ASAP

Bert Kramer
Is born in Erica near the German border, grew up in a farmers family. Studied interior design. Works and lives in Amsterdam. His architectural work is based on temporarily use, architectural mobility and durability. He likes to design and to build stand alone units who are able to be self supporting. Is interested in the dynamics of any architectural space, architecture without walls and believes in the power of collective minds and collaboration.

Questions asked
How to give insight in our urban environment, how can we unveil the essence of the interior of the city, its use and the people who live in it.
Does public space functions ok, or is there a lot of work to do
When is public space exciting

The interventions,
started at 11 September and ended the 28th of September.
The interventions where based on asking local and international “city experts” questions about our urban environment. Nine people where asked after a small interview where if they would like to try to practise their ideas they had about public space. As an addition to these videao there are three more videos, of people who asked as well, but it didn’t ended up in an interview. Eventually there are 11 video triptychs for this exhibition, with a duration of 3 minutes each. These videos try to give an exclusive insight in the use of our urban environment. As a first attempt for a database where everybody eventually can upload his/her ideas about their urban environment especially what is good about it, how to improve and upgrade it, or just a video comment! The format always should be a video triptych and the goal is to realise some ideas in an European and urban context, starting in Munich. How, when, where, what are future questions. That it will happen and in what scale is a matter of time and ambition.

Vallerie Christianson
Was Born and lives in Munich, she studies art. In her work she likes to use cardboard, her intervention consisted two parts. Searching for material and building a ephemeral sculpture in public space

Questions I asked her where:
can you tell me who you are
can you tell me something of your background and why that it is that what you do right now
why do you live in a city
is this your live, or is it your work
so you think you are an artist
do you see the city as an place where you work and live for ever
what do you do to survive in the city

Intervention, 11 September from 2 until 7 o'clock
Location old pinkotheke
we collected cardboard at several supermarkets and at her local vegetables shop. The owner kept his little trailer especially full so we could take it. The location was on the grass in front of the old pinakotheke, we build the whole day and left the work for the night to see how it would look like the next day. It was only a little damaged, that was a surprise because it was so in the open. What was nice that we met Mario, an intelligent but difficult man. He was homeless and could tell a lot about the area were we worked. I wanted to do an interview with him as well, but he said that he was an enemy of the state, so they would find him and hurt him, at least!

Christian Schnurer
Was born 200 km north of Munich, and is searching for the meaning of his city and his personal situation in Munich.

Questions I asked where:
Can you tell me who you are and tell me something about your background.
What are you, an artist
What do you want from the city
How do you use the city and is it relevant for you as an artist
Are you an DIY person
Where you as a child challenged by things that where broken
Is it true that urban space is much more relevant than the landscape
If you make art in the mountains, does it have the same dynamics
If the city is a platform for your work, what is the countrysid
What is it that the city wants to be and, what do you want to be in the city
Can you describe Munich

Intervention 12 September 3 until 6 o'clock
We drove around to take a look at his old studios and what became of them, we looked at an old chimney with the text ‘Jé taime’ That he would like to use for a new sculpture. At the end of our tour we went to his firs studio ‘mixkuche’ where we unscrewed a steel sign. It was the first time that he was there after he left, a few years ago. After our trip we went to his house where we ate a typical recipe, with a cake filled with plums, on top you put pudding or butter with crumbled hazelnuts.

 






Johanna Berueter
Was born in Zurich Switzerland, did some stage design and fashion design. She studied art therapy, had a fashion shop ‘hoihoi’, with a friend and right now Johanna works with kids in a villa Stuck Munich. Every now and then she has a new collection she shows this collection to a loyal audience.

Questions I asked;
Can you tell me who you are
Can you tell my why you live in the city
Do you always lived in the city, or did you also lived on the land
can you tell me something about your work and how this involves you and the city
how does your work relates to the city and the people
How do you use the city and what does public space means to you
So you see the city as a machine that you would like to stop for a few seconds
So you think the city works like a multi layered web
What kind of idea you have to connect or combine al these layers, and needs. Or is it fine the way it is right now
Do you think that you could ad something to the city to connect al these layers
Can you tell me what the city gives to you that the countryside couldn’t give.

