#paul-edgar

[mentsmonu]

[An illusion. Allegory of the individualism]

Billstedt, 25 minutes from the center of Hamburg welcomed us with the Billstedt center, a mall connected directly to the underground station. Here started our dérive through the neighborhood, quickly, we left the urban part of Billstedt to reach a residential neighborhood made by small buildings and private detached houses, far from the idea we had of this quarter. It seems to be the typical case of urban sprawl with low density and these so desired detached houses with a private garden. The contrast is strong, the Billstedt center, really crowded is the completely opposite of these quiet residential streets where some individual practices seem to happen. Are the people in the center to consume of is it also a way to spend time and socialize ? We made this second hypothesis because the stats show that joblessness and the number of children are higher than the Hamburg average. But this socialization feeling could be just an illusion, even if the center is full of people, it doesn’t seem to be a place of interaction.

While crossing the residential part, the washing line were hanging there like a relic of a past where people used this common equipment. They are now doing it in their own private garden. However, even if the washing line are not that used, it doesn’t mean that this space could have news uses. Restricted, no games, no bike, nothing is allowed on this little green space. There is a lot of playgrounds for that, all empty, the kids prefer maybe going to the swimming pool. Everybody got is own grill, challenging each other to who will have the most efficient and highly developed. It is here totally different social practices much more individual.

The statue described as the housewife with two bags is a sculpture of Gerhard Brandes. We choose it as our ready-made monument because it seems to be more here for decoration, a failed artwork who let no places for interpretation.

“ There is nothing in this world as invisible as a monument. They are no doubt erected to be seen – indeed, to attract attention. But at the same time they are impregnated with something that repels attention. Like a drop of water on an oilskin, attention runs down them without stopping for a moment.”

― Robert Musil 

There are no informations or explanations about it that could give to the sculpture the status of a monument. However, in our case, it could be the monument that connect all these observations on the place, on one hand a place that gather people around consumption and on the other hand some individual practices at the neighborhood scale. The statue could be an illusion of a monument as well as the mall is an illusion of a social place. This wife with her two bags that remind consumption with this modern infrastructure and at the same time allegory of the individualism which could point the syndrome of urban sprawl around this myth of the detached house.

Musil, Robert (1936). Nachlass zu Lebzeiten, published in English as Posthumous Papers of a Living Author, trans. Peter Worstman, Eridanos Press, Hygiene, Colorado 1987: ‘Monuments’, p.61.

[pauledgarmontanari-blog]

[An illusion. Allegory of the individualism]

Billstedt, 25 minutes from the center of Hamburg welcomed us with the Billstedt center, a mall connected directly to the underground station. Here started our dérive through the neighborhood, quickly, we left the urban part of Billstedt to reach a residential neighborhood made by small buildings and private detached houses, far from the idea we had of this quarter. It seems to be the typical case of urban sprawl with low density and these so desired detached houses with a private garden. The contrast is strong, the Billstedt center, really crowded is the completely opposite of these quiet residential streets where some individual practices seem to happen. Are the people in the center to consume of is it also a way to spend time and socialize ? We made this second hypothesis because the stats show that joblessness and the number of children are higher than the Hamburg average. But this socialization feeling could be just an illusion, even if the center is full of people, it doesn’t seem to be a place of interaction.

While crossing the residential part, the washing line were hanging there like a relic of a past where people used this common equipment. They are now doing it in their own private garden. However, even if the washing line are not that used, it doesn’t mean that this space could have news uses. Restricted, no games, no bike, nothing is allowed on this little green space. There is a lot of playgrounds for that, all empty, the kids prefer maybe going to the swimming pool. Everybody got is own grill, challenging each other to who will have the most efficient and highly developed. It is here totally different social practices much more individual.

The statue described as the housewife with two bags is a sculpture of Gerhard Brandes. We choose it as our ready-made monument because it seems to be more here for decoration, a failed artwork who let no places for interpretation. There are no informations or explanations about it that could give to the sculpture the status of a monument. However, in our case, it could be the monument that connect all these observations on the place, on one hand a place that gather people around consumption and on the other hand some individual practices at the neighborhood scale. The statue could be an illusion of a monument as well as the mall is an illusion of a social place. This wife with her two bags that remind consumption with this modern infrastructure and at the same time it could point the syndrome of urban sprawl around this myth of the detached house.

[mentsmonu]

[Wissman monument]

But where is Wissman ?     Our story begins with a disappearance. The last time that the Wissman memorial was seen, it was in the basement of the Hamburger Sternwarte (observatory). Wissman cast in bronze was laying on the ground with Hans Dominik, an askari and a lion. A question is to know why Hamburg chose this place to stock it ? A place to observe the stars, more precisely the light of already dead stars, maybe a metaphor of monuments that remind a past event. Ralph Waldo Emerson said « When it is dark enough, you can see the stars », isn't that story around Wissman and colonisation dark enough to show it ? That's the debate around this monument occurring since 1968. Meanings and contexts have changed since the unveiling of the Wissman's memorial the 3rd April 1909 in Dar el Salaam (Tanzania). Designed by Adolf Kürle, a german artist, the monument was celebrated the glory of Wissman and his actions in the German East-Africa. After the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany lost its colonial power and the British have taken control of its territory. By being transported to London, the memorial became a trophy for the British. After some negotiations, the desired memorial came back to homeland in 1922, installed in front of the University of Hamburg. A symbolic place because it was the Colonial Institute of Hamburg. However, through the time, the relation to this monument have changed. In 1967, the students have shut down the memorial in reason to its racist history. 1968 is a period of strong social movement initiated mostly by students. We observed at this time a turning point in the meaning associated with this memorial. Hamburg government decided to stock it in the Hamburger Sternwarte, its first stay from a long list in this place. From the memorial to the museum piece, Wissman have been presented several times, once at the Kampnagel for the exhibition “Männersache” and once in the Deustches Historisches Museum for the exhibition “German colonialism: fragments past and present”, in both case Wissman is laying on the ground, changing deeply the image of power of the original monument. But one of the most significant event with the memorial was in 2004 with the project Afrika-Hamburg and the artist Jokinen, the Wissman was placed at Landungsbrücken, an exposed place and was working as a tangible medium in relation with a debate platform on internet.    From the cult to the contempt, the Wissman monument is, through its story, an example of an evolution in the society and its relation with past events. Now controversial, it is questioning how to deal with this difficult past.