VISITATION 16 BEI ZYTOWAN + EISENHÜTTENSTADT 15-03-2015
FIRST MOVEMENT (NITSCHKE) - Three slogans I&II - Signature/Abstract
INTERMEDIARY MOVEMENT I (NITSCHKE) - No Millions
SECOND MOVEMENT (NITSCHKE) - Eating Putin
INTERMEDIARY MOVEMENT II (NITSCHKE) - Tour of WohnKomplex I-V (Eisenhüttenstadt)
with blue object
FOURTH MOVEMENT (NITSCHKE) - Three slogans III - Empty Slogan
Special Guest - TIMUR KISELEV
FIRST MOVEMENT (NITSCHKE) - Three slogans I&II - Signature/Abstract
Some 500 m north of the new, recently opened bridge linking Germany and Poland - which is close to the german village of Coschen -, where an old alley with crooked oaks, coming from the polish village of Zytowan (fromer german name 'Seitwann') - meets the right bank of the river 'Neiße', there is a little artificial hill, part of the former polish border fortification. Next to it there are still the remains of a fundament shaped like a cross, which used to support a heavy cannon or a watchtower. The hill itself is overgrown with young trees. Between two of these trees Nitschke suspends a red piece of cloth. The dimension of the red cloth derives from the one used by the group 'Collective Actions' 1977 during their fourth 'trip out of town' (10 x 1 m). Instead of a text (I DONT COMPLAIN ABOUT NOTHING AND I LIKE EVERYTHING, ALBEIT NEVER HAVING BEEN HERE BEFORE AND NOT KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS PLACE) there is a signature written in big letters at the lower right edge (OBAMAINBERLIN (NIKLAS NITSCHKE)) which OBAMAINBERLIN uses to assign, within the documentation of the own activity, the single movement to a specific author. Watching the banner from the distance is barely possible, as the trees obstruct the view.
Subsequently Nitschke opens a glass of strawberry yoghurt and asks his guests to smell the aroma bevor he uses the yoghurt to expressively paint the shape of a square at the middle of the banner. Holding a red banner with a white element in the middle, a painted citation taken from an abstract expressionist painting from Franz Kline - which references the western ideological realm - the 'Gnezdo Group' publicly demonstrated 1978 in Moscow for a couple of minutes. The painted shape of a cross resembles the fundament of the former military or borderpolice structure next to the hill.
INTERMEDIARY MOVEMENT I (NITSCHKE) - No Millions
Preparing the Visitation Nitschke asks Zakharov to bring a lottery ticket with three games, one for each participant, together with the receipt. Nitschke asks Zakharov to put the ticket, together with the receipt, in a small black box which has a irregular geometric shape. Nitschke closes the box and throws it to the river. The box stops in a back eddy for a while, before it finally drifts down the river.
SECOND MOVEMENT (NITSCHKE) - Eating Putin
Some one and half kilometer down the Neiße, driven by car, the participants of the Visitation reach - after a short way through a patch of forest, down a hill, and passing a high meadow - a black object next to the river. The object looks like a bar table with a massive slab; the guests first assume it to be part of the border installation. In fact its a cover which causes the slab to be as massive - Nitschke removes it and a round cake appears. The top of the cake shows a picture of Wladimir Putin. Part of the image is covered by a black shape identical to the shape of the black box just drifting direction of the group, containing the lotto ticket. Nitschke sets the table and serves tea and cake. Maybe the box will pass the spot while the group has a rest there.
INTERMEDIARY MOVEMENT II (NITSCHKE) - Tour of WohnKomplex I-V (Eisenhüttenstadt)
with blue object
Afterwards the group drives back to germany, crossing the border again, and heading for Eisenhüttenstadt, where Nitschke parks the car at the first Wohnkomplex (WK I) (housing complex I). Nitschke takes a blue object resembling a bit the housing of an instrument, which can be used like a backpack. He then takes his guests on a tour through the center of Eisenhüttenstadt which is protected as a memorial area. The way follows chronologically to the process of the construction of the city in the fifties of the last century. The tour shows the change in design of the housing complexes and the courtyards which happened during the early phase of erection of the former model city. The housing design leads from a style resembling the conception of the 'Bauhaus' (WK I) to some bigger and decorated complexes in stalinistic style (WK 2 und 3), up to WK 4, which shows again more 'german' architectural elements, e.g. jutties in half-timber.
FOURTH MOVEMENT (NITSCHKE) - Three slogans III - Empty Slogan
The walk stops at the former first hotel in the city, the 'Hotel Lunik', which is abandoned for more than two decades, having nearly become a ruin in the meantime. The groundfloor, which used to be nearly fully glazed, is now covered with wooden planks, as vandalism has destroyed most of the glass panes. The terrace of the former restaurant is grown over with wild bushes and little trees. Nitschke opens the blue object which contains a second red banner. He tacks it to the wooden panels. The banner shows, quoting a Soz-Art work of the artist duo Komar&Melamid titled "Empty Slogan", empty white fields instead of letters. The banner has, counting as well the blanks, 49 fields, as many as a single game on the lotto ticket has.
