Friendly / revision of a deconstructed word, 2004-2009, Sammlerfamilie, Mauerpark Berlin
link to the video
On a Sunday evening, August 23rd 2009, between 9 and 11 pm, each park visitor who would enter the Mauerpark was visually confronted with a fire bundle/bunch. Getting close to the middle of the park, the visitors could feel the heat from the torches in the air. The torches were occupying a central part of the park, they where releasing the light but not the enigma of the work. The only way to decipher the work was from a certain distance, standing on the opposite hill. Climbing the hill, the unclear light symbols became clearer, forming letters that made a single word written in fire: FRIENDLY. The word Friendly, made up of Fire. The Friendly Fire.
Sammlerfamilie unfolds the Word in physical and lingual layers. The word Friendly gets deconstructed in the letters, each letter is made of points and each point is built from a torch. In this way the work lets the observers feel the fire and the high temperature up close and then gives them the opportunity to see the whole word from a distance (where it is not hot anymore). It shows how distance can change the meaning of the same “word”. The work “Friendly” (Fire) at the same time unites the meaning and the real character of the word. With just one word Sammlerfamilie tries to raise awareness among the visitors of the importance, content and structure, of the word Friendly (Fire). This action deals with the constructed meanings of the words and the manipulation of them. The way of ornamenting the words and at the same time changing their meanings. It explains in a simple way how constructed words influence our way of reading and thinking. This work doesn’t “fight fire with fire”, but rather explains fire with fire.
Facts:
Planed 2004
Realized 2009 (because of various obstacles)
Unannounced action in the Berlin Mauerpark (Wall Park)
Over 200 fire torch
Participant: 23 volunteers
Space: over 1500 square meters
Articles related to this work:
2009 “Mauerpark is our Park” und “Guerilla- Kunstaktion”
2009 Aktion “Friendly” im Mauerpark
