Your Imaginary Country is an online and site-specific installation, which will take place during the NEW LIFE BERLIN festival in June 2008. The project is part of an evolving series of projects (Borderline Series, Map Stories) that have focused on issues of economic and politically based immigration, of living "between" cultures, and language translation. These works use texts and visualizations that provoke a conversation between audience members. The projects are developed into bilingual versions to connect with multiple audiences.
Your Imaginary Country uses an integration of web and public spaces where audience responses are visualized over the time of the installation. The project in Berlin targets Central European and United States audiences.
In section 1, a comparison is made between general motivations for building the Berlin Wall, which is now a historical relic, and the motivations for building a new "wall," or fence, between the United States and Mexico. In both cases the walls contain or exclude border crossers and immigrants.
In section 2, a discussion of these motivations is developed. The online and gallery audience may submit anonymous answers to questions. Answers are compared between Central Europe and the United States. All answers are anonymous, and are not used for any other purpose except reflection and dialogue.
The physical installation can be experienced live during the NEW LIFE BERLIN FESTIVAL at New Life Shop, Choriner Strasse 85, Berlin-Mitte.
OPENING RECEPTION: June 12 at 8 PM
DAILY PARTICIPATION: 12-6 PM, Tuesday to Friday (June 12 to June 26)
APPLICATION INFORMATION
DISCUSS THIS PROJECT
PRead
UNITED KINGDOM
May. 27, 2008 09:39
can i make a link to your website via my website... www.localencounter.co.uk ? Its part of the whitstable biennale. I am interested in what is local.
best wishes,
marciano
MEXICO
May. 27, 2008 17:41
hi I wish you could explain more about imaginary things
sttwn
UNITED STATES
May. 30, 2008 02:38
Hi there- in answer to both- sure you can link in.
the site will go "live" next thursday- june 5. right now you will just get a screen announcing the event/project.
the url will be:
http://www.imaginarycountry.org/
and then you will be able to get to the online piece-
and- the title is taken from part of the text introduction-
if we are moving about the globe, we are carrying around some sense of an imaginary country that we are part of, even if we are not physically in it....
best- Scott
sttwn
UNITED STATES
May. 31, 2008 09:07
just an update: our original plans were to go live with the online version on June 1, so the site will now be up and accessible tomorrow, (sunday) june 1, rather than thursday.
smarten
GERMANY
Jun. 02, 2008 07:54
Hi ,
it's Chris,
I've been around Buschkoallee and have talked to the manager of a Fitness- centre and have had a denial because they would if they did take someone take them for a three week period. But as they have already more than one Praktikant they wouldn't want to take anymore on and these would not have the time to give a quick three hour workin.
The second job prospect was in a OBI-
Baumarkt and again the same answer although this time she had a second reason for turning down our prospective employee and that is :
ARBEITSVERSICHERUNG , which means you have to be insured to work on that really quite dangerous site. So no can do.Third one was a little shop,
self-empolyed sowing...and she was surprisingly open with me. She said no problem , only prerequisite was a young girl who was able to do some sowing and had some skills.
So that's all for today.CHRIS
sttwn
UNITED STATES
Jun. 03, 2008 07:58
Hi Chris-
Did you post to the wrong forum? What's the project so that others coming to take a look know where to go to get more info...
sttwn
UNITED STATES
Jun. 05, 2008 09:29
more updates: the site has been live for five days now and the questions are being answered. I'm curious how others are understanding this issue in a broader sense than the U.S. responders. Even though the subject is about the Berlin Wall and building the U.S. "wall" to separate North America from Central and South America, other things are happening all over the globe that are aimed about restricting the movement of people.
Does anyone have any comments about their experiences in their own country?
sttwn
UNITED STATES
Jun. 07, 2008 13:47
There are a lot of U.S. people looking at the site and the answers vary a lot from day to day. which suggests an ambivalence about the subject of keeping people out or finding a way to accomodate people that are "outside" of a culture and a country. Today I received an email from an academic (in history) working in the U.S. who said that the project was suffering from a romantic viewpoint, and also that making comparisons between two separate places (such as the Berlin Wall and the SW United States) was a flawed way to talk about different culture(s).
I'm in a neighborhood tonite in Berlin between Ost Kruez and Frankfurter Allee. I think that the U.S> professor is wrong. There are no separate places anymore. In this neighborhood during the current soccer matches- turkey, portugal, india, and german flags are flying from apartments windows. I am using french-derived words on a menu in my bad german speaking to a recent immigrant from Turkey, and we do not understand each other well due to our twice removed use of the German language. We are on the same street and having to deal with each other now.
I'm not sure how people perceive these issues: whether they think engaging in a discussion is pointless; that globalism is simply bearing down on them and they have no choice in the matter and hence, talking about one's country is unrealistic and therefore "romantic."
sttwn
UNITED STATES
Jun. 11, 2008 14:43
So the opening, or at least the site specific start of the project in Berlin is tomorrow nite at 20:00.
Choriner Strasse 85, Mitte
Come join us!
Should be interesting mixing it up with the neighborhood.
and also some stuff will be going on outside during and after 8-10 pm.
ADD A COMMENT
You must be logged in to add a comment.
To create a free Wooloo.org account, click the "SIGN UP NOW" button below.
If you already have a Wooloo.org account, click the "LOG IN" button below.
PARTICPATE IN
YOUR IMAGINARY COUNTRY
PARTICIPATORY PROJECTS
Collaborating with curators and partner
organizations, Wooloo develops
participatory projects to foster new
opportunities for emerging artists.
Our participatory projects have been
presented at recognized art institutions
and reviewed internationally.
