EAST05 - Wolfgang Fiel

Urban Adventures

2005-08-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

I was always intrigued by the `settlements´for the workers of building companies on big construction sites. Usually they are done with a number of stacked containers. The longer the building process will take the more they turn into proper substitutes for domestic habits. They come with embroidered curtains flower arrangements along the handrails or as depicted with a lovely display of discarded machine parts suspended from the cut branches of a stump. Great stuff!

Urban Adventures EAST #5: The Performance

2005-08-10T18:27:00.000-07:00

`Reworking Gironcoli´
After a long day out in public space, we all are very tired but more than happy, that we managed to run two performances on one day as previously announced! I´ve attached some impressions on both and will add the official texts as soon as possible. At this point it´s about time to express my gratitude to Alexandra Berlinger for her video- and photographic documentation and the postproduction process of all these events. Although I would like to thank Joachim Bock for his great support on `Reworking Gironcoli´!

Urban Adventures EAST #4: The Performance

2005-08-10T17:54:00.000-07:00

`Extension to the Wittgensteinhouse´

Urban Adventures EAST #4

2005-08-07T00:13:00.000-07:00

The so-called `Mistplatz´is a Viennese-wide network of places for the disposal of industrial waste. The pieces delivered are either from private households or corporate businesses (mostly building companies) and is classified into the categories rubble, wood, cardboard, paper, plastic, packing material or hazardous waste. Especially the wooden pieces are of considerable size and quality. Together with cardboard and packing material it makes a perfect resource for potential reuse! I am wondering whether the garbage men will allow me to take some of the pieces with me, since usually people are more than happy to unload the content of their cars trunk in order to get rid of burdening debris.

Urban Adventures EAST #5: Reworking Gironcoli

2005-08-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

The 5th Adventure will take place in the 22nd district of Vienna, a site adjacent to the danube and perceived as a kind of new city centre for corporate businesses. It all began back in 1979 with the official opening of the United Nations building, nowadays part of a new Viennese skyline together with a number of recently erected high-rise buildings, all of them constructed on a humongous concrete platform, from which the nickname of the place derives as `Die Platte´, which literally means `The Platform´. A big building company has established a showroom with their collection of sculptures from the Austrian artist Bruno Gironcoli. Some of them are set-up publicly right next to their office building. Surrounded by all these mediocre steel-glass towers and exposed seemingly arbitrary they appear somewhat displaced. For me this is the perfect starting point to rework one of these sculptures, adding more of a earthy feel to it.

Urban Adventures EAST #4: Extension to the Wittgensteinhouse

2005-08-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

The 4th Adventure is perceived to take place in the Kundmanngasse, 3rd district. For obvious reasons `The Wittgensteinhaus´ is one of Viennas most precious buildings with a distinguished history, currently in possession of The Bulgarian Embassy. My plan is to build some kind of an extension, which contradicts the sacred architectural heritage of early 20th century modernism, propelled by people such as Adolf Loos, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. Of more significance is the fact though, that there is still a lot of speculation in how far Wittgenstein took an active role in the design and building process, which led to the audacious title of a subsequent publication : Ludwig Wittgenstein: Architect.
I take it willingly and will face the challenge at his own game!

Urban Adventures EAST #5: The site

2005-08-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

Urban Adventures EAST #4: The site

2005-08-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Urban Adventures EAST #4

2005-08-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

Having been in London, Plymouth and Hamburg for the last 10 days, I am happy to continue with my daily updates. Today I met an old friend of mine for breakfast. Since I haven´t seen his new flat yet, we continued our conversation in his spacious livingroom with the first beer of the day. Apart from an inspiring conversation I spotted a perfect resource for my next building performance next door.
My plan is to go for two sites on one day in order to catch up with the delay and to challenge the concept in an even more dynamic manner.

Urban Adventures EAST #4

2005-07-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

Due to a visit in Plymouth, where I will attend a conference entitled `Altered States´, I wont be able to update my blog for the next days. I look forward to my next Adventures though, soon...

