PETER LANG STAR AND PUNK
At first glance the spatial construction could be perceived asan art-historical exaggeration. Punk from the East and an exhibition
design toying around with Russian avant-garde, Dada
and 60s actionism. But the box-like structure fits and the GDR
Punk (or better his relicts) is safely at home and almost structured
– as far as possible – in the spaces designed by Andrea Pichl.
Obviously an installation like this (stretching out over a number
of floors) can merely serve to secure the evidences in cabinets –
after all they are cabinets below broken stars. »May be it were
only traces that actually remained of the moments that gave
me proof or that showed up possibilities. But traces are not
nothing ...«
Inside the stricken industrial architecture – leaving no traces
of work’s beauty after work has vanished – and its aesthetics of
abandonment, between pedestals in Russian oil-green and scarred
non-colours, Andrea Pichl has staged architectural fragments
in symbolic peepshows – reminiscent of Bert Neumann’s architecture
at the Volksbühne theatre and the stage design of Erich
Wonder from Vienna.
Concrete architecture from the GDR, for example the demolished
Ahornblatt building and the store front windows of abandoned
HO shops, and catalogues about Russian avant-garde and
Kluzis – the bolder designer of architecture for exhibitions and
political rallies – served as sources for the exhibition design within
the worn out factory spaces. At the beginning of the 90s no one in
the East cared about communist avant-garde. Especially not the
Punks who – having just survived the East – were facing a lot
of freedom and the price dictated by the capitalist calculating
machine. From today’s historical perspective of a few years later
things look different. You could call the East German Punk – raised
on summer camp drabness, but at the same time beyond mortgage
agreements – the more real German Punk. You could even
apply Situationist and Dadaist qualities to him. Ultimately you
could see in him the looser version of German Punk – because his
fragmented perception took on a counter position against similar
expressions of Punk in the West as well as the the ideological doictate
of the GDR. The references to East German architecture –
after all the GDR held seven copyrights for concrete surface designs
alone – do not only emphasise the real and egalitarian living
sphree, the prefab housing estates between Rostock and Suhl that
the Punks grew out from, but hint at the standardized way of life
they had to break free from. Not far from the Fernsehturm (TV
tower) – a corner of which extends into the exhibition space –
those oppressed by »too much future« (a statement on a banner in the exhibition) met at places like »Tutti Frutti« and the
»Posthorn« – in the very heart of the constantly monitored socialist
city of the future.
Andrea Pichl creates a vast reference space for revolt stranded
within a lost utopia. But the slogan »Punk’s not dead« is
experiencing a revival all over Europe at the moment – and is well
placed underneath El Lissitzkys’s »Cloud Iron« and among the
references to communist consumerism and the adaptations of the
»Speakers Podium« (1922) and the »7-hour Work Day«
(1929). This suddenly opens gateways between a radical youth
culture in the GDR and contemporary fine art – like the conversion
of the Venice pavillion by Gregor Schneider in 2001 or
Thomas Hirschhorn’s implemention of the »Robert Walser Kiosk«
at Zurich University in 1999. To state these relationships might
overstretch the scope of analogy, but did Punk not always live in a
»Merz building«? And are Punk’s fresh and confusing impulses
for the 80s art scene of the GDR – fuelled by excitement as much
as by frustration – not among the few remaining contributions to
a culture of departure? What could have been more radical than
the »Chic, Charmant and Dauerhaft« shows or a preaching
Mohawk in the pulpit of the St. Augustinus church – this gem of
expressionist architecture in the Berlin borough of Pankow? At
these events a »no photos« policy would apply for the stasi as well
as other fine artists. »This is the story of Jhonny Rotten ... The king
is gone but he’s not forgotten.« – it would be very boring to see
Punk grow up and take comforts on a sofa underneath palm trees.
To supply a sourrounding for emotinal dried fruit like that would
require an entirely different architecture.