parkTV (Lecture)
Stefan Krüskemper

Thank you for inviting me to speak today. Thanks to the audience for coming tonight.

At the very beginnig of my talk I would like to speak about myself and the office of integrative art, the collective I founded together with other artists in Berlin.

After that I will introduce the project parkTV and the research we did about the municipal park of today and our experiences with it. The group was made up of Jörg Amonat (Berlin), Johannes Volkmann (Nuremberg) and myself.

The first phase of our project was the research in situ about the municipal park in Dessau in 2001. The second phase was a vision of what a park could be today. 2003 we installed a parksituation in a shopping mall as a representation of a contemporary park. The third part of parkTV was the development of products for a park atmosphere at home. One idea of this product-line flowed into a project for Luthers church in Wittenberg in 2006.

I will begin with some facts about myself. I studied architecture at the university in Dortmund. My professors were J.P. Kleihues and some other Berlin architects like Prof. Nalbach and Prof. Sawade. Today I think the important things I learnt, were Teamwork and the tools to develop projects in a conceptual way. I worked during my studies more on free themes with formats like video or new media, then drafting real buildings. The result was the completion of a postgraduate degree in public art with Prof. JP. Hölzinger in Nuremberg at the academy of fine arts. I think at this time, 1997, it was the only place where you could study public art in Germany.

From 2000-2007 I taught new media at the academy of fine arts in Nuremberg and in 2008 public art at the alanusuniversity in alfter, near Bonn.

I´m currently working on a commission for public art in Berlin and I´m also on the Jury for several art competitions.

In 2000 I founded the office of integrative art together with some other artists. Today the office is made up on Jörg Amonat and myself. Since 2005 we have also been publishing books and media like DVDs. This is called the »verlag für integrative kunst«, publisher of integrative art. Here I have some publications to show you.

Project: parkTV, verlag für integrative kunst, Berlin 2005. ISBN: 3-906086-90-9

1.

The first question I often hear, when I`m talking about our project parkTV and the first phase in Dessau, is: Why Dessau? Why the municipal park? Is there anything special about it? No, there isn´t. The park is a common park in the city centre of Dessau. Everything is normal: a fountain, some benches, the obligatory sculptures, a snackbar.

Once we were in Dessau. It was summer. We were sitting outside at the teahouse, the so called »Teehäuschen«, the only place in the park with a beergarden, but we were sitting alone. The sun was shining and we couldn´t understand why nobody else was here. Maybe what was special was the fact, that most people felt indifferent towards the park.

This subjective Image was the beginning of parkTV. We used the park as a springboard to think about public space in general and in this specific situation. So the answer to the question is always: Why not. Why not Dessau?

We wrote down our ideas for the project - it was the year 2000 at the end of our studies in Nuremberg - and we got a one year grant from the Bavarian Government of Science and Art for our research in Dessau.

At this time there was a murder in Dessau. Some neonazis murdered a Mozambican. They weren´t from Dessau, but for a while the City had a lot of media coverage. The people became indignant. A lot of rituals were carried out by the politicans in the way they are carried out everywhere. They built up a little memorial to lay down flowers. The rockstar Udo Lindenberg came and visited the wife of the victim.

But that wasn´t all. For a while the park looked desolate. A lot of inhabitants didn´t go through it because of the drug-dealers and so the police installed survailance cameras to observe the area. The cameras (CCTV - Closed Circuit TV) were a pilot project.

2001 our first step in Dessau was to make contact with the inhabitants of the city. We didn´t want to come as experts out of the blue with great ideas to save and redesign the park. We just wanted to talk and to understand.

So we started with a reader's letter forum in the regional newspaper, the mitteldeutsche Zeitung. One of our ideas was an intervention for the park. We wanted to close the park temporarily. Even for a few days. But a journalist from the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung wrote an article - maybe in a lurid style - about our idea and the people of Dessau didn´t understand the symbolic aspect, the appreciation of the intervention, and so they were angry. They wrote a lot of postings. »Who are these guys?« They reviled: »They can´t be from here. Maybe they are from a commercial office and they want to buy our park«. And they jeered in the forum. »They are artists? They first should work hard like we do. Then they wouldn´t have such ideas.«

Theorem one: Love the process not your expectation!

Another forum was the iPark, an internet platform we installed on the web. The iPark was a kind of virtual reality, where you could leave your opinion on the trees of the park. We installed an internetstation in the electronic market SCHAULANDT opposite the park for the young people, where you could visit our multimedia homepage for free. You could get information about our project and you could see the iPark on all the screens in the market.

Another format we initated was a parkwalk organized by an alternative institute AGENTUR REISEWERK for regional history. It was a success and a lot of older people came and joined the discussion.

Of course we were in contact with the government of Dessau and we had the word of the relevant people, that the interventions we planned were allowed. For example a park cinema or a symposium at the Teehäuschen.

But at this time there were local elections in Dessau and the mayor didn´t like our project. Or, rather, he saw that a lot of voters didn´t like the project. So he stopped everything in public space, our set of interventions and the hanging of our posters.

Theorem two: Don´t trust the government. One person from the government can stop everything if he personally doesn´t like it.

We thought about what to do next. We wanted a process and that´s exactly what we got. Ok, Not the one we wanted. One important fact was the issue that the park was often empty. But on the other side of the street was a very big mall and this mall was full of people. So we left the public space and went to the private space, to the mall.

For the symposium we invited Gerald Kohl the policedirector of Dessau, Boris Krmela an urbanist, Kerstin Lück a mediator and coach for de-escalation from Berlin, Klaus Klemp, an expert on public space from the Franfurt government for culture, the journalist Thomas Steinberg from the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung and the residents to talk about the situation and the future of the park in Dessau. We put all of the plants in the mall together and played a CD with voices of birds, to create a park atmosphere. It was an interesting, constructive talk. For a moment you could imagine, that another park could be. But nobody official from the government was there. Nevertheless we reached a lot of people and we got another good article in the newspaper.

