"STAMMTISCH. SUCHTRUPP. GARTENARBEIT. (Arbeitstitel)"
Kristin Lucas, Yochai Avrahami, Xabier Salaberria - the artists of the 13th International Studio Program of the ACC Galerie and the City of Weimar; Weimar, Germany. Curated by the artists and Frank Motz. Photo credits belong to Claus Bach unless otherwise stated.
Kristin Lucas and John Erickson Museum of Art (JEMA), Search for Outside, 2008, four fabric banners.
After a 4-month effort spent in Weimar (Spring '07), recruiting a volunteer Search Party/Suchtrupp to search for what could be imagined as "the outside", the artist failed to enlist a single member.
Descriptions of the outside were easy to come by, and more distressing with age:
"When it goes around in an oval it makes a longer day." - child
"When I laugh or sing, inside becomes outside. You only have to know which song to sing and it will bring people together." - teenager
"To sing how it sounds prevents how it feels." - same teenager, two weeks later
"My inside wants to get out most of the time but it stays where it is, because the outside is scary." - university student
"How do I get outside of myself?" - senior
Lucas worked collaboratively with JEMA, a portable location variable museum featuring a solo exhibition by the artist, titled "The Outside". She carried the museum by hand or by bicycle to meetings and "Outside" exhibition events (filmscreenings, campaigns, membership signups, games club, concerts). JEMA staff assisted the search by organizing a letter writing campaign at The Bauhaus School, and conducting interviews with children.
Lucas returned to Weimar in Spring of 2008 to unvail a newly revised plan to "hire" a Search Party, based on an American business model that money motivates people, or at the very least willing people are willing to "act motivated" so long as they are being paid. Search for Outside activities have been suspended until funding becomes available.
Works in the "STAMMTISCH. SUCHTRUPP. GARTENARBEIT. (Arbeitstitel)" exhibition represented an attempt to exhibit and document the momentum behind the project. All works were generated through various levels of collaboration between Kristin Lucas, the residents of Weimar, ACC staff, Fotothek, and the John Erickson Museum of Art (JEMA). Banners hang outdoors. An installation in one of the galleries sets the stage for a future Search Party press conference that the audience is presumed to have been late on arrival for.
Note: Guns assembled from found objects made with the assistance of Weimar artist Charlotte Seidel.
Detail: Banner texts culled from interviews with Weimar residents, pertaining to the whereabouts of the outside.
Detail: Lucas continues to hold a concurrent exhibition entitled "Outside" at John Erickson Museum of Art, a location variable museum (left) while she seeks to enlist a Search Party in Weimar. Information collected from interviews, meetings, and other activities related to Lucas's search for the outside have been maintained by JEMA in an archive (center) and will be available as a resource to the Search Party.
Detail: Vistors can choose to pair printed screengrabs from war game to printed images of Weimar landmarks and neighborhoods.
Photo credit: Kristin Lucas
Detail: Cake decorations meant to resemble a Search Party in action.
Late Arrivals Door, 2008, details: see all nine images (above), installation: press conference table, research materials, guns assembled from found objects, 47 second hand books, cake cart, John Erickson Museum of Art (JEMA) with ongoing exhibition "Outside", JEMA's "Outside" archive, and twelve text banners.
Book titles on bench, stack one:
Productivity and American Leadership
THE COMPUTER AGE And Its Potential for Management
Validity and the Research Process
GERMAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY
BEFORE THE POINT OF NO RETURN
THE EXPERIENCE OF ANXIETY
CLINGING TO THE WRECKAGE: A Part of Life
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody
how to enjoy your life in spite of it all
LIFE IS A DREAM And Other Spanish Classics
Things About to Disappear
The Mystery of the Great Swamp
INDOOR PLANT SELECTION AND SURVIVAL GUILD
The WORLD Has Definitely Changed
The Dark Side of the Earth
The Microscope - and how to use it
THE LAST SECRETS OF THE EARTH
Book titles on bench, stack two:
Book titles on table:
GET THE RIGHT JOB IN 60 DAYS OR LESS
REVISED EDITION Training an Actor
WINNING MONOLOGS for YOUNG ACTORS
monologues they haven't heard