in
a medical
student, her to
leave
to
Lebanon
the
next
day.
who searched for an analyst...
Somehow
father’s death
seemed
as he washer
experiencing
difficulties
to have brought
us
closer,
as
with his studies... if I
could leave
Once
I was
back from
andit.his
private
life.
— I couldn’t
— and
Theseget
firsta refund
difficulties
stayed in arefer
cheapabove
hotelall...
by myself,
having a terrific time encountering to
packs
of ravenous
stray dogs
an insecurity
concerning
hisin
dark streets, knowledge...
we kept daily contact
Now, after
more
than one
month we
and his
method
of study.
didn’t
know
it then,
butinI Argentina...
was seAs soon
as he
arrived
cretly becoming
already;
though
I consciously
he waseven
bullied
for being
a ‘Turk’.
tried to not have too many expectations,Hewith
presentiment
that
feltthe
extremely
persecuted
she wasbyjust
needy
and
lonely
this categorization....while
in Berlin she
wouldhim
let full
me down.
leaving
of fears and
resentment.
Detail
of installation in Die
I discovered too Raum,
late that
my
feelings
Berlin,
2014.
Photo by
behaved
then
like
vines
that
would
He even changed
his name,
Jan Windszus.
13
flying,
I always itgave
farewell partranslating
intoaSpanish...
ty on the day before the departure, to
very tired
and hungover;
actually,
to avoid
the harassment
in my innermost
fears,
I
did
and reduce his angst.believe
my
last good-bye
to myof
friends.
During
some sessions
the treatment a similar fear appeared.
houseAwarming
and since her
fear that,party,
as a foreigner
house was—much
more
central than
as a ‘Turk’—...
Year’she
Eve
partynot
at her
new place,
would
be treated.
to the Eberswalderstrasse
U-bahn
The tribe of Encounter
Bay,
station, where
she
had
moved
with
in Australia...
writer
Carlos,
who atofthe
time had
traces
the origin
languages
gone toback
visittohis
mother
in
Bogota.
an old woman...
Just after
whentimes.
Femke
who Christmas,
died in ancient
Invasion The
of the
Killer Frogs
Party
her new apartment.
was called
would She
be Brazilian
of Wurruri,
course — and
andcare
lived
West...
they took
ofin
thethe
decoration
She
go while
aroundI cooked
afternoon
ofwould
the 31st,
with athey
big hung
wooden
stick...fila feijoada,
colorful
ters on the lamps in the living room
When she
died,was
her village
and, because
Carlos
paranoid
so happy
be rid
of her...
thatwas
people
in theto
party
would
steal
it sentwith
messengers
off in
bookthat
shelves
a gold aluminum
every
direction
to spread
thefrom
news.
foil,
shielding
Carlos’
books
Afterwards, men, women
thieves.
and children got together...
to celebrate
the event
many people
to expect;
Berlin was
with awith
cannibalistic
blooming
Silvester banquet.
parties to
The Raminjerar
the first
ones
alone
there wouldwere
be dozens
and
to throw
on for
the people
corpse...
dozens
ofthemselves
house parties
to
dance.
had and
entered
life so her
starther
devouring
thefather
flesh.
Bucharest,Right
where
I went
anyway
after
eating,
—
I
couldn’t
get
a
refund
and
they could speak in a new—
language.
havingThe
a terrific
tribes time
fromencounterthe East,
ing packswho
of ravenous
stray dogs in
arrived later...
byate
long
and
e-mails.
thedistance
contentscalls
of her
intestines...
would which
finallymade
see each
other
again. I
them
speak
didn’t
know
it
then,
but
I
was
sea slightly different
language.
cretly becoming
already; even
though
I consciously
The last
to arrive...
tried to not have too many expectations,
with
presentiment
were
thethe
Northern
tribes that
who,
she was
just
needy
and
lonely
while
having consumed the
rest,...
in Berlin
she would let me down.

started speaking an even
I discovered
late that
my feelings
more too
distinct
language
behaved then like vines
that
would
.