Intervention, 13 September 11 until 4 o'clock
Location, Sebastiansplatz
We went to Johanna’s studio to collect al kinds of colourful materials and here sowing machine. From her studio we drove to the Sebastiansplatz where the synagogue is. Before we came there it was the first time that I was stopped by the police, after checking my papers, they said it was ok! I asked what could happen if we parked our car at the Sebastiansplatz, well he said, it could be that one of his colleagues send us of, because it was not allowed to stand there. We found our spot!  At the sebastiansplatz we opened up to make hats for everybody who would like to join our little workshop. After 15 minutes we already had 8 kids and their mothers or nany’s who joined us, and an grandfather showed everybody how to make a palm tree. The afternoon ended perfect when this gipsy band joined us and played some nice tunes

Claud Biemans
Was born in the south of the Netherlands, near Eindhoven. She lives and works in Amsterdam. She studies flora in the cities, writes books about this topic, gives tours trough several different land or cityscapes. Claude translates also thesis’s in other languages

Questions I asked
Can you tell me who you are
Can you tell me something of you background, how you became a researcher, biologist, scientist
How do you use the city
How does culture of the city relates to nature in the city
Do you see differences between cities and their nature/culture
How do you use the city, what do you get from the city and what do you give
What is the differences between the countryside and the city
How is nature cultivated in the city
What could we learn of nature in the city
What is the difference between the cultivated city and the way you use uncultivated culture
Are there similarities between culture and nature, especially according to biodiversity

Intervention 19 September 11 until 5 o'clock
Location Olympia park
We met at the parking lot of the Olympia park where Claud set out a tour trough the different types of pavement, bushes and other growing green stuff. During the workshop the group collected ingredients for salad, thee, pancakes and marmalade. The tour ended near the peteulring where I set up a kitchen to prepare the ingredients for everybody who would like to taste the flora of Munich. It was a cold and rainy day so there were not that many people. The two that I remember the best was a old neighbour who told me lots of story’s and kept me from setting up the kitchen, when Claud and here group came I was still busy. But nevertheless he had nice stories and recipes how to put herbs in liquor and make thee from the lime tree. The other one was a lady who by accident took the wrong exit, and she had to go to the toilet, but I think she stayed for half an hour just because she liked what we did, or maybe she was just hungry?

Marius Diab
Was born in Munich, also lives and studies in Munich, has Arabic roots. Wonders about public space in general and want to use the dynamics between spaces to move things that he wants to move. I know it sounds vague bur the video shows the opposite. When we first met he was assisting Vallerie Christianson, but he was so excited about my project that he insisted, to have a project as well.

Questions I asked were;
Can you tell me who you are, your background and were you where born
How do you think about the city
Does the city tries to be open
So you use the dynamics of the city for your own fun, just to see how it works
How do you make abnormal thing normal, and what do you do
How do you achieve this, can you give an example
So you use the dynamics of the city for your own pleasure and could you give an example of this
Intervention, 19 September. 11 until o'clock
Location U-bahn Petuelring

Marius brought a little bike with him that he would like to use during the intervention. He Joined the workshop from Claud Biemans because he really would like to know more about what was growing in the city. I overestimated his absence and the fact that Claude and Marius whre having the intervention at the same time therefore sometimes I forgot when I had to film, who and what. At the Petuelring Marius set up his bike upside down with its wheel against the escalator so the wheel was turning when someone was using the escalator. He told me that he uses static dynamics (that’s how he calls it) to grill something. So we set up a grill next to the escalator, using a sword for a spies. He wanted to have a fish from the Isar to grill but to get such a fish is impossible because of the limited number of permits. It was Sunday al the shops where closed, so we bought a sandwich at the  petrol station, filled it with cheese and herbs from Claud and grilled it. It was really dry and not well cooked, so the conclusion of Marius is that he liked his idea but it needs o lot of development. To be continued!

