This walk was not about Remembrance.

 

This walk was not about History.

 

This walk was not about Politics.

 

This walk was not about Religion.

 

This walk was not about Social Injustice.

 

This walk was not about Migration.

.............

 

Freelance writer from Serbia living for many years in Salzburg, Marko Dinic, organized a performance walk and talk tour for the students and the public of Salzburg two days ago. Again, the focus of the walk was not on the cultural institutions but on a more personal view of the city, this time highly informative of the historical backgrounds to the particular sculpture, house or area.

 

Marko Dinic gave just few instructions prior to the walk, not to talk to him, not to ask him any questions and follow him. Over thirty  people followed and in a space of a second became not only participants in the walk but participants in the performance piece that guided us through the city. Contrary to what I thought would happen we were taken on a tour that started from the Marina Abramovic's public sculpture "Spirit of Mozart" to areas that are still filled with tourists but now I will look differently at.

 

A corner of the Theatergasse in Salzburg tells us a story of a young girl hit by a bus on her way to school, sculpture in the Mirabellplatz speaks about the unnamed artist  Josef Thorak who was at one point the most popular artist of the Nazi-regime, public kitchen that tells a story of over thousand homeless people in Salzburg who are made to become invisible during the Salzburg Festspiele , and a part of the city where over 70 percent immigrants from the Balkan and neighboring countries are living in. All this maybe ten minutes away from the tourist magnetic spots. It just made me more aware of the fact that there are so many layers to a place you visit and I was again really glad that something like this was organized by the Summer Academy.

 

A message was sharp yet the delivery of it was not done in an aggressive tone or with the use of an over exaggerated political tongue. Marko Dinic with the help of his three friends and colleagues, Patricia Lang, Sarah Oswald and Marle Mairhofer, created for us a small stage within a stage like city and did receive reaction from the passerby's to whom we were all performers yet we were not at all aware of the script. I was really impressed how Marko and his friends organized the walk and the timing of each situation that they wished to present to us.With the use of his own texts, Marko described in a poetic manner what the underlining issue is of the place he took us to while his friends yelled out the words he told them to, walked in a circle around a sculpture,combed their hair or were just frozen in the positions echoing the scene of Christ crucifixions.At each spot we were given sheets of paper telling us a little bit about the sculpture,corner of the street or public kitchen underlining what the walk is / is not about.

 

In the end, in front of one of the buildings it was clear what this walk and talk was about. It was about this layering of things, events and places that have this common aim and that is of coming home. What each of us take home to be- is another thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"If there is love in your soul then your body will express it naturally in every day movements" - Kazuo Ohno

 

Maybe it is because of the fool moon but more than this, it was the impact of a new movie by Mara Mattuschka that made me feel like I am in other world, somewhere where again the importance of saying more by acting less is one of the rules." Minimal things that say a lot". Not a rule, this is the wrong word, but just the way something is.

 

It seems that nothing could be hidden from somebody who is short sighted and is used to looking at things really close up, from this intimate angel, where a body becomes more three dimensional, when a small movement of the body is sometimes the loudest echo of the soul, when questions are asked not to interrogate but to find out and to get to know somebody or something. I am not feeling comfortable enough to write about the lunch talk today just because it hit an emotion very deep that I am not sure I can easily express in words. The more words I use I seem to feel that I know less about what I want to say.

 

The point of conversation today was love. This division of amateur and professional was linked to this notion and it made the two terms seem completely irrelevant if one choices to concentrate on the larger scale of things. The world we all share, similar like the world of the Mara Mattuschka films, share same space and also the individual circle that all seem to come from. Even if the language spoken is not understood by all, it seems that it is not a crucial issue and that what is said is not that important. Few words one understands are then picked up and one creates his/her own associations. Words then become part of the body language and maybe the aim of the body is not only to "protect "the soul but let it speak out.

 

I think I will stop my writing here. It has nothing to do with the fact that I have something else that I must run to, but mentioning it I am giving it importance it is again what I mentioned before that by speaking now I may give words out that are not that well organized on this paper to fully express the emotion felt. If at all you are interested to learn more about the artist I spoke about my recommendation really is to go to Salzburg,  next Monday and take a look at her movies which will be played at Das Kino from 8 pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KP: So now, a short blog...ok?

 

KP2: Short, like a short cut.

 

KP: Yes, like a shortcut. It is difficult to walk in the rain.

 

KP2: No need to speak more of the day that is gone. Just mention in passing what happened. Don't mention rain at all. Already people may have the impression that you are complaining too much. Just do it casually, you know. Like ...Oh what a great day I had...you know...charm... So let's practice. What happened today?

 

KP: Today we had a small movie screening so that we would get more introduced to the idea of creating narrative in a film. Not just in the film medium but narrative in any media.

 

KP2: OK. Maybe a bit long answer but ok. Just name the movie and the name of the professor who decided to show it.

 

KP: Lecturing artist, Sarnath Banerjee, movie "Short Cuts", director Robert Altman, year 1993.

 

KP2: Again, too long. Come on, quickly, what happened next...