83
13
Transcription
Meeting
made It was
a New Year’s
partyyou
together.
me feeloflike
a lost
the winter
2005,
andtraveler...
we all still
in most
a country
the time when
of the younger
whereand
no hipsters
one speaks
hisleaving
language.
artists
were
en
The fully
worstflourishing
thing is that
which was
as the
he doesn’t
even know
where
to go.
new
place-to-be,
starting
its own
self-obliteration towards total gentriSuddenly,
he meets
stranger
fication,
the same
cycleathat
Prenhis language.
zlauerwho
Bergknows
was completing
then.
I was
constantly
punished
we had
no plans
to leave.
Besides,
in theBerg
Armenian
school.
Prenzlauer
still had
some rough
If
a teacher
shouted,
would
taken
over by
armieseveryone
of baby strollknow
this was directed at me.
ers
like that
nowadays.
I had alreadyYears
beenlater,
living in Berlin
I returned
to the
for five
years then
andschool...
had hosted
taking
a gift I used
of Femke and
her as
boyfriend.
spider
I had
to liveain
a large
loftembalmed.
near Wedding,
I would
look
at mypartied
watch durthe fact
that we
usually
and concentrate...
ing weekdays
until the wee hours.
otherwise,
wouldn’t
still sort
of half Iliving
hereknow
and in
who IIwas
Rio. Because
wasanymore.
terribly afraid of
flying, I always gave a farewell parIt was
carnival.
ty on the day
before
the departure, to
I wassure
in aI remote
neighborhood...
make
would get
in the plane
watching
thefears,
bandsI pass
by,
in my
innermost
did believe
together
the dancing
crowd...
that
every with
farewell
party could
be
when I realized
thatsince
I didn’t
knowstill
what
timeheld
it was.
But
Femke
hadn’t
a
where
I was.than
house Nor
was who
muchormore
central
I felt
as party
though
hadn’t
Year’s
Eve
at Iher
newbeing
place,
thinking
about
myself. spawhich was
a newly
renovated,
cious, ground floor apartment, close
I panicked. U-bahn
to the Eberswalderstrasse
couldn’t forget about
myself.
herIhalf-Colombian
boyfriend,
the
Not even
forata the
minute.
writer Carlos,
who
time had
I started looking at my watch...
Transcription
84
The
Party
2015
and concentrating
Chloe had returned
their
on thefrom
pointers
respective
families
in
Holland
and the time that passed...and
home withIfmy
cat —dowe
met in her
I didn’t
that
houseI to
plan
the
party.
After
a tour
would forget who I was.
cigarettes.The
Chloe,
was a very
firstwho
memory
close friend
of
Femke,
was a short,
he recalls of his father...
with
the in
Centaur
conis offreckles,
him as awith
butcher
a market...
told us about
hera Christmas
holding
large knife.thrills
where in a truly regressive experience,I remember
she had to —
sleep
in theknow
bunk
I don’t
bed ofhow
her long
10-year-old
nephew,
afterwards —... and,
sat inseeing
the living
room
watching
a whale
jetting
waterher
nephew drive
an
orange
Porsche
in
like a fountain.
Because
hadthat
justwe
moved
I knewshe
then
were from
safe.
the past five years, she couldn’t contribute
so much
with if
guests
forclocks
the
What would
happen
all the
party, in
which
turned
out
to
be
comthe world would stop?
pletely fine with Femke who was
concerned
about
having
many
Confusion
would
grip too
the planet,
people
who
might
end
up
wrecking
Like it gripped the tower of Babel.
her new apartment.
We bought the Eu
drinks
falotogether, but I
was
in
charge
of
the
fooddizem
— which
mas os meu lábios não
que
they took careoof
the decoration
passado
and setting
up
the
space.
