BERLIN report from aufbau-abbau by rainald schumacher

I saw it at once from the scissors. They have not directly to do with the technology but were there to substitute for the telephone receiver which had become too unbalanced after the microphone and speaker had been removed. The scissors were Iying just like that on our telephone too in order to 'cut' the line, exactly as in the photo from Vienna. We had also picked up something Iying nearby, the scissors naturally, which we had been using to cut the wires, something familiar ... because here at AUFBAU-ABBAU the whole event was very strange. As an open atelier and producer gallery we tend to work more in the domain of painting and closed image-spaces--that is, more in the field of visual communication systems and fairly directly--if one can describe a painting or painted installation and its viewer as a communication system. So everything was completely new ground for us, and we were, and still are, very pleased that it all worked out. We tried first of all to master the technology--as we learned as painters first to mix the colours--and then we invited some friends around to use it, to make some cassettes and to play their music on the night of the event. NERVOUS SERVICE and CREAX APART played and ANDRE PECHMANN read his texts supported by ANNO DITTMER on the violin. I dont believe that anybody really knew what was happening or what could actually be done. So we just tried to make the technology work and get a good line so that we could receive as much as possible, the musicians played their music and the audience received its entertainment, and we were all very excited and courious to know what we would be hearing from Vienna and Budapest. But somehow, in all the confusion, we simply overlooked the telephone, because the telephone doesn't transmit the things we had to "say" the way we said them, we should have talked in a different way--more telephone--link or whatever you call it. Perhaps we should have not only spoken differently but have had something different to say. But it seems to be a long way from the use of accessible systems by artists to the mediation of artistic ideas or content through the formal structure of such systems. That is why we are looking forward to the next time. Rainald Schumacher, Aufbau-Abbau, Berlin, 6th March 1983. [BACK]