05 January 2008

Heimat - ein Projekt, zwei Orte

In Paris entsteht eine Interview- und Fotoarbeit , welche sich mit den Symbolen für Heimat und Nation,
mit »Mère Patrie« und »Marianne« auseinandersetzt, in Berlin wird eine Interview- und Videoarbeit entwickelt.
Der Schwerpunkt liegt auch hier in der Auseinandersetzung mit dem Begriff Heimat:

Diese Arbeit entsteht in Zusammenarbeit mit der Kulturjournalistin Sophie Diesselhorst,
die uns bereits bei der Erstellung der Interviewstruktur unterstützt hat.
Unsere Interviewpartner sind Menschen in bestimmten Lebenssituationen oder mit einer persönlichen Geschichte.

- Immigranten zweiter Generation
- »Zugereiste« - im Zuge des zweiten Weltkrieges nach Deutschland Gekommene
- Gefängnissinsassen
- Heimkinder
- Urberliner und Wahlberliner
- Klosterbewohner

Die Interviews werden auf MiniDisk aufgezeichnet. Im Unterschied zur 'Pariser Arbeit' werden wir die Interviews nicht durch eine Fotoarbeit begleiten, sondern durch Videoaufzeichnungen, für die unsere InterviewpartnerInnen gebeten werden 2 Minuten still vor der Kamera zu sitzen.

Das Stillsitzen verleiht dem Bild eine gewisse Konzentration durch die Ruhe und erzeugt eine Spannung durch die in der Sequenz festgehaltene Lebendigkeit.

Im letzten Schritt der Arbeit werden die Videobilder mit den Tonaufnahmen der Interviews kombiniert und über deren Länge im Loop gespielt.

Die Interviews werden französisch untertitelt, sowie auch die Interviews in Paris übersetzt werden - so dass in einer Ausstellung in welcher die Berliner- und die Pariser Arbeit zusammen präsentieren werden, eine Gegenüberstellung und ein Vergleich des Begriffsverständnisses in den verschiedenen Situationen und Nationen möglich wird.
Die Ausstellung ist somit bi-lingual aber mono-thematisch und soll sowohl in Paris wie in Berlin stattfinden.

05 December 2007

Hey Alex und Andreas.

It was a bit harsh, but I knew you were stressed and in a particular context...
But when you say that you depend on us I totally agree, and I think it is the problem of our project : we are really busy, and our school isnt nice with us, nor comprehensiv . So we can't invest oureslves, and it will be difficult till the end. So we think that it is riksy to count only on us, cause we can't even manage to deal things for ourselves. That's why I said on a mail before that we thought it would be easier if you guys had something going on in Berlin, so that you could be activ, and not waiting for us ghosts to answer to questions we can't even think about some days... we could try from our side to give you some material, maybe during the holidays (cause we will have more time obviously).
Plus, I was thinking concretely on us four doing interviews with immigrates : us four with only one person, you two not understanding french, us four talking in English, than Caro and me talking in French with the person. And it's the same for the pictures : us four at someone's place, taking pictures of a stranger in his home, us talking in English about the pictures, the technical details...Wouldn't this all be ackward, and even more complicated than if we did it me and Caro, after talking precisely with you two to make clear every little detail of the result we want to get?
Sorry to rethink the whole thing, but I feel that something isn't necessarily right...I'm just proposing this point of view, cause I want to be practical, and I was picturing us four in these situations, and I thought it maybe didn't make that sense to do it this way...
Let's talk tommorrow, maybe between 12 and 2 ?
Bonne nuit a vous deux...