During the
não morreu
passado
a feijoada,
hung ainda
colorful
nem éthey
passado
falofilters on the lamps in the living room
and, because que
Carlos
was paranoid
hablar
that
people
in
the
party
would
steal
não é o mesmo que falar
em um
eu
book shelves
gold aluminum
quewith
nãoaexisto
foil,
shielding
Carlos’
from
ou um outro que sou books
mas não
sou
thieves. o silêncio do barulho
que falo escutando
many peopleque
to expect;
a poesiaBerlin was
blooming
with
Silvester
parties to
é algo incompreensível.
dance.
cretly becoming
I consciously
The Party
13
CV
Pablo Pinappel was born in Paris in 1979. He currently lives and works in
Rotterdam, Berlin and Rio de Janeiro.
Awards
2008
Charlotte Köhler Prijs, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds
Residencies/Studies
2012
Capacete Entreterimentos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2008-2009
Cité internationale des artes, Paris, France
2006-2008
Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kusten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2000-2003
Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2002
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, USA
1999-2000
HKU, Uthecht, The Netherlands
Solo Exhibitions
2014
2016
The
Imagem-Lembrança,
Party, Die Raum,Cavalo,
Berlin, Rio
Germany
de Janeiro, Brazil
Pareciam ser de um cinza translúcido, Galerie Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam,
The
Netherlands
2015
Lucas Goes Partying, ArteBA, galerie Juliette Jongma, Buenos Aires, Ar2013
gentine
Lucas, Frieze New York, Frame, w/ Ambach&Rice, New York, USA
2014
2012
The Party, Die Raum, Berlin, Germany
Pablo
Pareciam
Pijnappel,
ser de um
Malmö
cinzaKonstahall,
translúcido,Malmö,
galerieSweden
Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam,
Mise
The Netherlands
en Abyme, Ambach&Rice, Los Angeles, USA
Reading Complex, Seventeen Gallery, London, England
Pablo
2013 Pijnappel, Basis, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Lucas, Frieze New York, Frame, w/ Ambach&Rice, New York, USA
2011
Quirijn,
2012 Art Basel, Art Unlimited, w/ Galerie Juliette Jongma and
Ambach&Rice,
Switzerland
Pablo Pijnappel,Basel,
Malmö
Konstahall, Malmö, Sweden
Fontenay-aux-Roses,
Galerie
Juliette
Jongma, USA
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Mise en Abyme, Ambach&Rice,
Los Angeles,
Fontenay-aux-Roses,
CarlierGebauer,
Reading Complex, Seventeen
Gallery, Berlin,
London,Germany
England
Fontenay-aux-Roses;
Ambach&Rice,
Seattle,Germany
USA
Pablo Pijnappel, Basis,
Frankfurt am Main,
57
87
Curriculum
Curriculum Vitae
Vitae
2011
Quirijn, Studio Nº2, Galerie van der Mieden, Antwerp, Belgium
Quirijn,
2008
2012 Art Basel, Art Unlimited, galerie Juliette Jongma and
Ambach&Rice,
Basel,
Homer,
JulietteSwitzerland
Jongma,
The Netherlands
Cinema Galerie
in Slow-Motion,
Malmö Amsterdam,
Konstahall, Malmö,
Sweden
Fontenay-aux-Roses,
Galerie
Juliette
Jongma,
Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
André, Kadist Foundation,
Paris,
France;
Homer;
CarlierGebauer,
Berlin,
Fontenay-aux-Roses,
CarlierGebauer,
Berlin,
Germany
Germany
Screenings
Fontenay-aux-Roses; Ambach&Rice, Seattle, USA
Quirijn,
2007
2015 Studio No2, Galerie van der Mieden, Antwerp, Belgium
Pablo
Laboratory,
White
London,
England
Lucas,Pijnappel,
International
Film Festival
ofChapel,
Rotterdam,
Rotterdam,
The Nether2008
Caiçara,
Museum de Hallen, Haarlem, The Netherlands
lands
Homer,
Juliette
Jongma,Bremen,
Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Homer, Galerie
Kunstlerhaus
Bremen,
Germany
André,
2012 Kadist Foundation, Paris, France
Homer;
Germany
2006
Quirijn,CarlierGebauer,
Lost and Found,Berlin,
Amsterdam,
The Netherlands;
Walderedo, CarlierGebauer, Berlin, Germany
2007
Hotel
2010 Rio, Galerie Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Pablo
Pijnappel,
Laboratory,
White
Chapel,
London,
England
Felicitas,
CarlierGebauer,
Amsterdam,
TheSt.
