Jean-Ulrick Désert/Berlin, New York

From the 19.December till 27.December the American artist Jn.Ulrick Désert is invited to Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt and is introduced to the sponsored apartment by the co-organizer. Jn.Ulrick is shown the computer, the kitchen, the bedroom, the balcony and yes a view to the past.
The past is Mr.Désert’s point of departure while at the living machine of modernity’s utopian dream. Gropiusstadt, a modern mannerist experiment on the edge of idealism and the Berlin wall. To live in the tower of another mans idea would lead some to depravities these walls can now only whisper. The missing chapter of Dantes hell was perhaps that moment when one could view the other side of hell from hell itself.

The artist decides to mark his time with images, new and old. He initiates an 8–day blog (see: http://www.gropiusproject.blogspot.com) documenting his experiences and personal reflections. Who lived here? Who lives here? Various meandering walks reveal fragments of life until he encounters the junkies. The shopping mall is filled with junkies, the artist must be careful as he is prone to this weakness himself. Today the thrill of escapism from the banal, is shopping. Addicts line the corridors of Gropius Passagen, buying fashion, buying technology, buying pleasure. Sentimentality is packaged, kitsch regurgitated, creating tomorrows memories.
Christmas eve, the artist searches for memories and meanders through the darkness. Little does the artist know that he will have new artificial memories of this melancholic landscape, this kitchen, these corridors. In the silence of the tower the artist reclines and watches the film “Christiane F., Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo”.

The artist proposes a projected memory project. Collecting images from various tenants and projecting them for a weekend on one or more vacant walls.

contact: Jean-Ulrick Désert

Arbeit von Jean-Ulrick Désert 2006