© Manu Luksch, Third Quarterly Report, 2017

halfway, March 2019

I call it a museum, Romain Gandolphe

On March 29 2019 the art historian/curator Marie-France Rafael addressed her exhibition Imaginary Display(s) – Exhibition as Film / Film as Exhibition, that took place at BNKR Munich in 2018, in a performative dialogue together with the artist Romain Gandolphe. This was the starting point for a discussion on contemporary methods of artistic research and the spatial production of the “exhibition”.

Contemporary exhibitions present artistically constructed situations and displays. Thus, we encounter more and more often an art that has adopted the character of a display i.e. of a display situation. The display itself becomes then a work-constituent and perception-processual prerequisite as well as precondition to the artistic process. This is one of Marie-France Rafael main theses in her latest monograph Reisen ins Imaginativ. Künstlerische Displays und Situationen, that led her now to expand her theoretical research into the realization of a performative exhibition: Imaginary Display(s) – Exhibition as Film / Film as Exhibition at BNKR Munich (as part of Stop making sense, it’s as good as it gets.: a 15month long program developed by Ludwig Engel and Joanna Kamm).

Marie-France Rafael presented her thoughts and gave an insight into the exhibition that puts on display everything that is usually hidden from the audience: the development process of an exhibition and the production of a film. In a recursive gesture exhibition and film are turned into elements thus creating new situations in time and space. For this she invited the artist Romaine Gandolphe, who already participated in the exhibition in Munich.

For his performance I call it a museum, Romain Gandolphe described the topography of an imaginary museum built without any door and from which we can’t exit. He then seeked to think of another way out, inventing new passages through the works and furniture.

User Environments in the Interface City

Map by Benjamin Gerdes and Christian Frieß

In Christian Frieß and Benjamin Gerdes’ folding map titled User Environments in the Interface City a series of patents for the interactive control and efficient flow of subjects forms the starting point for an artistic mapping of smart environments. As a catalog of specific aspects of digital regulations, this map defines a new way of representing the immaterial layers of the city.

The Trial of Superdebthunterbot

Film screening and talk with Helen Knowles

January 10, 2019, halfway

© Helen Knowles, The Trial of Superdebthunterbot, 2016

The film The Trial of Superdebthunterbot by Helen Knowles depicts a speculative scenario, which negotiates the topic of the accountability and responsibility of algorithmic processes. Here the word “negotiate” is taken literally and transferred to a courtroom, where an algorithm stands trial for the suicide of several people. The work investigates ways of visualizing the opaque dimensions of an algorithmic culture. Or in other words: How a speculative aesthetic of spatialization can create a stage for negotiating key ethical, legal, and identity politics issues. The film was shot in Southwark Crown Court in London with a cast including two lawyers, the actor Mark Frost, and amateur actors.

You can belong anywhere

Installation in a hotel room

January 9 – 19, 2019, halfway

halfway developed the installation You can belong anywhere in a room of the Alla Lenz hotel, which is also located in the building complex. The project was centered around stagings of identities and spaces following the logic of home sharing platforms, while addressing their effects on urban spaces. The television monitor displayed the video Selling Dreams by Bêka & Lemoine, which takes the mechanisms of profiling and the desire for authenticity to the extreme. The analysis Sharing-Ökonomie des Wohnens – Airbnb in Wien, räumliche und ökonomische Entwicklungslinien (Sharing Economy of Living – Airbnb in Vienna, Spatial and Economic Developments) by Roman J. Seidl, Leonhard Plank, and Justin Kadi presented the impacts of Airbnb on the Viennese housing market.

Derivatives – Manga Kissa, Spacee

Spatial anchor points were derived from substantive issues in the content. For example, two spatial settings were conceived as quotes or derivatives of dividual spaces, which at the same time served as communication and reference tools.

The Spacee Derivative cited a sharing platform for the temporary use of left-over spaces in the city for professional purposes, such as meetings, photo shootings, conferences, etc. Roller blinds created the space and dissolved it once again when it was no longer needed. During events the temporary walls became screens for films, video productions, and lectures.

The Manga Kissa Derivative referred to an analog form of the temporary access economy and the dividualization of spaces. For the spatializations it served as a digital archive, accommodating a selection of video works, while it was otherwise designated as a site for individual discussions of the film formats in the project.