claudia bosse / theatercombinat

2011 – 2015 some democratic fictions a long-term project by claudia bosse

dossier

projects using the material of some democratic fictions:
- thoughts meet space vienna
- thoughts meet space beirut
- thoughts meet space athens
- thoughts meet space cairo
- thoughts meet space cairo in vienna

- biographical landscapes of new zagreb

- galerie royale centrale- rewriting history in brussels

- burning beasts in frankfurt

- dominant powers in zagreb
- dominant powers in tunis
- dominant powers in vienna

- dominant powers - landscapes of unease in vienna

- what about catastrophes?
- catastrophic paradise

- a first step to IDEAL PARADISE
- the last IDEAL PARADISE

some democratic fictions is a long-term project by claudia bosse developed partially in collaboration with sound artist günther auer and in coproduction with theatercombinat. a series of interviews starting in january 2011 investigates concepts of democracy, legal forms, ways of life, ideas of freedom as thinking aloud about political alternatives. this material is to be elaborated and translated into the form of an installation as transnational archive. narrations and portraits from new york, cairo, alexandria, tunis, frankfurt, zagreb, tel aviv, jerusalem, brussels and beirut posing the question how history is constructed - influenced by different understandings of society and geopolitical contexts.

the open collection, that is always in progress, contains narrations and portraits and it forms a frame for the production of ideas, sentences, expressions, gestures, language and space for contemporary (recent) history – the narratives construct a live archive of today, of the actuality of presence without the safety of historical distance that archives usually offer. it creates a direct production of meaning and thoughts of people of different backgrounds, countries and political convictions. the “view on our time” is understood as the space in-between the position of each individual.

the collected material from the project some democratic fictions is then used in artistic formats unfolding specific and contextualized variations in confrontation with the local environment and enriched by the interviews produced on site - as knowledge unfolded in the space the collection becomes an archive of contemporary history in a permanent continuation via different perspectives.

new york - january/february 2011 / cairo - october 2011 / alexandria - october 2011 / tunis - january 2012 / frankfurt - february 2012 / tel aviv - may 2012 / jerusalem - may 2012 / zagreb june 2012 / brussels (matonge) april 2013 / beirut october 2013/ beirut oktober 2013 / athens october 2014 / cairo january/february 2015 / mannheim 2015 / jakarta 2019

concept / archive / installation: claudia bosse, collaboration / sound + media support: guenther auer, production (since beirut): margot wehinger

the researches have been supported by: watermill centre new york, museum for contemporary art zagreb (MSU), goethe institut, goethe institut alexandria and tel aviv. austrian cultural forum cairo, frankfurter kunstverein, ashkal alwan beirut, CLUSTER, szenenwechsel, Bhive athens and others.

a coproduction by theatercombinat, supported by wien kultur, supported by BKA and by szenenwechsel (robert bosch foundation)

VERSIONS OF PUBLISHING THE SOME DEMOCRATIC FICTIONS MATERIAL AS TEMPORARY ARCHIVE UNTIL NOW:
after the use of the american interviews in the installation dominant powers – landscapes of unease (may 2011 in and outside the cartographic institute, vienna), some egyptian interviews became a part of the performance dominant powers. what is to be done then? in vienna and tunis, as well as in zagreb museum of contemporary art accompanied and intermingled with the installation biographical landscapes of new zagreb. this installation explored the concrete urban environment of new zagreb with the help of some residents, their memories and the conditions of their lives. the interviews of the local participants where encountered in the space of the museum with some other produced earlier in egypt. in february 2012 the archive was partially used in the public space installation and performance burning beasts in frankfurt. for this project in the displaced car bodies inside the city centre audio interview material of the archive was implemented together with sounds of music and descriptive reconstruction of media pictures representing failure of political orders. thoughts meet space in may/june 2013 was an installation in 18 different spaces where the interviews were confronted with media scenarios of spelling reality. here, for the first time, the majority of the archive material became part of this artistic operation called “thoughts meet space”, as a virtual space of three-dimensional thought presented in the old customs canteen in vienna accompanied by 2 performances in relation to the installation as a coproduction with tanzquartier vienna. all this material, including the interviews produced in athens is part of the overall project (katastrophen 11/15) ideal paradise. in april 2014 what about catastrophes? premiered in tanzquartier vienna. in september 2014 in dusseldorf was the world premiere of catastrophic paradise in coproduction with FFT dusseldorf in the framework of the series "DECOLONIZE! performative strategies for a (post)colonial age". in this context took place the symposium politics of paradise and catastrophes. thoughts meet space athens in october was a site-specific multimedia installation at Bhive in athens, turning the neoclassical villa into a talking house, speaking with voices of the transnational archive of thoughts. the installation thoughts meet space cairo presented at hotel viennoise the nomadic archive. for the second time interviews had been conducted in cairo after 2011. the installation was accompanied by a 5 day event called reflection zone that functions as a discoursive and performative salon with contributions of artists and theoreticians based in cairo. in april / may 2015, at the donaufestival in krems the performance and installation a first step to IDEAL PARADISE created a workroom about rituals and political thought. this work was the first sketch for the series IDEAL PARADISE that is the final of the overall projectf (katastrophen 11/15) ideal paradise. in the last production of this series, the last IDEAL PARADISE, parts of the interview collection were confronted as video projections and audio stations with the material of the series IDEAL PARADISE.