ART CAMP DOCUMENTARY 2012 by MS DOCKVILLE FESTIVAL

Artcam p WWW.DOCKVILLE.de/KUNST

DOcU M E NTATION Hamburg | Germany

ARTCAMP Art Camp (in-house): 16.-26.07.2012, Art Camp (public) 26.07.-05.08.2012, Art Camp during the Festival: 10.-12.08.2012, 6 weeks of work process on-site, 8 days of public exhibition & events. 94 artists and musicians from Germany (thereof 56 from Hamburg), Serbia, Austria, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, USA. 14 projects thereof 10 installations und 4 performances. 16 aides, 55 volunteers, 27 artisans, 5 cooks, 10 in-betweeners. 45 walks, 6 workshops, 12 conversations, 1 symposium, 11 feedback boxes with approximately 200 feedbacks, 1 catalogue and 2,330 marked body parts (project “Krieg und Frieden”/ Krautzungen). 10 concerts / 30 DJs / 12 film projections and more than 8.000 visitors overall. Average between 25-35 years (from kids to teens and young adults to seniors) thereof 2,800 visitors at Vogelball and 1, 8 00 visitors at Butterland Open Air.

Once again the MS Dockville Art Camp has demonstrated its essential importance as safe haven for ideas, communication and creative output during the MS Dockville Summer. Following the motto “ Either. Or. ” the Art Camp embarked on a journey to understand the possibilities and difficulties of decision, evaluation and classification. A stage was set for experiments and interpretation representing most creative dimensions of art ranging from installations to dance, music and performances. All of this was a collective output of the individual artist’s interaction and experience within a diverse community of curators, helpers, craftsmen and it’s this process which makes the Dockville Experience to something unique within its contemporary art environment. The Art Camp is one big interaction and constantly analyzing its own position as it oscillates between singularity and repetitiveness, festival and institution, art and leisure. The blending of categories began with the construction of the Camp: Artist, Carpenters, Volunteers, Cooks and the entire Festival Team populated the Microcosm of the Art Camp before opening to the public. Right within the industrial wasteland of the long forgotten industrial age with its meadows, forests and ruins a community came to life for the summer. More than 70 people of very different creative backgrounds used the kitchen as headquarters to sketch out and shape this no man’s land. The artists looked for the cook’s opinion; the craftsmen did the dishes and everyone helped out. During the opening to the public the visitor was invited to take part in this process and challenged to find his own spot right in the middle of all this. From a curators point of view we were happy to see that many artists were inspired by this community and adapted their concepts to the surrounding spirit and area, Wilhelmsburg with its nature, channels and social challenges. During the first inspection of the area the Serbian artist Dušica Dražic was fascinated by the diversity of nature on the industrial wasteland the MS Dockville populates. She changed her initial concept and created a system of paths and observation platforms within the area which would later be the campground of the MS Dockville festival to raise awareness of the impact of thousands of people on an empty piece of land. Apart from this Dražic roamed the streets of Wilhelmsburg to talk to locals and get them involved in the Art Camp and asked them to contribute plants or seeds of local plants for her project. Another creative ensemble in close contact to the local population was “Schwemmland” from Linz/Austria. They embarked on artistic field investigation to gather stories and insight into the interaction of the local community with all that water in the channels and harbors that surround them. The results of this quest was an installation of a giant sheet of ice made of plastic containers which was assembled as crawlable maze full of stories, pictures and videos. The artist duo

ZASDOWNEY – Brad Downey and Thomas Bratzke – worked together for the first time and with the help of technician Fabian Gosch created the installation “Fountain with fence and bins”. Inspired by this cooperation further projects in Berlin are in the pipeline. The importance to understand every action as interactive process was shouted out by Anton Unai who used the leftovers of current projects and the waste pile of the last 5 years to create a castle which was inhabited and modified by visitors during the entire festival. In this case the border between the artist and the visitor totally dissolved and categories were obsolete. After his escape from the festival Unai went right to Berlin and was already planning his next performance together with one of our volunteers. With the performances of Océan LeRoy and Jeremy Wade & Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) we were happy to set the stage for two world premiers during the MS DOCKVILLE Art Camp. We are very thankful to the team from Kampnagel for their support and network to make this event with Wade and Stewart happen. To conquer the grand question of the meaning of art we came up with a multi level system of communication on art. While struggling to integrate the observer into the artistic process we are trying to give everyone the opportunity to involve and express himself. We offer group walks of the compound with specially trained mediators, workshops with the artists as well as discussion rounds with the curators and people involved in the process. One evening was reserved for a symposium on the essence of our motto “Either. Or.” and was accompanied by a three course menu and spiced with presentations and comments by a various artists, curators and other guests involved in the institutional process of art. For instant feedback we set up a network of feedback boxes alongside all installations asking for comments, questions and further inspiration. During the three weeks of public opening the Art Camp was visited by a very diverse population of visitors. While senior citizens and families were roaming the area during the afternoon the evening events such as the “ Butterland” Open Air or the queer Masquerade Ball “ Vogelball” was dominated by a younger generation. Each of these festivals was a festival in itself and attracted more than 3000 people. During the Vogelball the visitors had the possibility to disguise him/her on the location, visit performances breaching the importance of genders and contribute in discussions all aiming at creating a tolerant and peaceful community for everyone to enjoy. For next year’s Art Camp we have chosen the motto “Unkraut” [weeds] to go further on the meaning of process in Art. We will be inviting artists to inspect and evaluate the “laboratory ” much earlier than the years before to make the concordance of the projects with the surrounding even better. The Art Camp has also been active in establishing ties with other similar institutions and will be launching collaborations with the Roskilde Festival in Denmark and 4tunedcities – a cooperation of musical festivals in Amsterdam, Pristine, Skopje and Hamburg. In the end it all starts again, to put it with Anton Unai’s words “It is an outlet, an expression of emotions, ideas and desires”.

Complete press review: www.msdockville.de/kunstcamp-pressespiegel.pdf The Art Camp is a project of MS DOCKVILLE KUNSTCAMP e.V. Max-Brauer-Allee 277, 22769 Hamburg, Germany www.dockville.de/kunst | www.fb.com/msdockvillekunstcamp Head of Arts: dorothee.halbrock@dockville.de, susanne.schick@dockville.de PR: susanne.schick@dockville.de Editors: Dorothee Halbrock, Susanne Schick, Anika Väth Credits: »Fountain with fence and bins« Brad Downey & Thomas Bratzke, »Credits« The Wa, »PET-malstrom« TASEK Photos: Tim Kaiser, Coopercopter, Nathalie Herzhaft, Design: yytt.de A big round of applause to all our supporters!