Netherlands
Andrew
Reid,
Contemporary
Art
Museum
Louis, USA
Caiçara,
Museum
de
Hallen,
Haarlem,
The
Netherlands
1921-1977 1979, MAC/VAl, Vitry, France
Homer,
2005 Kunstlerhaus Bremen, Germany
Andrew
2008 and Felicitas, Extra City 2, Antwerp, Belgium
2006
Felicitas,
Museum Bureau
Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, The Nether1921-1977Stedelijk
1979-, Panoramico,
Museo
Tamayo, Mexico
Walderedo,
CarlierGebauer,
Berlin,
Germany
lands
Andrew by Maya, Black Box - Elke Schlüters, Kunstverein Düsseldorf,
Hotel
Rio, Galerie
Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Dusseldorf,
Germany
Felicitas,
CarlierGebauer, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2004
Andrew
2007 Reid, Gallery Iris Kadel, Karlsruhe, Germany
2005
Andrew
Reid,
Playstation,
FonsThe
Welters
Gallery, Amsterdam, The NetherWalderedo,
TENT,
Rotterdam,
Netherlands
Andrew
and
Felicitas,
Extra
City
2,
Antwerp,
Belgium
lands
Felicitas,
Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2004
Group
Andrew Exhibitions
Reid, International Short Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 19212004
1977 1979-, Video Village, Milan, Italy
Andrew
2014 Reid, Gallery Iris Kadel, Karlsruhe, Germany
Andrew
Reid, Playstation,
Welters
Gallery,
Amsterdam,
Falso
GaleriaFons
Luciana
Caravello,
Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil
2003 Movimento,
The
Netherlands
Staged
City,
Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Andrew
Reid,Arti,
Rotterdam
Film Festival,
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
1921-1977 1979-, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie, HérouGroup
Exhibitions
2013
ville-Saint-Clair,
France
Discipline,
LeisureVideo
& Punishment,
Contour
Biennial, Mechelen, Belgium
1921-1977 1979-,
Lisboa, Lisbon,
Portugal
2015
Andrew Reid, Brooklyn Underground Film Festival, New York, USA
A2012
Mão Negativa,
Lage, Reid,
Rio deNederlands
Janeiro, Brasil
1921-1977
1979-Parque
and Andrew
Film Festival Utrecht, The
As
Iminencias das Poéticas, 30th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil
Netherlands
2014
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BankFestival,
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France
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Arti,EYE
Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Found City,
Footage,
Film Institut
Nederland, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Recent Acquisitions, De Hallen, Haarlem, The Netherlands
2013
Never Odd or Even, Roskilde, Sweden
Discipline, Leisure & Punishment, Contour Biennial, Mechelen, Belgium
2011
2012
Never Odd or Even, Grimmuseum, Berlin, Germany
As
Iminencias
das Poéticas,
30th
São Paulo
Biennial, Brazil
Spectrums
of Light,
European
Gallery
Cologne,
Through
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Cologne,an
Germany
Paris,
France
Will Be
Home..., Ambach&Rice, Los Angeles, USA
Found Footage, EYE Film Institut Nederland, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Recent Acquisitions, De Hallen, Haarlem, The Netherlands
58
60
88
2003–2014
2003–201
2010 Odd or Even, Roskilde, Sweden
Never
Collector’s Preview, Le Temple, Paris, France
Arrivi e Partenze Europa, Fondo Mole Vanvitelliana, Ancona, Italy
2011
Never Odd or Even, Grimmuseum, Berlin, Germany
Spectrums of Light, European Gallery Cologne, Cologne, Germany
2009Be Home..., Ambach&Rice, Los Angeles, USA
Will
Chance Encounters, Ludlow38, New York, USA
Still / Moving / Still, International Fotofestival, Knokke, Belgium
2010
Collector’s Preview, Le Temple, Paris, France
2008 e Partenze Europa, Fondo Mole Vanvitelliana, Ancona, Italy
Arrivi
Vijf portretten uit de videocollectie, De Hallen, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Wild Signals, Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany
2009