Urban Adventures EAST #3: Triumphal Arch

2005-07-19T23:42:00.000-07:00

Location: Berggasse 19
Vienna 9th district, Austria
Condition: unannounced
Date: 19 July 05
Start: 7:30 am
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes

The photographs by Edmund Engelmann, taken shortly before Freud’s emigration to London on 4 July 1938 in his Viennese residence, Berggasse 19 is documentary evidence of his domestic environment. The intimacy of the `mnemonic-cave´ therein preserved and Freuds daily routine, which he kept with little variations and the utmost discipline till his departure from Vienna (according to Jones, Ernest: Sigmund Freud, Life and Work, Volume Two, The Hogarth Press, London 1967) are important points of reference for the construction of associative scenarios in the course of individual urban appropriation.
Site-specific characteristics and the accumulation of urban debris are the operational elements for the building performance right in front of the entrance to Freud’s Viennese residence. A public space turns into a stage, with its properties describable in atmospheric or transient terms only and dependent on the contingencies of a concrete situation (event).
The physical structure does resemble a triumphal arch into a universe of its own; a gate for another regime of time.
Trajectories of movement are registered and mapped on virtual landscapes with choreographic precision.

Freud died on 23 September 1939 at three in the morning. In Hampstead as well as in Freud’s Garden almonds have been in bloom.

Urban Adventures EAST #3

2005-07-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

In the backyard of the `Planetarium´, an observatory in the 2nd district, I found some useful raw material for my building performance planned for tomorrow. Alike the second Adventure my intention is to build some kind of a structural framework for which constructional timber is perfectly suitable. The guys to whom the wood belongs to run a bar called `fluc´ over the summer months and told me to take as many as needed as long I would return it to them.

Urban Adventures EAST #3: Edifice for mobile exploration

2005-07-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

Seen in the "Augarten", Vienna, 2nd district.

Urban Adventures EAST #3: The third site

2005-07-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

Today I took a closer look on my third venue, which will be the entrance area to the Sigmund Freud Museum in his famous Viennese residence in the Berggasse, 9th district. The decision for this location is a continuation of sites significantly connected to biographical keypoints. The start took place in the region where I grew up and lived till the age of 19. The second spot is closely related to the Technical University, where I did study and therefore spent a considerable amount of time. With Sigmund Freud I hook up to an ongoing topic of mine, which started with a project entitled "Freud´s Garden" back in 2002.

Freud´s Garden
An attempt to reevaluate and map onto a particular part of London - ´Swiss Cottage´ - another urban structure of imagination, desire, association and recall upon the banal and everyday, the personal and intimate rather than the public.
An ecology of objects - elements of the new urban structure - are distributed on the site which is represented by a box and mechanical armature. The origin of `my city´ is Sigmund Freud´s settlement at 20 Maresfield Gardens (Swiss Cottage), on September 1, 1938. The indicated borders of the confined space within the box are sites of spatial flux. Every change of their current status is registered, subsequently effecting the performance and spatial arrangement of the elements within the box. As ephemerality and speed of change are the most distinctive qualities of my city, space is not exclusively described by the physicality of mass.
A participant takes an active role by unfolding and revealing the integral elements of the box in order to initiate or alter the procedure. Information about previous configurations is fed back into the system hence limiting predictability.

Urban Adventures EAST #3

2005-07-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

Supplement to the 2nd Adventure: Alike the first performance, the whole thing went surprisingly smooth. One reason for this was the early beginning but even when the police showed up around 10 am they haven´t been bothered by my presence at all! At that time my structure was finished and I was just about to dismantle it. Perhaps it´s just me not looking potentially dangerous. A friend of mine came along by chance and he told me that from a distance he mistook it for the restoration work on one of the monuments. This comment offers a good link to the images attached, which actually show a `house´ built around an equestrian statue placed on the rooftop of the national opera house for the purpose of restoration: a extraordinary example for ephemeral architecture!

Urban Adventures EAST #3

2005-07-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

Urban Adventures EAST #2: A tribute to Jonathan Swift

2005-07-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

Location: Karlsplatz
Vienna 4th district, Austria
Condition: unannounced
Date: 12 July 05
Start: 7:30 am
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes

"Whoever has an ambition to be heard in a crowd, must press, and squeeze, and thrust, and climb, with indefatigable pains, till he has exalted himself to a certain degree of altitude above them. Now in all assemblies, though you wedge them ever so close, we may observe this peculiar property, that over their heads there is room enough, but how to reach it is the difficult point; it being as hard to get quit of number as of hell;

- evadere ad auras,
Hoc opus, hic labor est.*

To this end, the philosopher’s way, in all ages, has been by erecting certain edifices in the air: but, whatever practice and reputation these kind of structures have formerly possessed, or may still continue in, not excepting even that of Socrates, when he was suspended in a basket to help contemplation, I think, with due submission, they seem to labour under two inconveniences. First, that the foundations being laid too high, they have been often out of sight, and ever out of hearing. Secondly, that the materials, being very transitory, have suffered much from inclemencies of air, especially in these northwest regions.
Therefore, towards the just performance of this great work, there remain but three methods that I can think of; whereof the wisdom of our ancestors being highly sensible, has, to encourage all aspiring adventures, thought fit to erect three wooden machines for the use of those orators who desire to talk much without interruption. These are, the pulpit, the ladder, and the stage intinerant."

Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub

*`To escape into the upper air,/This is the task, this is the labour.´
Virgil, Aeneid, 6, 128-9.

Urban Adventures EAST #2: Rip-Off as Recoding

2005-07-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

Seen in the entrance area to the Technical Museum in Vienna.

Urban Adventures EAST #2

2005-07-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

OPEC Headquarter in Vienna:
Oil price at record high, climbing!

Urban Adventures EAST #2

2005-07-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

The boroque church the place owes it´s name, was commisioned by Karl VI., designed by Johann Fischer von Erlach and has been finished in 1737. The Karlsplatz is a fairly green spot and beside the church it is mainly known for a bizzare arrangement and number of monuments (as previously mentioned), all of them inventors and somehow associated to the Technical University in some way. As the very nature of a monument is it´s elevated presence emphasizing on the outstanding social rank of the one carved in stone, I am reminded on one of my favourite books, which is "A Tale of a Tub" by Jonathan Swift:
"Whoever has an ambition to be heard in a crowd, must press, and squeeze, and thrust, and climb, with indefatigable pains, till he has exalted himself to a certain degree of altitude above them. .... Therefore, towards the just performance of this great work, there remain but three methods that I can think of; whereof the wisdom of our ancestors being highly sensible, has, to encourage all aspiring adventures, thought fit to erect three wooden machines for the use of those orators who desire to talk much without interruption. These are, the pulpit, the ladder, and the stage intinerant."
What a wonderful starting point for my second Adventure: A tribute to Jonathan Swift.

Urban Adventures EAST #2

2005-07-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

For the last days I was looking for an effective way to convince the police that once I would have caught their attention there is a good reason to give me the permission to carry on with my work. Since the "Kunsthalle Wien", the biggest local institution for contemporary art, spent quite a significant amount of money in a thing entitled "100 directives in how to use the Karlsplatz", this might be a good opportunity to declare myself being part of it and to fake some kind of an official paper which I have allegedly got from them.

Urban Adventures EAST #2: The second site

2005-07-06T06:46:00.000-07:00

I am considering the "Karlsplatz" to be the place for my next public building setup. This is one of the biggest and busiest public places in Vienna and specifically well known for regular gatherings of the local `drug community´. Thus the presence of police is ubiquitous and the city council just issued a law imposing a ban on any public gatherings or to hang around there for more than 10 minutes. Under this light it will be very difficult for me to keep going with the performance for a longer period of time as opposed to the first of my Adventures which lasted for 11 hours!
Since an important aspect is to find a spot, which would give me the opportunity to hook up with something that is already part of the environment, somewhat codified and well known for a specific quality or a personal aspect ascribed to it, I might start from one of the monuments arranged all over the place. These monuments are somehow perceived as a gallery of great Austrian inventors since the main building of the Technical University is just next to it. An outdoor hall of fame of those which represent the spirit of the University. This kind of pathos needs a reinterpretation, a symbolic shift on their pedestals.

Urban Adventures EAST #2

2005-07-05T17:41:00.000-07:00

After we have fixed some IT problems in getting the blog properly running it now will be daily updated as previously envisaged. Beside the daily entries I will catch up with more information on the first Adventure entitled: CAMP F.M.F.
Having had the most enjoyable time in Norwich for the exhibition setup and the opening I am now back in Vienna, where the preparations for the next Adventure are well under way. I came across some possible raw materials yesterday (see images) in the backyard of the Leopold Museum in the so-called Museumsquartier. It´s amazing how lavish big art institutions are when it comes to materials used for installations and spatial adjustements. All these materials are chucked in a bin regardless of it´s utility for repeated use. I will check all these institutions for possible resources regular and specifically like the idea to take the stuff which might have been used by other artists previously.

Urban Adventures EAST #1: CAMP F.M.F.

2005-06-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

Location: Karl Tizian Platz (Courtyard)
KUB – Kunsthaus Bregenz, Vorarlberg/Austria
Condition: unannounced
Start: 7:00 am
Duration: 11 hours

CAMP F.M.F. is a homage to Franz Michael Felder, an enigmatic figure in 19th century literature and political activism in Vorarlberg (Austria), where the first of my Urban Adventures took place.

