MS ARTVILLE Documentation English by MS DOCKVILLE FESTIVAL

MS ARTVI LLE 2014 WWW.MSARTVILLE.DE

DOCU M E NTATION HAMBURG | GERMANY

MS ARTVILLE 2014 10 days of events; approximately 10,000 visitors; 56 concerts & DJs; 81 artists and musicians from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Germany, UK, Canada and Switzerland; 14 aides and artisans; 4 journeymen; 6 cooks; 18 implemented projects; 3 performance collectives; 16 voluntary communicators; 200 guided walks – 10 of which were in English; 8,500 programmes

This year, the artistic format has been given a new look with its changed name MS ARTVILLE. The project commenced its activities in July 2014 at the Reiherstieg in Hamburg Wilhelmsburg. As far as the name is concerned the project had already moved closer to MS DOCKVILLE, but it incorporated all sorts of further innovations.

MS ARTVILLE does not see itself as an ordinary exhibition with white walls and finished pieces of work, but as an open-air gallery in the tension between port industry, cultural diversity and artistic underground, growing from week to week and continuously presenting itself to the visitors in new ways. The jointly designed development process under continuous exchange with the visitors is allegorical for the MS ARTVILLE. Even the theme was subjected to this process. In contrast to previous years, there was no given overall theme; this developed later through reflection with the artists respectively. Therefore, it was only logical that the name MS ARTVILLE became meaningful. The theme ‘Artville’ can be played on multiple fronts: public art, urban art, art in open space, to name just a few possibilities of association. We are dealing with ‘art’ and ‘city’. We are building a city of art. And referring to the trite saying that “even Rome was not built in a day”, we will continue to deal with this theme in the years to come. The previous concept of the ‘Art Camp’ with its division into an internal and an external phase was broken up. Instead, three production weeks were introduced, each culminating in presentation and event weekends. Every week changing international teams of artists from all disciplines lived and worked on site. During the first four days the artists worked under cover on their projects, which were then festively inaugurated with the visitors at the weekends. In total there were 18 artists and art collectives who participated in this year’s construction of our city in a variety of ways: the Hamburger street art artist Darko Caramello used the sixth part of his series “Transforming Mesh” to build the imposing entrance to the MS ARTVILLE. Its flexible structure moves from place to place and adapts to the surroundings and circumstances respectively. The fluorescent “Großstadtlichter” (‘City Lights’) by Andreas Wundersee helped change the perception of reality and Fehmi Baumbach turned the art city into the largest gallery in the country with her oversized collage “Was” (‘What’). With her geographic level of thinking, she managed to spread a unique and impulsive mood. The Chilean art collective ‘Cuco’ symbolically linked their art to nature. Their creative work was titled “The Tree Life Under” and became visible in deserted places. The ‘Zonenkinder’ also artistically integrated nature in their creative concept and awakened tree trunks to life. With his innovative connector system “Tamanduá”, the architect Ferdinand Schmelzer brought us a trinomial organic volume, which resembled a seesaw and prompted to play. Jana Fux also created a space in which laws of reflections and geometrical optics were made physically tangible. Her “Kokon II” (‘Cocoon II’) was a walk-in kaleidoscope that consistently changed. The Berliner Flocke//Art has been spraying for years – meanwhile he affects passers-by in various places with a collage-like combination of spraying and adhesive work as well as acrylic painting. With versatility, wit and provocation he designed several of our shipping containers. The “Galerie des Tages” (‘Gallery of the day’), by the Hamburger art collective Krautzungen, already familiar from last year’s project, took up an art historical and interactive concept this year. Using the cut-up-method, the visitors were taken on Homer’s odyssey. Using 40-foot sea containers and old, used theatre settings, the musician, fisherman and painter Jakobus Durstewitz built a large, red city gate with a walkable parapet, the “¥€$, WE CAN-CAN”. The discussion of issues such as refugee policy, urban development and hanseatic arrogance was more than welcome here. This artwork showcases the synergies that occurred during the MS ARTVILLE. The collaboration of various artists and art collectives and the cross-fertilisation of the respective projects are frequently results of inspiring encounters. The people living and working on site get to know each other without external influences and mutually learn from one another. This also applies to the case where the multidisciplinary group $¥€, together with students from the Bauhaus University Weimar, transformed the interior of the container into a colonial-style research mansion. Our long-term companions Stararchitekten and ApostrophZ also created a new space. With the “Vogellabor” (‘Bird Laboratory’)

they targeted our feathered friends. Imaginatively conceived and designed with great attention to detail and perception gimmicks. For several years now, the Chilean Sebastián Muhr has been transferring bicycles in all kinds of variations. This year he created the “Wheel Nest”, a machine with a visual-acoustic life of its own. The network analysis “___˜˜˜!!!)))ûûû” by the performance collective Wölfe & Kabel indicated points of intersection, established links and spun new threads in a netting which was constantly in motion and transformation. By involving Zipper and the Corner we invited long-term campers into our city of art. The symbol of smugness, the “easy Kisi”-camper van, became a mobile venue, a bar and even a DJ booth during the MS DOCKVILLE festival. The cooperation with fluxus², a global and interdisciplinary active network of artists, cultural professionals and art educators brought us great projects; with Federico Minuchin, Jan Nehring and Nove we had three South American artists, who dedicated themselves to the various forms of street art. Art education also played a great role in 2014 and was implemented this year by our communicators and the performance collective Wölfe & Kabel. They themselves became media, changing communication packets and performers. They connected the terrain, created bonds and offered guided art tours. With a specially programmed software, Wölfe & Kabel developed a matching system by which visitors could find out which artists they have the most in common with and even win a personal meeting. The artists and art collectives were accompanied by a musical maelstrom of established events such as the VOGELBALL or the BUTTERLAND Open Air and new formats such as the neoclassical SYMFOTRONIK or the fulminant closing event of the MS ARTVILLE, the MANIFEST. A total of more than 46 international and national musicians and acts took part in this year’s MS ARTVILLE. Precisely this diversity and balance between old and new, in the context of new conceptual and artistic standards, reflects the process-bases focus of this year’s MS ARTVILLE. Change takes time and, thus, we want to give this theme more space and continue to work on it next year; expand what already exists and let the city of art grow organically in both a metaphorical and structural sense. Some of this year’s artworks will remain, new pieces of art will be created and so the process of urban development will become visible. The extended temporal analysis of MS ARTVILLE and the idea of a city of art that will gradually shine in all its glory leaves us confident for 2015’s festival.

“Butterland was already an event in front of the Maschinenraum where gems from the Deep House scene encouraged the crowd of visitors to stomp and dance in the most beautiful weather until the terrain was covered in dust.” mainstage.de “Boundaries are blurred: This is the sound of the future.” zeit.de “The festival doesn’t only change its visitors every year but also itself” die Welt “But otherwise: Artville is still a discussion about art, which presents itself in an incredibly casual way beyond all conventions.” Kulturnews

MS ARTVILLE is a project of: Kopf & Steine GmbH Max-Brauer-Allee 277, 22769 Hamburg, Germany www.msartville.de | www.facebook.com/msartville Text & editorial team: Lara Goldsworthy, Janna Rath Photos: Pablo Heimplatz Layout: yytt.de Implementation: Charlotte Wielage For a download of the entire press review, see here: http://tinyurl.com/AV2014-PS Many thanks to our sponsors: