Dellbrügge & de Moll: Guerre en forme
The most violent form of conflict about space and resources is war. In subsequence to the Thirty Years’ War, that with its chaos of religious conflicts bled the population dry, the ministry war or Guerre en Forme formed. In contrast to the war between enemies till mutual destruction, the Guerre en Forme is founded on the controversy between two mutually respecting sovereigns. It is a war following rules, with clear guidelines, in marked out territories and is thus, to a certain extent, enclosed.
After the Thirty Years’ War, Erlangen became deserted. The first new impulse gave the founding of the new town in 1686. The highly calculated geometrics and the conviction of calculability of processes is what it had in common with the Guerre en Forme that was characteristic for its era. This is the context-related foil of the exhibition from which Dellbrügge & de Moll regard the paradigm shift in the public space, as well as the possibilities of adopting and utilization of urban areas.
This eponymous to the exhibition’s title central work refers to the layout of the City of Erlangen, which was designed on the drawing table. The work uses the layout as a field for action notes and encircles a potential playing field for conflicts. Dellbrügge & de Mol showcase current projects that refer to other cities: to Saõ Paulo and the Brazilian capital city Brasília, the new dockland in Bjørvika in Oslo, the island by the river Elbe Veddel in Hamburg, to heterotopias in Copenhagen and Berlin. The artists develop map exercises for urban planning, scenarios for the occupation of locations, strategies for (re-)labeling and conversion of places and they discuss the roles of residents and the public as players of the polis.
The Artists
Christiane Dellbrügge (1961 in Moline, Illinois, USA) and Ralf de Moll (1961 in Saarlouis) live and work in Berlin.
Finissage: 26.09 2010