30 November 2007

heyo laurent and caro!
so lets start with answering questions:
we absolutelly understand your point of wondering where to make the connection with germany. but, to say it very plain - we think there alreay is one and to create a new project on our side is not necessary - nor is it possible at his moment. i hope i can express myself in the right way, give me some time to explain:
when we thought of the project, for andreas and me it was clear that the project as we all worked it out, was only possible in france - as we wanted to work with a french symbol and we wanted to make an instalation in the streets. people in germany wouldnt know what the french symbol means, nor could they connect something with such an instalation in the street so we could not transvere it one to one to berlin.
so the germany connection in the project is: one: heimat.
we analyze the very german word with the people , try to tranlate it and let notgerman people speak about this very german - very international topic. two: we are german. we have a german approach to the french symbols and french state of things. we bring the outside point of view. in my eyes this is totally enough as a connection - we are a french-german team, marianne is french, heimat is german, we put both in a project and analize the terms with a strangers point of view and work with them.
there is no way to transfere this stage of te project to germany -but the outcome is very very interesting for germans. we - the germans- have a very ambivalent relation to our homecountry, to the word heimat too as it was missused and for some still has the taste of third reich propaganda. how do the french deal with this topic? our neighbours, our special friends (/as in german-french friendship), the french that have the same and different problems with imigration, that have such a different attitude to their state , an attitude we even envy in time - wouldnt it be nice to say - im proud to be german - once in a while. the french can do it without being missunderstood. this is very very interesting. andreas and i would like to analise the outcome of our parisproject with a berlin journalist, who is very enthusiastic about the whole project - she helped us to work out the questions too.
so it would be -germans go to france -create with french a project in paris - with will be analised in germany in realation to german state of things-
there is so much connection i can hardly follow.(even sylvia loves the idea)
next to this, there is no possibility for us here to create another project. for one as we dont have these symbols, two as we dont have the time to work out another concept and we will need all our attenion and love and strength to work on the paris project as you poor lads are much busier with other stuff, so that we will be able to work with the fotos and interview parts once we have them - they are the raw material, we can support you from germany working on it and you can support us from paris taking pix and doing interviews. that doesnt mean, we take over after the pictures are taken. only that we can comfortably work on the project in germany, we dont need to work in paris. oh i hope you get me right. i mean after we all worked out how we want to treat the outcomes of our fotosessions we can do a lot of work here and finish it, when you come to berlin. we only can not start before we got raw material.
and as another thing, i do have a project with is part of the immigration project. we might get to connect it with the paris project - maybe in the way we want to connect paris to germany. that the experiences and outcomes of this second project are used to work with in paris.
unfortunatelly it is too late now to book a bus for paris next weekend. at least not beginnig of next weekend.maybe for saturday -meaning we arrive early saturday morning - would that be possible?
i have to speak about it to andreas again too, if there is a point.
what do you think?does it make sense? it only makes sense if we have -lets say 4 women on which we can relie to take pix of and take interviews with. we need the technical stuff and we need the hat. is that possible?
andreas and i can stay longer too, its ok.
once we have the first 4 or 5 portraits and interviews we will be able to work on the next steps and we dont need to be there for every picture - we have absolut trust in you - your a so much better photographer than we are, i bet - but we should work on the first pictures together so we get a common idea of the look.

is that all ok with you?

if you say, there is no way for us to organize it till next weekend 7.th./8th. then we will have to come on the weekend after. no point in rushing things if then we can not work effectively. i was getting a bit panicky cause i realized that we are running out of time and once we made the concept we will have to wait for "raw material" to go on working.
could we speak via skipe tomorrow? i am aware there are so many questions still not answered and ideas still not discussed - would it be possible for you two to get together in front of the computer tomorrow evening and i and andreas get together and we can work it out precisly?
please, let us know what you think right away anyway, even before we skipe- so we can maybe book a bus or so.
let me know too when would be good for you to skipe.
o know im stressing - please forgive me - once we get the chance to talk im sure it will all be fine!
lot of love from berlin
little alex und der grosse andreas
Hey you guys,

we are really sorry, we know that we took time to answer,and that its a damage for the project, but this is a special situation for us, we are stuck between the envy of doing something great and the impossibility of getting our mind focused on only this topic...we really would have loved to think about immigration every day of school, but unfortunately this hasn't been possible, since we didn't even get to just sleep normally.
You didn't answer on our questions, with the most important point for us : what can we do to create a parallel with germany?, because we think this is a part of all the difficulty of the project : cause we could take care of the french part, and give our point of view, and link it with yours in Germany,and the german issues on this topic. We feel that we are focusing on the Marianne thing, and that there is an empty space on the german side, that creates a fragile (because single )proposition.
We are willing to organise the whole thing next week end, but we are not going to get everything we wanted on only one week end (and you know it of course) : this could be a way of getting things started on a pragmatic sense..
But if you had a parallel project on your side, we could deal this from Paris,and you from Berlin, and make the projects meet each other (cause we thought it was the point of the general project of la cité).
We don't want to change everything in the minute, and screw all that we thought together, but just to reconsider it a little bit, to see what is the best thing to do.
Let's speak by mail tomorrow.

Cheers to you two.
Laurent et Caro.

21 November 2007

our concept and plans!

salut laurent and caro!

great news! i wrote to sylvia, introduced her to our project, made a thesis and asked her for support (informativ and financial). she was enthusiastic!
andreas and i werent lazy over the last weeks and i would like to present you our "concept"
please let us know what you think about it, what we could improve, share your thoughts with us.
we have worked on the interview with the journalist andreas worked with on the heimat project they did with this school last year.
she helped us with the structure and questions.
i will present the questions we worked out first and then what we developed for the fotos:

- when visiting the person to be interviewed in their house, introducing the project "heimat" and explaining the term heimat, so not to interupt the flow of conversation when we come to the question about heimat.
these are rules the journalist gave us:

- start of conversation, warming up phase, with concise questions (revering to immediate environment of interviewed person), later : abstract questions (what menas heimat to you? if france was a woman...)
- always ask open questions: - no possibility to answer with no or yes
- no assistence for answers or hints to what the answer might be
- no questions giving a choise : "is it .... or maybe ....?"
- only one question at a time
- meet the interviewpartner on an even level: show and communicate your openness, respect but not shy, sensere interest. very easy if you are, she says - bodylanguage, eyecontact
of course we know that but i can imagine to be so nervous in the strange situation and environment, that it is good to keep in mind

questions:

where are you from? (do your ancetors come from, where are your roots)
how long have you been living in paris for?
how did you get to paris, how did you arrive?
where was your first place of residence/ habitation (in town) ?