Circus Baldoni
20 September
Baldoni Is a small family circus with a various program. The first time that I visited them, Tony Baldoni let me stay to watch the show. After the show we met again and we set a date, the 20 of September! During this first interview he was really nervous, the reason for this was probably the question to do something abnormal, and the fact that he would like to have his circus into Munich. Right now he only gets permits for, for instance Pasing. He told me that what ever we did it is not his intention to piss against the legs of the government! I understood his situation and I said, maybe we can use the intervention to give his circus some positive publicity, but unfortunately for two days in a row it had been pouring cats and dogs, the stable of his horses camels and goats was soaked, the hay and other food was wet and some containers with material were over flooded. He had so much stress that he asked me nicely if we could do it in an other moment. But I had a full agenda so it was not really possible for me to fit him in somewhere. I asked him if I could come and film this situation, his answer was short ‘NO’. But I made some nice portraits of the show, these I would like to show to you.

Fabian Vogl
Is born in Munich and lives in Munich. He followed the family tradition of his parent and grandparents and became an artist as well. He studied in Vienna (Austria) stage design and graduated in Saltsburg. After this he studied fine arts and installation art in Munich He works in the studio where also his grandfathers Hans Vogl worked, and slowly this place becomes a little museum. He likes football and is a fan of Munich 1860

The questions I asked were;
Can you tell me who you are where you come from and what you do
What are the thing you do have to do doing with public space
What does public space and the city means to you
Can you tell me why we walk on the wiese
So you could say that you always look for a situation that especially is public and strange, and than you try to make a building site to see what will happen
How do you use public space and how do you implant your work in it
So you work has a true interaction with public space
Can you tell me something about how you think about public space, not your work but in general
Is that what you do in public space illegal
So your work is a fight against your fear for public space
You think many people have the same fear as you, to do something in public space, to have a certain interaction
What is the most important question the city should ask for itself, how you influence public space, our world, our lives so that something is changing
Do you think that your work is able to change the present ideas about the city or does it stay art and that it doesn’t change anything on a political level

Intervention 21 September 10 until 2 o'clock
Location Esperantoplatz
The day before we did Fabians intervention we searched for an nice spot as close at the theresien wies as we could. Because there is a lot of police we had to be frank and open, to get ourselves not in trouble. The next day we drove to the Esperantoplatzand started the intervention. Fabian made a static building site using concrete and rope to protect the one tree against people their urine and vomit, we mixed the concrete on side in a molde.

Stephanie Muller
Was born in a little village called Großkarolinenfeld, studied sociology, psychology and communication. And during her study she had a lot of time to experiment in public space with art and different kind’s of art expressions. Likes to use DIY to work in the city
Klaus Dietl
Studied art at the Munich academy, was born in Rozenheim, travelled in a wide circle around Munich but never lost the city out of sight

Questions I asked;
Can you tell something about who you are and what you do
So you fall in art (in love)
So you both live in Munich and you also were born there
Where were you born
Why did you decided to come to Munich
What about other cities
So in a way you love the city the way it is because you can make enemies
There are places were you cant crawl but you have to crawl, so you like blind spots.
You work in the city because here you have a studio, but you also work with the city, so how does the city functions according to your thoughts
How do you see public space
There are rules in public space that you could interpreted, how do you interpret urban space
You can’t claim public space for ever, in this space the government also claims, so can you do something until the police sends you away. And then ask why
Do you play with the rules
So you initiate something, ask people to join you and al in the sudden you have a critical mass
Is urban space only physical space or is it is also emotional space
Is the city a concept, is the idea of art in general a concept, and than you make it, or do these worlds go parallel. Is the thinking and doing equal
Are you spoiled and how do you get back to the roots of the possibilities
What is your conclusion in what you do right now or is it impossible

Intervention 24 September 2 until 6 in front of the Schryenbad
I met Klaus en Stephanie n a street bench, there they started to explain what their intervention would look like. The bench had some broidery and they wanted to do a simple but real effective  action with it. After this action we went to the Isar where we parked the car near a beer stand where they made an army of little people (old playmobile), who where crossing the footpath. We were drinking a beer and looked how the people reacted. After this we went on the wiielsbacher bridge where we implanted an usb stick with information, so if you want to see what is on it you have to check the seats and bring your laptop to extract the information, You as a stranger also can put something on the stick.