2.

After a few months we decided, that for us the future of the park today, isn´t the municipal park. We didn´t want to go back to Dessau.

In general the park embodys a utopian place, a place where nature and culture are close together. A place where your desire for a better world finds a focus. We saw, that this is what the shoppers were actually searching for. The shopping mall is a kind of media. It simulates one day the traditional city or another day the italian culture. And tomorrow it simulates spring. We believed the future to be the simulation of a park from yesterday. The shopping mall could end or, maybe, enlarge the opportunities for public sphere. Either way there isn´t a difference between the surveillance cameras inside and those outside.

So we decided to create a set of modules for a park in malls. We thought about the atmospheres we like and from those we made our draft. for example there are elements like a »Teehäuschen«, artifical grass to lie down on in the electrical sun, a concert at the fountain of the park (in every mall there is of course a fountain), birds singing from a soundtrack, a lot of plants (later we were sponsored by a garden-centre) and last but not least sculptures and memorials. All this was our critical and ironic vision of a park of today.

By chance we were invited to participate in Nuremberg in the so called blaue nacht. One of these typical cultural events. All the museums and galleries were open and there were performances and concerts in the streets.

We made a proposal to the management of the mall CITYCENTER in Nuremberg and got the opportunity and the funding to try out our set of modules there. The manager was happy to be present at such an event. We tried to get authorisation from the government to open all the shops in the mall during the night, but that wasn´t succesfull. But never mind. We developed our installations and invited musicians for a concert. We also invited Reinhard Knodt, a philosopher, for a park walk and Dr. Helmut Beer a historian to open up a sculpture in form of a lecture. You could hear the speech of the philosopher through the audio system of the mall in every room, in every toilet....

Theorem three: There is no humour outside.

What is success? On the one hand more people came to see our project than I could have imagined. So many people. It was funny when the masses moved up and down. I couldn´t understand it and asked myself Why have they come? but found no answer. We came to the conclusion that nobody, well that the most of the people, didn´t understand the ironic touch of our project. They didn´t see art. It was really a surprise for us, that they thought »This is real, this is our park for the night. That´s normal. What´s the problem?«

It seems that this part of our project parkTV was for all concerned a great misunderstanding. The fact is that inside the mall everything is entertainment. The mall is a kind of big black whole which sucks everything in and holds it inside. Let art fall in and you will see it transformed instantly: scorching and glimmering. Maybe the mall could metabolize every sort of energy into money.

I wasn´t surprised to find that last spring I heard voices of birds from the audio system in the malls. Next time, may be, you will hear a critical discourse from a philosopher as you buy your jeans.

3.

We acted always as a reaction to what was happening and we followed the way the project went by itself. So the last issue of my lecture is to present the future of a park at home, as a logical continuation of our project. In the process of parkTV we developed some products, a product line, to create a park in your flat, your private sphere. There where nobody disturbs. There were you are safe, without Cameras. There were communication takes place only if you want it to.

To build up your personal park, you should first use our sent. It contains everything you would like to smell in a park. Next start our CD with an ambient sound of your park. Birds, wind, trees, people singing. Another important part is the small piece of artificial grass. Lie down and relax. My tip: buy it from BAUHAUS or HORNBACH and make it for your family. To finally give your flat the right atmosphere you should decorate the rooms with our unity plant and our motto card »grow«. Close your eyes and feel the summer...

Did we fail with our project parkTV? Yes, absolutely and no, why do you think that?

I think we failed, because at the beginning we had an image of what art could add to a context, to a public space. But the reality showed us, that the process of privatisation and the segregation of society has come a long way. For example today nobody has a problem with the CCTV inside of a mall. In truth the surveillance system is an advantage for the shops inside the mall and as it acts as a deterrent against unwelcome people; waifs and strays. Maybe you are the one, who lives inside the new gated communities and therefore know that between the home of the people and the shopping mall there isn´t a great difference.

Indeed the municipal park looks desolate, is the location for the people without a job, without a chance. At the same time these locations in general are redesigned with commercial help and look - without any discussion - well and pretty. But under the surface nothing has changed. There are the same problems. Most of the residents don´t really use the park, the public space, in an active way. Often, the users don´t take responsibility for the park and so people try to delegate resonsibility. But that doesn´t work. The people who get the job sell the public space, because they can´t fill it with life. So the really open question is, what´s behind this term »public space« today. In the end I think, our project parkTV didn´t fail. The project shows and reflects all that I described as the basis of a special and very local place. Again: We wanted a process and that´s exactly what we got. Our boat parkTV didn´t sail, it ran aground, but in doing so succeeded in highlighting the problems of the public space.

Theorem four: the private isn´t the end of the public.

This picture could be the official end of the project parkTV. But I would like to show you an extension, some products we developed a little bit later, in 2006. In collaboration with the QUEDLINBURGER SAATGUT GMBH we produced bags with seeds. One bag contained seeds which make the ingredients for a soup, and one which makes your tea with herbs and one which lets flowers grow to decorate the table. The bags were designed like postcards so that you can invite your friends, your neighbours and your family to have a meal together. On every bag there is a question, such as »What is value today?« (»Is permanent growing possible«, »what fills our plate?«). The idea was to reflect about these themes, the economic situation today, as you sit together. This picture shows our seeds-project in Wittenberg, in Luthers church. For a few months we installed our table with the seeds and our banner with the questions.

Thank you for your attention!

2008, Lecture in Weimar, Bauhaus-University