Narrowcast:
Reframing
Global Video,
LACE,
Los Angles, USA
Chance
Encounters,
Ludlow38,
New York,
USA
Narrowcast:
Global Video,
Pitzer Art
Galleries,
Los Angeles,
Still
/ MovingReframing
/ Still, International
Fotofestival,
Knokke,
Belgium
USA
Panoramic, Museo Tamavo Arte Contemporánea, Mexico
2008
2007Signals, Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany
Wild
Reality Crossings,
2. Fotofestival
Mannheim,
Narrowcast:
Reframing
Global Video,
LACE, Germany
Los Angles, USA
52nd
Venice
Biennale
(Slovakian
Pavilion),
Venice,
Italy L.A., USA
Narrowcast: Reframing Global Video, Pitzer Art Galleries,
Prix
de
Rome,
De
Appel,
Amsterdam,
The
Netherlands
Elephant Cemetery, Artists Space, New York, USA
News From Abroad, Gallery Murray Guy, New York, USA
2007
Free Electrons.
Selected
Videos from
the Lemaître
Collection, Tabacalera
Reality
Crossings,
2. Fotofestival
Mannheim,
Germany
Donostia,
San
Sebastian,
Spain
52nd Venice Biennale (Slovakian Pavilion), Venice, Italy
Prix de Rome, De Appel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2006
Elephant
Cemetery, Artists Space, New York, USA
Indirect
Speech,
Kunsthalle
Kassel,
Germany
News
From
Abroad,
Gallery Fridericianum,
Murray Guy, New
York,
USA
Don
Quijote,
Witte
de
With
Center
For
Contemporary
Art, Rotterdam,
The
Free Electrons. Selected Videos from the Lemaître Collection,
Tabacalera
Netherlands
Donostia,
San Sebastian, Spain
2004
2006
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Welters Gallery,
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KunsthalleFons
Fridericianum,
Kassel,Amsterdam,
Germany The NetherlandsQuijote, Witte de With Center For Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, The
Don
Indonesia under Construction, Witte de With Center For Contemporary Art,
Netherlands
Anh Tam Lee – Pablo Pijnappel, Groningen, The Netherlands
2004
1921-1977
1979-,
Kunsvlaai,
Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Present
Tense,
Playstation,
Fons
Welters Gallery,
2003
Indonesia
under Construction, Witte de With Center For Contemporary Art,
Parasite
Paradise,
SKOR, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Performances
1921-1977
1979-, Kunsvlaai, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2014
2003
Lucas, Temporary
Cologne,The
Germany
Parasite
Paradise, Gallery,
SKOR, Utrecht,
Netherlands
Casa da Michèlle, Galerie Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2013
Discipline, Leisure & Punishment, Contour Biennial, Mechelen, Belgium
89
59
Curriculum
CurriculumVitae
Vitae
Vitae
Curriculum
Quirijn, Studio Nº2, Galerie van der Mieden, Antwerp, Belgium
2012
2008
Performances
Cinema
in Slow-Motion,
Malmö Amsterdam,
Konstahall, Malmö,
Sweden
Homer,
Galerie
Juliette Jongma,
The Netherlands
André, Kadist Foundation, Paris, France; Homer; CarlierGebauer, Berlin,
2015 Screenings
Germany
What is Photography?, Fontenay-aux-Roses, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
A Mão Negativa, Invasion of the Killer Frogs, Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro,
2015
2007
Brazil Pijnappel,
Lucas,
International
Film Festival
ofChapel,
Rotterdam,
Rotterdam,
The NetherPablo
Laboratory,
White
London,
England
lands
Caiçara,
Museum de Hallen, Haarlem, The Netherlands
2014 Kunstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Homer,
Lucas, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, Germany
2012
Casa da Lost
Michèlle,
GalerieAmsterdam,
Juliette Jongma,
Quirijn,
and Found,
The Netherlands;
2006
Walderedo, CarlierGebauer, Berlin, Germany
2013 Rio, Galerie Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2010
Hotel
Discipline,
Leisure
& Punishment,
Contour
Biennial,
Mechelen, Belgium
Andrew
Reid,
Contemporary
Art Museum
Louis, USA
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CarlierGebauer,
Amsterdam,
TheSt.
