City Views – The focus of the first event are individual presentations of cityscapes from six artistic positions. In the “kleinen Markgräflerhof” four video works invite the spectators to stay and delve into the different narrative stories.

In the video work Night Walk (2009) by Maria Ångerman a portrait of an urban nightscape can be seen, in which lonely characters move across the screen. Despite their different histories and geographic distances, the protagonists are linked together through the texture of the night and emanate a mixture of silent longing and dark unease. Through this, closeness turns to distance and the everyday to secrecy. This atmosphere is emphasised through the consciously omitted narration. (Images: Video-Stills)

The work it's the ghost (2012) by Nicolas Carrier has a similar effect. The video takes the viewer on a journey through a colourless, seemingly deserted suburb. Only occasionally do sporadically playing children capture our attention. The idea of a mystery creating a thriller like quality, an awkward feeling, which is heightened through the constant rhythm of the audio track. (Images: Video-Stills)

The title of the video work Varanasi Connection (2009) by Urs Aeschbach confers many things. In the centre of a model-like colourful streetscape stands an electric telephone pole. Out of nowhere telephone lines are laid, tapped and bugged, until an anarchistic monument arises. A composition of an Indian string instrument underlays its entirety.
The work captivates us with its spontaneous simpleness, its charm and wit, it also raises questions concerning the different forms and norms of society. (Images: Video-Stills)

How does urban space define itself? In the video work Belyea St (2010) by Merrick Belyea, the material arrangement of the place and its staging on a spatial platform is reduced to a minimum of urban architecture: the single house settlement. The camera moves through a model of a house and the oppressive background music, creates a conflict between destruction and reconstruction. What stays in our memory is, how nature recaptures the urban space, without having really ever left it. (Images: Video-Stills)

Above the exhibition at “The kleinen Markgräflerhof” are two interventions in public space, which animate further discourse.

lifeClipper3 (2010) by Jan Torpus is an interactive, new media art work, which moves between art and research, where a computer based extension enables an alternative perception of reality. Equipped with a portable Computer System, headset with display, camera and microphone, Jan Torpus invites to an intensive real time walk through the “St.Johannspark”, in which the reality of the actual landscape is extended with artificial image content. The park area becomes a “playground” between the different worlds. (Images: Impressions)

The view of a city is also made by the people who live in it. Often small things in everyday life, encoun- ters, exchanges and interpersonal relationships make a place appear friendly or hostile.
The artist duo Ingke Günther and Jörg Wagner have worked for several years on the project Feldforschung Abendbrot (field research supper) (in Switzerland “Abendbrot” is known as “Café complet”, which is a breakfast type meal with coffee, jam, cheese and cured meat, that is normally served at supper time).
In the run-up to the event, they plan to intervene with people on site, to research the cultural conventions and habits around the “Abendbrot”. The experiences, results and images etc., will be on display during the first event.

> Abendbrotforschung der Blog (research supper)