This year's springhouse residency took place in an office building from the GDR times. The building was used as planning office for design and industrial architecture. Now there are different offices located in the building.
All residents were living and working for about a week long on this site. During the residency I made a performance work including my son but also the other way around, moulding my art according to my son's influence and presence. Blurring the boundaries between my art and daily life. I was challenging myself how much I can let go of things, something like an intervention in my artistic practice, putting my ego and will aside, letting go of certain forms of aesthetics choices or my own rhythm.
I was very much drawn by the Dresden heath and consequently the stream that runs through it. The stream is called Priessnitz which - in turn - got me to Vincent Priessnitz. He is considered the founder of modern hydrotherapy and emphasized the use of natural remedies, such as water, rest, air, exercise and suitable foods. As part of the forest, there is this little peninsula shaped strip that reaches out to the office building. The Priessnitz flows a street or two away from the location of the residency which was just a 5 minute walk to the border of the forest.
In contrast to the industrial building it felt wright to do something in a more Wordsworthian way, being in a more natural environment. Focussing on my relationship and interactions with my son and creating some 'spots of time'. Walden by H. D. Thoreau was a big inspiration because of the intervention he made in his own daily urban living, going to the forest and live in his self-made shelter. Another influence were the collective actions set up by Andrey Monastyrski in his trips to the countryside. In between my application and the actual residence I also started reading the book the Tao of Pooh. The book explains very nicely the principles of Taoism through the character of Pooh bear. It directed me to make some playful free form actions. Finding a way in the flow of things being together with my son and my family.
The work turned into symbolic play situations in which we chose a location along the Priessnitz, made a hut/shelter, looked for snails/slugs, had stick races in the water, made a forest song, went fishing, made a fire, took a bath/swim and rest in our shelter. Something reminiscent of The Right Way by Fischli and Weiss.
When the making of the architectural structure was in progress, I started to invite different people that work in the building to join me for a walk and talk towards and in the forest. As a continuation on the work I would take them to our little settlement and suggest a cold foot bath. In doing so taking them out of the industrial building and their routine and into the "nature". Amongst these individuals were an architect working on residential projects, an architect who works mainly with ecological construction materials, a Tai-Tchi teacher and the two main organisers of springhouse. The dialogue was framed by my interest in alternative modes in domestic living, the background of the person and the surrounding. The walks were for me some kind of attentive sensory experiences, paying attention to details in a similar manner as John Ruskin addresses in his word-paintings. Not just to the surrounding but also the differences between the persons I was walking with. Lets say dictated by their rhythm and tempo. The conversations were all recorded and will be used as material for my ongoing research.
While the preparations went on at the office building site, the work started to grow through word of mouth at the residency. The other residents as well as some visitors were curious and interested. So I suggested a group walk. During this walk a conversation grew between some of the residents, visitors and me. Next to the growth of a myth at the residency, the work itself was also going through some alterations with added layers by children and at some point complete destruction in orderly fashion. It was done by some organized hands as if it was done by the forester. So my son and I decided to rebuild a new structure out of the same material at the same place.
This residency work was part of my ongoing empirical research and performative work exploring alternatives in domestic living through action. It is an investigation in my autonomous and family's relation to structures, systems and orders in the broadest sense. Breaking down or building on my own structures and systems, challenge my habits and routine and finding out my potentials and limitations.