Bing Ie
Lives and works in Utrecht, would love to live in Amsterdam. He used to be an visual artist but gave that up after ten years of making woodcut prints. At this moment he is a facilitator of any kind, working in the creative industry, organising among others art fairs, music festivals and fashion shows. He thinks of him selves as a snob and a consumer, he only wants the best and is willing to put some effort to achieve that! That is why Bing has not a clear idea about public space, because he only uses it to go from A to B, and has not a conscious meaning about public space. But I helped him out of that dream!

Questions I asked;
Can you tell me who you are
where do you come from
So you are a tourist
So cities are important because you can consume them, you are a consumer and you make other people consume as well
Is the internet as public space the same as public space I cities
Are cities hotspots to enjoy
How do you use cities, how do you arrange that you get somewhere
What do you think is interesting about Munich, to go to
So Munich is not so interesting, it’s a little of the chart
How do you relate one city to an other, if this is not such an good example
How do you use public space in Utrecht, is it the place to be or you just go true and that’s it
Can you tell me how you think of public space, and think up loud. Is it interesting
Why was public space, when you where younger more interesting than it is now
So for you public space was a chapter in a book, you now it, still read the book but this chapter you know
But you do use cities to harvest
But you are also curious to other European cities, because you work in European cities and work with creative people in cities
So you sap true culture in a city, but you don’t need public space to sap true, than you just go from A to B
What cities do you go to, in Europe

Intervention, 22 September, 7 o’clock
We went to Tantris, ‘the’ restaurant to go to if you want to eat snobbish in Munich, and it was! We decided not to take the wine menu, because some wines where over the 30 euro, a glass and than the menu would cost around the 500, - euros. To tell you the truth, it was nice and balanced, in atmosphere, interior, and in service. And I also know that some dishes just taste fine, anywhere! For us that was the clue to say that even though it was good, for its level Tantris was average. When you go to such a restaurant you want to be surprised, overwhelmed and shattered!  And this just didn’t happened, it was to flat! Only desert a slightly gelled champagne soup, that was a sensation!

Daniel Uberall
Lives in Munch he is a marketer and developer of new ideas.
When you do a project you have to work with trial and error, that means that not everything goes the way you planned. The plans that Daniel an I had also went wrong, Because of private reasons he could not attempt our intervention, even though we tried. But In our first meeting he took me to his bee’s to check on them. He wanted to show me how the bee’s where emptying the honeycomb. It was a bummer for him to see that the bee’s where already filling the comb up with new honey, the reason for this was the summer started up again. In this time of the season the bee’s prepare for the winter, but if it is still 25 degrees there are plenty of flowers to harvest from.
He told me a similar story Claud Biemans told me, that in the city we have a much richer biodiversity, and that bee’s can harvest their nectar much better. In the modern farming culture the bee’s must fly much further, but also that the nectar from for instance grain or corn is only a season product. The gardens in the city where everybody grows flowers thw whole year true, are the place to be for the bee’s. I also saw bee’s in the bakery eating the icing from the cake.

The planned Intervention, 23 September
It was our plan to make seed bombs, so we could do some guerrilla gardening, but also to hand out envelopes with a mixture of seeds, people could scatter the seeds where they liked. While handing out the seeds we could explain the necessity of bee’s, their vital contribution to the success of our species and the last thing bee’s will do is sting you, unless you go and sit on them, they’ll die if they sting you. Bee’s often are mixed up with wasps, but bee’s are much softer in shape in colour, and in temper.