how do you feel in your flat/house? (feeling inside and towards the place?)
how do you feel in your area/quater? (is your family living here/ do you have kids in paris?)
Do you feel home here?
what means "chez soi" for you?
what means "heimat" to you ?
(these two questions we put after another on purpose, so that the answerer might make a connection between them themselfes. separatelly many immigrants might answer : "chez soi, thats my house, my quater, where my family lives - heimat, thats my homecountry. " we think that chez soi and heimat are very close terms and maybe the answerer might realize the ambivalence in connecting the two with places so far appart?)

kann you tell us, where your heimat is?
when you were a child, did heimat mean something else for you then it does now? did the expression/meaning chance?

would you sing us a french song? what ever comes to your mind first (alternativelly, if they dont sing - poem, saying ...)
thank you very much! would you now sing a song from your mothercountry?(in case of immigrants) (poem, saying if they picked this)
(we thought it might be great as material for soundcollages. interesting what french songs immigrants pick first - tombe la chemise/marseillaise/la vie en rose???, to record them sing maybe with a foreign accent, hear if their voice, emotion, expression changes when they sing songs from home)

if france was a woman, what would she look like? how do you imagine her?
how would you call her?
what would you say to her?

(any other ideas for questions?)

how do you say "mama" in your motherlanguage?(french too)


fotoconcept:

we create the setting, the visual frame of the pictures:
- place (home of person, chez soi)
- light (inscenated, detactable, not natural)
- display detail ( what you see in the picture, how close (like the frame) (maybe half a meter away, if person sits, we see head, shoulders, chest)
- which backround and how much we see of it, how far away etc. (probably a rather still backround (e.g. wall, tapestry) but clearly recognisable as home of person - maybe part of furniture visible)
- mariannes hat (its got to look good and dignified - dark red, thick, good material , maybe theater/vintage??)
the had will only be an accessoir, maybe only visable on the second look, not in the center of attention)
-way of putting in scene

aim: strong serial character of pictures, not indidual, unconnected portraits

people are free what to do with the hat - put it on, eat it up, step onto it,
put them selfes in scene how they want, how they feel
they choose who they are, how they are, what they look like

in this stage people might not know what to do at first. other then in the interview we could assist them finding ideas.
we should do pix after the interview, so people arent shy and at ease with us being around


interview people:
women of every kind and couleur
- little girls, immigrants, old parisiens, prostituts, schooldirectors, mothers, daughters,
chiniese, arab, indian, african, french, dutch, american?, from the banglieu and the quiet parts of town

thats the idea

now important questions from us to you, please answer them as fast as you can:
how do you like the interview concept, how the fotoconcept? alterations, new ideas?
how do you like the questions, other ideas?
did you develop other ideas reverling the project?
how and where do we get our interview partners - possibilities of getting in contact?
what technic do you have, can you get - light, camera, microphone.
what do we have to bring?
we would like to come for a long weekend from 7. - 9th or 10th december.
it is pretty much the only weekend possible for us in december, and we think its a great date, as its enough time to organize what we need and it leaves us enough time afterwards to work on what comes out of it, which will be the raw material to our actual work.
is that a good time for you?
till that day we should have organized some sponsorship.#
we dont need to take all the pictures and interview at that time - it wouldnt be possible, but some, so we find an common visual and conceptual idea.
can you find 4,5,6 people we could interview and take pics of? maybe for the pix not only mothers ???? we have to think about that again. and talk about it. but in any case they need to have strong faces and interesting personalities so we get strong images.
can you organize mariannes hat? a good one, so that they dont look like sarkozy fans (we saw some wearing them...oioioi)
it would be great if you could make some interviews before we arrive - there will be many things we didnt think of and that will not work as we thought. we could work much more effective if we can learn from your experiences. try to take pictures. it will be very hard to work in a strange house with strangers.
please please you wonderful, answer to all of these questions, we are excitedly waiting for your answers.

i will finnaly scan the ideas we had for putting in scene, so you can imagine whats in our heads.
all our love from germany, lets speak soon!!!
Alex (und andreas!)

18 November 2007

Marianne-Germania

you can download an audiofile (realplayer)
under the following link ->

http://www.br-online.de/wissen-bildung/collegeradio/medien/franzoesisch/coup03/audio/

17 November 2007

Madame La Présidente : exposition de portraits photographiques

Festival : Les Rencontres d'Arles 2007
... nevertheless some examples one can learn from (how to deal with symbols or not)

http://artaddiction.canalblog.com/albums/madame_la_presidente___exposition_de_portraits_photographiques/index.html