claudia bosse / theatercombinat

20. - 25. october 2014 thoughts meet space athens installation & open archive by claudia bosse at Bhive, mithimnis 18, 1st floor and the rooftop, athens (gr).

press release
visitor information
dossier some democratic fictions

part of the cycle: (katastrophen 11/15) ideal paradise

used material from the collection: some democratic fictions

connected projects:
- thoughts meet space vienna
- thoughts meet space beirut
- thoughts meet space
cairo
- thoughts meet space cairo in vienna

thoughts meet space athens is an installation and a proliferate space laboratory of claudia bosse in collaboration with soundartist günther auer and experimenting with different media and social relations through images, sounds, objects, thoughts; a combination of alienated objets trouvés, performative assemblage, spatialized associations. different approaches of the present enfolded within space. in different site-specific versions and constantly growing on the way, thoughts meet space was presented in vienna and beirut, and will be presented in january 2015 in cairo.

OPENING 20th october at 9pm
open daily 6-9pm 21 till 25th october

CLOSING ACT / DEMOCRATIC VOODOO BANKRUPTCY
25th october at 9pm with claudia bosse, marco toelzer, ariadni yfanti
and the participating public

thoughts meet space athens is a travel through different spaces and thoughts... the voices in the different rooms of the house are inviting the visitor to follow our travels through different destinations. the house itself becomes part of the installation, obtains its own voice and narrates/reconstructs its own history. overlapping space-narratives and materials from abroad create a fusion with the different enacted spaces of this villa.

a talking house, speaking with voices of the transnational archive of thoughts stationed in athens. this neoclassical villa, built in 1936 by the prominent architect anastasios metaxas, once home of distinguished greek politicians, later a place of hindu worship and a nursery school for children of filipino immigrants in athens, is now being transformed into a house full of voices and found objects that unravel different narrations into space. each room of the apartment represents a different country. athens is placed on the rooftop. 66 people from 8 nations are sharing thoughts and answering questions about democracy, freedom and living in a state of transition.

some democratic fictions is a series of interviews starting in january 2011 that investigates concepts of democracy, legal forms, ways of life, ideas of freedom as thinking aloud about political alternatives. this material is translated into an installation as transnational archive. narrations and portraits from new york, cairo, alexandria, tunis, frankfurt, zagreb, tel aviv, jerusalem, brussels, beirut and now athens posing the question how history is constructed, influenced by different understandings of society and geopolitical contexts.

the open collection, that is continuously in progress, forms a frame for the production of ideas, sentences, expressions, gestures, language and space for contemporary (recent) history. 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.

photos: claudia bosse / guenther auer
click to view photo series

installation / objects: claudia bosse, collaboration / music+ media support: günther auer, technique: marco
tölzer, assistence / research: ariadni yfanti, production vienna: stella reinhold, production theatercombinat, supported by wien kultur, BKA, the austrian embassy in athens and AthenSYN katja ehrhardt

many thanks to our interview partners and their thoughts: katja ehrhardt, vassilis matzoukis, platon mavromoustakos, nikitas karagiannis, irini chovas, dimitris galanis, nikos soulis, nikos giavropoulos, marianna asimakopoulou, petros linardos rylmon, sotiris bachtetzis, anna sarilaki, evripidis laskaridis, nikos odubitan, viktoria maniatakou, maria komninou, andreas kourkoulas, michael kliën, vassilis noulas

and we want to thank our wonderful host Bhive

photo: claudia bosse

photo: claudia bosse

some democratic fictions ATHENS

29th september - 25th october 2014
research residency with the presentation of parts of the archive of some democratic fictions and a site-specific multimedia installation between 20th - 25th october 2014.

location

Bhive is a new experimental space for the arts
in kypseli, athens
mithimnis 18
greece

an archive 
is a situation.
an archive is constituted from a collection of things, thoughts and concepts.
an archive is a constellation of material, of documents;
it is fluid-

each constellation of its material recreates the criteria of its readability, its narratives and combinations-
each constellation of the documents and materials re-informs the documents themselves.

the presence of the document with other documents
is the present of its constellation, and the present of its interpretation in this space
at this precise moment.

an archive is always the present of its perception.
(working notes claudia bosse)

NEXT STEP:

INSTALLATION in jan/feb 2015 in cairo thoughts meet space cairo in context of the RESEARCH some democratic fictions in hotel viennoise in cairo, a cooperation project with CLUSTER - cairo laborartory for urban studies, supported by szenenwechsel (robert bosch foundation). the space is provided by al ismaelia for real estate investment.

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.

chronology of research travels and interviews new york – january/february 2011 / cairo - october 2011 / alexandria - october 2011 / tunis - january 2012 / frankfurt - february 2012 / tel aviv - may 2012 / jerusalem - may 2012 / brussels (matonge) april 2013 / beirut october 2013 / athens october 2014 / cairo january/february 2015

(katastrophen 11/15) ideal paradise is the fourth part of the series of "political hybrids" (performances developed since 2010 in vienna, dusseldorf, new york, tunis and zagreb), which will generate various artistic formats - performances, choreographies and theatre works as well as installations, interventions, lectures, workshops and an academy / conference until the end of 2015.