<nettime> the people's project - newsletter 3 - 26.10.2000

[axel lapp <axel.lapp@thepeoplesproject.com>]

newsletter 2  - 26.10.2000

1 ­ mass art

in berlin, thousands of plastic bears in many colours 'adorn' the street
unter den linden in front of the brandenburg gate. the artist ottmar hoerl
would like to change the spacial perception of the berliners with this
piece: "the yellow bears for example appears like a luminous rape field", in
the centre of the city. the title of this work is "berlin ­ bearlin", which
profoundly refers to the motive of the piece, berlin's heraldic beast.
next year, hoerl is also planning to show the bears in paris, to find an
answer to his question, "how the boulevards of this world could communicate
with each other" - perhaps the french league for the liberation of garden
gnomes will then extend their concern to these poor creatures. the best time
to observe the linden communicate is in the evening, when the illuminated
lime trees glow in red and gold in front of the black sky (colours of the
german flag!).
on the 12th november, at 10 am, the berlin bear parade will come to an end,
and the 10,000 figures, of which the work of art is composed, will be sold
on that day for 50 marks each. it can only be hoped that many of the bears
will find a good new home in the front-gardens of the republic.
a small image of the bears is attached.

2 ­ campaign

we held the first meeting for our campaign last week in the people's project
kitchen in berlin. 11 artists, sociologists, journalists and advertising
experts got together to discuss and to create an artistic campaign against
right-wing violence. at the moment we are collecting ideas and proposals,
and we will publicise them as soon as possible via our web-site.

3 ­ government art

the sculpture 'berlin', by the katalan artist eduardo chillida, was unveiled
yesterday in the court of honour of the new chancellery, which is being
built in an area surrounded by the river spree. 'berlin' is the successor of
'large two forms', by henry moore, which, as a symbol of the bonn republic,
was left behind in front of the chancellery in bonn.
the new landmark, which will be the backdrop to countless photo shots and
interviews, is in its form language rather simple: two large steel claws,
meshing together, symbolise east and west, old and new; hardly
controversial, this piece gives an impression of a conservative modernism,
progessivity, weighted importance and stability, all powdered over with some
artistic rust.
for nearly 50 years, the recipe for successful government art has hardly
changed.

more information on eduardo chillida's 'berlin' (unfortunately only in
german): http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,99856,00.html
and there is also a very pretty real-player film on this site, of the
unveiling of the sculpture:
http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/nf/0,1518,99864,00.html

4 ­ 'der bevölkerung' ('the population') II

hans haacke's piece for the german parliament has now its own web-site:
http://www.derbevoelkerung.de

5 ­ press

this week we are featured on the british gallerychannel, a web-site that
provides information on current exhibitions and art projects. this is the
address:
http://www.thegallerychannel.co.uk
and there is an article on us in the berliner morgenpost:
www.morgenpost.de/inhalt/lokalanzeiger_n/story357857.html

the people's project
postfach 040124
d-10061 berlin

tel: 0(049)-172-9460735
fax: 0(049)-30-2859739

axel.lapp@thepeoplesproject.com
www.thepeoplesproject.com

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