REPORT: PLAYFULLY CREATING CONFUSION IN PUBLIC SPACE A special evening with the Berlin artist Mischa Leinkauf at Apollo Kino Aachen.
How can you use public space to surprise, and make people think? That is the commitment of Berlin artist Mischa Leinkauf. Together with his artist partner Matthias Wermke he has been creating interventions in public space since the beginning of the millennium. In 2014 Wermke / Leinkauf gained international recognition when they swapped the American flags on the Brooklyn Bridge for white American ones. Was it a joke or a serious breach of security?
It’s the confusion Leinkauf is looking for – that became clear during an intriguing evening at Apollo Kino in Aachen on 10 August. The Apollo Kino, located in a student area around the Pont Tor, turned out to be an ideal location for an event about surprises in public spaces. The old and the new Aachen come together in the Pontstrasse – for film, culture, terrace, café and disco. The public: (international) students, film and culture lovers, day visitors.
Leinkauf turned out to be less interested in whether he is making art, and much more in what his interventions bring about, how people react and why they respond in a certain way. Through the challenging questions and comments of interviewer Dana Linssen (philosopher, film critic for NRC Handelsblad, film curator) the visitors learnt about what moves the artist and why he is so fascinated by public space. This is partly due, as it turned out, to his youth: he grew up in the late days of East Berlin, where after the fall of the Wall many public places were still empty and rough.
For Leinkauf it is about the game, for himself, but also for the people in public space: are they able to let go of their mind, to release their thinking? Do they allow that themselves?
But it is not all play. In his new project “Blue Borders”, Leinkauf focuses on border violations of state borders. Under water he creates an utopia of a borderless world.
Two Spoken Word artists, Jessy James LaFleur (Aachen / Berlin) and Merlijn Huntjens (Heerlen), told stories in a whirlwind of words, in three languages, about love and hate in today’s turbulent Europe.
Missed the event in Aachen? There is still a chance to attend the conversation between Mischa Leinkauf and Dana Linssen. Come to Schunck in Heerlen on 17 September.
REPORT: PLAYFULLY CREATING CONFUSION IN PUBLIC SPACE
A special evening with the Berlin artist Mischa Leinkauf at Apollo Kino Aachen.
How can you use public space to surprise, and make people think? That is the commitment of Berlin artist Mischa Leinkauf. Together with his artist partner Matthias Wermke he has been creating interventions in public space since the beginning of the millennium. In 2014 Wermke / Leinkauf gained international recognition when they swapped the American flags on the Brooklyn Bridge for white American ones. Was it a joke or a serious breach of security?
It’s the confusion Leinkauf is looking for – that became clear during an intriguing evening at Apollo Kino in Aachen on 10 August. The Apollo Kino, located in a student area around the Pont Tor, turned out to be an ideal location for an event about surprises in public spaces. The old and the new Aachen come together in the Pontstrasse – for film, culture, terrace, café and disco. The public: (international) students, film and culture lovers, day visitors.
Leinkauf turned out to be less interested in whether he is making art, and much more in what his interventions bring about, how people react and why they respond in a certain way. Through the challenging questions and comments of interviewer Dana Linssen (philosopher, film critic for NRC Handelsblad, film curator) the visitors learnt about what moves the artist and why he is so fascinated by public space. This is partly due, as it turned out, to his youth: he grew up in the late days of East Berlin, where after the fall of the Wall many public places were still empty and rough.
For Leinkauf it is about the game, for himself, but also for the people in public space: are they able to let go of their mind, to release their thinking? Do they allow that themselves?
But it is not all play. In his new project “Blue Borders”, Leinkauf focuses on border violations of state borders. Under water he creates an utopia of a borderless world.
Two Spoken Word artists, Jessy James LaFleur (Aachen / Berlin) and Merlijn Huntjens (Heerlen), told stories in a whirlwind of words, in three languages, about love and hate in today’s turbulent Europe.
Missed the event in Aachen? There is still a chance to attend the conversation between Mischa Leinkauf and Dana Linssen. Come to Schunck in Heerlen on 17 September.
Tickets 7.50