joaoflux / digital / analog / culture
Scrap is no Art
17 June 2008A couple of days ago I had lunch across the street from good old Tachels, the former squat that became famous in the 90s. After a rather traumatic experience I had organizing an exhibition there back in 2001, I did not follow the development of the situation there during the last couple of years.
Waiting for my food and a not having anything to read with me a picked up one of the Tacheles Programs (I never see them anywhere else. Is it possible that they only manage to distribute it in their direct neighborhood?). The first sentence that caught my attention translates “scrap and bankruptcy aren’t art”. In a short text on the front page Tacheles e.V. distances itself from the scrap in their backyard. They claim that Fundus, the investor who bought the building a long time ago, tries to damage the reputation of Tacheles and teams up with small-time criminals to do so. According to Tacheles e.V. “Drug dealers and worse” use the territory for “deployment”.
I don’t know the latest details about the Fundus / Tacheles case, but using the kind of terminology Techeles e.V. uses on their flyer is certainly not helpful. It is of course fine to make a conflict public, even toward tourists who can not be familiar with the situation, only that by talking about scrap and art in one phrase one implies a fascist understanding of art. Of course scrap can be art and wether the the scrap in the back yard of Tacheles is art or not and wether anyone claims it is art or not has nothing to do with the conflict they are having. I can see that Tacheles e.V. wants to provoke an get attention with this kind os a statement. Probably they also thought that distancing themselves from scrap as art and from the junkyard next to the building (which probably adds quite a bit to the touristic potential of the place) they can show that they are a serious organization that should get permanent funding from the city. This kind of opportunism mixed with the paranoia that sees conspiracy seems to have become the mode of operation at Tacheles.
Technorati Tags: art, Berlin, Fundus, Oraninenburger Str., politics, tacheles
| Posted in Berlin, General, Politcs | del.icio.us |
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Here the latest details about Fundus and Tacheles:
The property Tacheles owned by the Fundus Group was placed under forced administration. You can say that the urbanistic plan presented by Fundus and saying that the building development should be completed in 2005 failed. To name it bankruptcy, to identify the failure of an idea,is legitimate and right.
Fundus could have stopped the embarrassing touristic rip-off in the area behind the house. They have not done it, despite the requests of Tacheles. The representatives of Fundus know exactly that profiteering and crime up to acts of violence damage the reputation of the art house. Also the artists working in the house suffer from that. An example is the theft of water. The operaters of the bars and establishments outside steal the water from Tacheles. The artists are annoyed and attacked by them; the smell of excrements in the house is not part of a genial creative concept, but the product of nightly consuming of alcohol and drugs. Boozing, bitches and pub crawling have nothing to do with art. Scrap is no art – this does not mean that you cannot make art out of scrap.
As paranoid oppotunists we do not understand the accuse of fascism, unless the blogger is involved in a conspiracy.
So much for the latest details. Thank you for making the Tacheles flyer public.
Martina Ludwig (Tacheles fan)
Dear Martina,
I don’t accuse Tacheles e.V. of being fascist, but of employing sloppy wording, which can be read in a way that shows a very problematic understanding of art. This whole conflict has nothing to do with the question wether what is going on in the back yard of Tacheles has anything to do with art. I think the statement on the flyer is counter productive for your case, that’s all. Anyway, thanks for leaving a comment.