Calanne moroney
Was born in a little village in Ireland, she is a country girShe studied architecture in Glasgow and Dublin and then moved to Amsterdam, she did her masters in ecological architecture, and set up a foundation to build with recycled material in South Africa. One of calannes bigger projects is that she is working on together with Geert Hutsenbaut, building mobi-one, this open foldable container will eventually be her home. And makes it possible to travel cheap en self-supporting, all over Europe.

Questions I asked were;
Can you tell me who you are
You started to travel trough Europe, was this a coincidence
Ingrained? Small mindedness, what is this
Is it a contradiction, living in a city because you hate small mindedness and to live in acommunity/collective because you look for a herd
You dropped out of the architectural scene, how come
So you like to create your own world in any aspect
You want to live mobile, and being stuck somewhere
Do you need for this ‘mode’ cities, or could you do it anywhere
You are a ‘change junky’, but why is this important, because if you change al the time, it is alsonot changing, it is also a constant ‘mode’
So you could say that there is a society, you take the rules of the society out of their context and put them in a new context
Could you say that you have chosen, other’s don’t choose, others choose for them
So you could say that right now you are in a face of your live that you need the city, not to send out a massage but to create you own massage. Trying to make a nice cake and leave out al the ingredients you don’t like.
does that means that you could go to the country side again
But why a city, the city is anonymous
So you create your own culture, as a subculture a cultural environment, to feed yourselves from. But if this becomes to successful, then you would step out
If your reality becomes the truth, you think you could still handle it
How do you use public space, as an architect, or as Aalanne
So, not knowing what public space is and talking about al these new media things, does this new media also creates his own public space, like face-book

Intervention, 25 September, starting from 1 o’clock
The 24th we went out to the maximilian strasse, and from there out we walked to the volksbad at the Isar to do some research. There at the kabelsteg, Geert Hutsenbaud saw a really nice image in the water. It was a hart made of red brick stones that brought us on the theme of new media, that what you could tell to each other by using an other media as non verbal communication. In this concept the stones of the Isar where the pixels, we only had to create order in chaos. When I spoke to Calanne and Geert the next day, they came with the plan to buy tiles and paint one side black, because of the contrast and shape it would be better to prepare it at the dagauer strasse and implement them in the Isar. Because my car was seized, and I had to spend the rest of the day at the police station, I don’t know what happened next, the only thing I know is that the tiles are still in the back of my car when I write this, and I hope they will be laying in the installation I’m planning in the rathaus gallery.

Wolfgang Metzger
The first person that I met here in Munich that tried to live by its own set of rules in the city and at the same time has a more or less normal live in the city as well is Wolfgang Metzger. I didn’t got the change to find out where this drive comes from or how he does it, but he has the patience and stubbornness for it, that only can mean that he will finish it. I don’t know when he is ready creating the world that fits to his ambition, but I think he does neither, as he told me! In a way he was so special that I wasn’t even planning to make a project out of his way of using the city, but when he asked me to come with him at five in the morning just to drive a train one hundred meters up the railway, I thought he was special. So, I made a film of his way of doing things, this film is a short version of a longer one. It is about one of his hobby’s, collecting trains. It is not the train that is special, what is so special is the way he got it and in a metaphorical way where it means! The thing is that he exchanged the train for 17 tons of metal scrap, the same weight of the train. This has a certain absurd reality, and at the same time I wonder how our lives would look like if we all went back to trade. This is also how he builds his future house and huge hall that will become his workshop. Everything is ecological friendly, up-cycled, nothing is called waste and everything finds his place. For me Wolfgang is the incarnated version of ASAP, He tries to find out in live what needs time and what is really important, how I saw him shape his live and his surrounding can only mean that he found his reality, the only thing that he has to achieve is to give his mindset to the city he lives in and the people he loves. I can only say take your time, ASAP!