Franz Michael Felder was born on 13 May 1839 in Schoppernau (Vorarlberg) as the son of a peasant. The highly talented autodidact developed into one of the most distinguished writers in Austria in the second half of the 19th century. With his novels (Nümmamüllers und Das Schwarzokaspale, 1863; Sonderlinge, 1867; Reich und Arm, 1868), his papers on social reforms and his political activism he reached wide public recognition beyond the borders of Austria. Together with his brother-in-law Kaspar Moosbrugger he was actively working for national education, cooperative societies, democracy and freedom of thought. Franz Michael Felder was a prophet for subsequent developments in society and a great novelist of his time. In his autobiography „Aus meinem Leben“ he ended his narration with his wedding shortly before he died. Felder died on 26 April 1869 not even 30 years old, a few months after the early death of his wife
Anna Katharina.

Urban Adventures EAST #1

2005-06-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Searching for some useful material for my first Adventure, a friend of mine told me about his shack, where plenty of old and disused wooden beams are piled up to the roof. I was allowed to take some adequate pieces. A local DIY-shop was the place to buy some brown parcel tape, screw clamps and a coil of polythene sheeting.

Urban Adventures EAST #1: The first site

2005-06-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

From the Alps to the main city of Vorarlberg:
On our way from the "Bregenzerwald" we stopped in the small village Schwarzenberg in order to buy some of the rather smelly but all the better cheese the region is famous for: "Bergkäse", which literally means mountain-cheese. Having arrived in Bregenz we immediatelly went to the venue for the first Adventure, took some images and discussed possible scenarios for the forthcoming event.

Urban Adventures EAST #1: Monument for Franz Michael Felder

2005-06-23T09:31:00.000-07:00

On my daily stroll through Schoppernau, walking on the hillside alley towards the local burial ground where the monument for Franz Michael Felder is located, I spot a beautiful tree house. One of those makeshift retreats done by children - a metaphor for the juvenile intuition Felder does stand for!

Urban Adventures EAST #1: The Caravan

2005-06-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

In Dornbirn I found a dealer for second hand caravans. The guy who runs the business told me, that he got one caravan, which is completely worn out and not supposed to be sold any more. His intention was to scramp it sooner or later or to use it as resource for spare parts. He agreeded on my plea to borrow it for one day and free of charge. At least the thing was good enough to be driven over to Bregenz.

Urban Adventures EAST #1

2005-06-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

On our hiking tour we finally arrived in Hopfreben, which is the place where Felder spent the summer, because of it´s green pastures for his cattle. It was right here, were he got the inspiration for his writings and braced his energies for the fierce disputes with the big local landowner and the priest in Schoppernau.

Urban Adventures EAST #1

2005-06-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

Today we have been to the Franz Michael Felder Museum in Schoppernau which provides a fairly good overview on the life and work of one of the most distinguished figures in Austrian literature and social activism in the 19th century. Looking at the living conditions in Schoppernau at his days, the manifold achievements are all the more remarkable. For what I termed "Dissipative Urbanism" Felder exemplarily embodies the personal attitude and spirit I am looking for.

Urban Adventures EAST #1: Some days in Schoppernau

2005-06-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

The starting point of my first Adventure was not urban at all. A couple of friends and I spent a few days in Schoppernau, the place where Franz Michael Felder was born in 1839. Schoppernau is a small village in the alpine region of Vorarlberg, about 50 kilometers from Bregenz, the main city of Vorarlberg. Our "residence" was a wooden farmhouse, that almost is in it´s original condition when built some 250 years ago.

EAST05: Gallery setup

2005-06-17T11:17:00.000-07:00

----- Original Message -----
From: "East"
To:
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 11:17 AM
Subject: Re: PVC foil / letter

Hi Wolfgang,
Thanks - we will all exclaim we recognize the material when you bring it I
am sure!

Other stuff - leftovers - do you prefer "materials" or "equipment" or
"rubbish" or all! There will be plenty, but I will look out for good stuff!

Sorry - I forgot to send you an official letter, which is attached. But I
think if you take a copy of the EAST poster with your name on it (which we
sent and I hope you got) that will prove you are exhibiting.

Will call if I have any questions - or let me know if you want to discuss
anything.