Netherlands
1921-1977 1979, MAC/VAl, Vitry, France
2012
2005
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Malmö
2008
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Andrew by Maya, Black Box - Elke Schlüters, Kunstverein Düsseldorf,
lands
Dusseldorf, Germany
2015
2004
Lucas, International
of Rotterdam,
2007
Andrew
Reid, GalleryFilm
Iris Festival
Kadel, Karlsruhe,
Germany
Walderedo,
TENT,
Rotterdam,
Netherlands
Andrew
Reid,
Playstation,
FonsThe
Welters
Gallery, Amsterdam, The Nether2012
lands
Quirijn, Lost and Found, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2004
Andrew Exhibitions
Reid, International Short Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 1921Group
2010 1979-, Video Village, Milan, Italy
1977
Andrew Reid, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, USA
2014
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2003
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Rotterdam
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Staged
Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
2008
1921-1977
1979-, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie, Hérou1921-1977
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ville-Saint-Clair,
2013
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Portugal
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& Punishment,
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Biennial, Mechelen, Belgium
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by Maya,
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Box - Elke Schlüters,
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2012
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Iminencias das Poéticas, 30th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil
2007
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BankFestival,
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Spectrums
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Cologne, Germany
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France
Will Be Home..., Ambach&Rice, Los Angeles, USA
1921-1977 1979-, Video Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Andrew Reid, Brooklyn Underground Film Festival, New York, USA
90
60
60
58
2003–2014
2003–2016
2010
1921-1977 1979- and Andrew Reid, Nederlands Film Festival, Utrecht,
Collector’s
Preview, Le Temple, Paris, France
The Netherlands
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e Partenze
FondoVideo
MoleFestival,
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Ancona,
Italy
1921-1977
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World Wide
Amsterdam,
The
Netherlands
2009
Chance Encounters, Ludlow38, New York, USA
Still / Moving / Still, International Fotofestival, Knokke, Belgium
2008
Wild Signals, Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany
Narrowcast: Reframing Global Video, LACE, Los Angles, USA
Narrowcast: Reframing Global Video, Pitzer Art Galleries, Los Angeles,
USA
2007
Reality Crossings, 2. Fotofestival Mannheim, Germany
52nd Venice Biennale (Slovakian Pavilion), Venice, Italy
Prix de Rome, De Appel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Elephant Cemetery, Artists Space, New York, USA
News From Abroad, Gallery Murray Guy, New York, USA
Free Electrons. Selected Videos from the Lemaître Collection, Tabacalera
Donostia, San Sebastian, Spain
2006
Indirect Speech, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
Don Quijote, Witte de With Center For Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, The
Netherlands
2004
Present Tense, Playstation, Fons Welters Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Indonesia under Construction, Witte de With Center For Contemporary Art,
1921-1977 1979-, Kunsvlaai, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2003
Parasite Paradise, SKOR, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Performances
2014
Lucas, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, Germany
Casa da Michèlle, Galerie Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2013
Discipline,
Leisure
&download
Punishment,
Please press
here to
thisContour
cv in pdfBiennial, Mechelen, Belgium
59
91
Norman Sanders
Photographing for
Publication
You’ve had it happen time and time
again. The original photograph
looks great; the effect is just what
you intended. Then you see it reproduced in an ad, a brochure, or a
magazine, and the effect is somehow
lost or misinterpreted.