 

KP: Christof social club, gallery space Kunstraum Pro Arte, Hallein.

 

KP2: Briefly elaborate and that's it.

 

KP: Performance: Stephen Mathewson and Christoph Meier.

 

KP2: Done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is not easy to be quiet. It takes time for the body to relax and to get used to the sound of its own heart beat.

 

The desire of young mind and artists, pushed on by fear of not being missed or not to miss, seem to be something that in the first week students of the stone sculpture class needed to get rid of. Some came with expectation of doing something quickly since the build up for the classes lasted many months before hand. But, what is evident from the beginning is that one needs to use the technique of working in stone and use the space of the quarry to try and get into a new space,  new frame of mind and to also slow down. This class out of all during the Summer Academy is the one where students truly work with their whole body. To reach the body of course is one thing; it is completely a different thing to reach to a new frame of mind and way of looking at things.

 

One of the aims of the two collaborating artists and this year's professors in the Kiefer stone quarry, Doris Schälling and Jörg Enderle is to try and get rid of a too literal point of view and to open to the students many different ways in working in stone and not only this but interventions possible in the stony quarry itself. Of course the first thing one needs to realize is that the stones and the quarry are following a certain system that to the untrained eye is not evident. People working in the quarry for many years now, know the place of every stone, its structure, colour and possibly a purpose. They see inside a stone.

 

It is due to this approach and a newly established close group dynamics that many things were on show for us this weekend and not just traditional sculpture pieces. We were presented with a short performance piece organized underneath the steep stone wall, a collaborative work of a young architect, Yosuke Nakamoto, and dance student Eva Büchi. The cleaned theater stage asked for silence and many were annoyed (including myself as well) at the sound my camera made while taking photos. We were in a different space, far away from the Salzburg tourist feet. A short video, collaboration between the two young artists Nina Nowak and Ragnhild May was also presented to us. It came out of their relation to the space and the situation they both are faced with as young female artists. Apart from collaborative works students also showed to us their individual works. It was nice to see that each of them is really proud at what they are doing and are really becoming one with the space. For some not only is this quiet space a challenge but also few have never before held the tools necessary for work.

 

The city later on gave me another new window to its mystery. A long walk home from a barbecue party gave me a glimpse at the fortress from another view, showed me a channel were water is higher than the foot path, a blue castle and also a house in the middle of a field where an executioner lived. Well, some say yes and other says no. It was a walk in the night and sometimes it seems that only once all dies down new things could be experienced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Mathewson is taken to be one of the most important people in Alte Saline. He joined the team of the Summer Academy over 18 years ago. The building back then was more inaccessible from class to class which resulted that there were less connections between the students, something he noticed straight away. Pushed by some of the professors he decided to start a small gallery, open for all to exhibit- students, professors, members of the public, naming it "Gallery in Alcatraz".

 

Today was a holiday in Austria and a very quiet day. The exhibition in Alcatraz was just an excuse and an opportunity for students to meet in the courtyard, listen to music and mingle. I decided to talk to Steve about birds,the ones we can all hear, as they seem to be just another thing that makes the space of Alte Saline in Hallein a space for inspiration.

 

.......

 

Stephen Mathewson: What question do you have about them?

 

Ksenija Pantelic: Can you tell me something about the birds?

 

SM: There is one family of birds that live here.

 

KP: For how long?

 

SM: Ever since I came here.

 

KP: So that is over 20 years ago...

 

SM:No, no, 18 years.

 

KP: And what happens to them?

 

SM: They have nests in different parts of the courtyard, machine rooms, and different sections of the building. It appears to be the same bird family but there is never any more than the ones living here. It is not like a bunch of them hanging out. I don't know if they live here in winter. I don't think so. I would guess they fly south. But this type of bird, one family, always comes back to this building. They build different nests, sometimes they use same nests. But it is usually a same couple.

 

KP: What type of bird is it?

 

SM: I am not sure. Some kind of meise. When the babies are born, this year the mother had two sets of babies, they give birth and go and do stuff around. I am sure that at the end of the Academy, when I am here alone they will be visiting me. You can hear them...Lots of times the mother sits out here when I am in there and does this (Steve making a sound) trying to get me to come with her. At times she would even fly in the office. I've know this family for a long time and I am not sure if they truly know who I am... They have a little colour to them, deep reds but other than that they look just like sparrow. But they are different; they like to live in this house or houses like this, old factories. Only one summer we had falcons here.

 

KP: So apart from the fact that the mother bird comes here and asks you to go after her, anything else happening with the birds?

 

SM: Lots of the time they get confused in different sections of the building and keep flying against windows and you find them dead. Lot of the time you find babies dead... I never took them away, artist usually like to look at them. Dead bird is an interesting thing to draw or a bird skeleton.

 

KP: So that is pretty much the story about birds.

 

SM: Yes, that is pretty much the story about birds. It is one thing that I know I will be greeted with, each year. It has never not been here.

 

KP: But, what will happen next year?

 

SM: The birds will be here.

 

(click bellow to listen )

 

https://soundcloud.com/summeracademy/birds-in-the-machine-room-alte