Best wishes,
Matthew

On 16/6/05 6:10 pm, "fiel@tat-ort.net" wrote:

> dear matthew,
> regarding the foil: my intention is to bring it with me for the set up. so you
> don´t have to worry about that. the other stuff (according to my drawing) will
> be put together with what you got in the gallery (as you previously wrote
> there should be plenty of leftover from the school and the gallery). projector
> is super! have you got the extra sound as well. i would be happy to get a call
> from you under:
> 0043 676 4168673
>
> thanks a lot, soon
> wolf.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: east@norwichgallery.co.uk
> To: fiel@tat-ort.net
> Date: 16.06.2005 12:46:21
> Subject: PVC foil and number
>
>
>> Hi Wolfgang,
>> Hope everything's going well.
>>
>> I wanted to know if you have a certain product, or type, in mind for the
>> projection material - can you find reference to it on a website and email me
>> the link?
>> Just we are having difficulty in knowing exactly what it is - but I know you
>> said it is common!!
>>
>> Also, I tried calling your mobile number, but it didn't seem to work - can
>> you send me it, with the relevant codes from UK?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Matthew
>>
>> Ps we have a good projector for you 2000 lumens LCD
>>
>>
>>
>> ****************************************
>> Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as
>> information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or
>> incomplete, or contain viruses. Therefore, we do not accept responsibility
>> for any errors or omissions that are present in this message, or any
>> attachment, that have arisen as a result of e-mail transmission. If
>> verification is required, please request a hard-copy version. Any views or
>> opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily
>> represent those of the School.
>>
>> This email and any files sent with it are intended only for the named
>> recipient and may be confidential. If you are not the named recipient please
>> email the sender immediately then delete this message. You should not
>> disclose the content, distribute or retain any copies of this message.
>>
>> Norwich School of Art & Design, Francis House, 3-7 Redwell Street, Norwich,
>> NR2 4SN. Tel: 01603 610561
>> Fax: 01603 615728
>> www.nsad.ac.uk
>>
>> ****************************************
>>
>>
>

****************************************
Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. Therefore, we do not accept responsibility for any errors or omissions that are present in this message, or any attachment, that have arisen as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required, please request a hard-copy version. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the School.

This email and any files sent with it are intended only for the named recipient and may be confidential. If you are not the named recipient please email the sender immediately then delete this message. You should not disclose the content, distribute or retain any copies of this message.

Norwich School of Art & Design, Francis House, 3-7 Redwell Street, Norwich, NR2 4SN. Tel: 01603 610561
Fax: 01603 615728
www.nsad.ac.uk

****************************************

----- Original Message -----
From: "East"
To: "Wolfgang Fiel"
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 12:53 PM
Subject: Re: Pictures of basement

> Hi Wolfgang,
> There will be plenty of left over stuff from exhibitions - the art school
> and gallery is always full of it!
>
> I think I would urge you to come as early as possible if you want to look
> for stuff like this and incorporate into your space.
>
> I don't think it's worth me sending a photo of the gallery store as it is
> very low ceilings and just piled with boxes! It is so densely packed you
> will not see much in a photo...
>
> Matthew
>
>
> On 31/5/05 10:58 am, "Wolfgang Fiel" wrote:
>
> > dear matthew!
> > hope that the preparations for east are well under way!? regarding the
> > verious materials for my setup my question is, whether the norwich gallery
> > has a stock of stuff, leftovers from previous exhibitions are any materials
> > not used so far. if so i would be very happy to rely on these materials only
> > in order to reconfigure what is available. i would be super nice, if you
> > could take a couple of photographies from the galleries storage room, for me
> > to get a grip on! thanks in advance, looking forward to your reply, best
> > wolfgang.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "East"
> > To: "Wolfgang Fiel"
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 5:29 PM
> > Subject: Pictures of basement
> >
> >
> >> And finally -
> >>
> >> This is the space, empty:
> >>
> >> Then lowest point of the ceiling is 175cm (beneath the pipes).
> >>
> >> It is approx 9.5m from the left hand side blue door corner to the right
> > hand
> >> side of the image.
> >>
> >> Matthew
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> ****************************************
> Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. Therefore, we do not accept responsibility for any errors or omissions that are present in this message, or any attachment, that have arisen as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required, please request a hard-copy version. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the School.
>
> This email and any files sent with it are intended only for the named recipient and may be confidential. If you are not the named recipient please email the sender immediately then delete this message. You should not disclose the content, distribute or retain any copies of this message.
>
> Norwich School of Art & Design, Francis House, 3-7 Redwell Street, Norwich, NR2 4SN. Tel: 01603 610561
> Fax: 01603 615728
> www.nsad.ac.uk
>
> ****************************************
>
>