Eléonore de Montesquiou / Tallinn/Berlin
In homage to Edouard Levé, a friend, artist and writer who died in October 2007.
I kept remembering his essay “Oeuvres” while I was in Gropiusstadt, listing ideas which prevented me from carrying out anything:
1. draw a chalk line between my home in Mitte and Gropiusstadt
2. photograph myself at each subway station on the way
3. get there by bike and photographed the numerous panels leading to “Gropius-Passagen” (the shopping mall).
4. list elements of the modernistic versus contemporary ideal
5. photograph panels of prohibitions in the urban space
6. inquire about Christiane F.
7. search for numbers from 1 to 100 in the area
8. photograph the inhabitants of my building and ask them about their favorite color,
knowledge of the history of Gropiusstadt, vision of an ideal city
9. invite them for tea
10. give them French lessons for free
11. give German lessons to emigrants whose German is worse than mine
12. open a French café on my balcony
13. play the guide for Berlin friends
14. print flyers for the promotion of the district
15. shoot group portraits of the collectives (Church, “Abenteuerspielplatz”, “Gemeinschaftshaus”)
16. renovate the flat and film the process
17. take the elevator endlessly until I get into trouble
18. exchange the objects of my flat and the one in the Gropiusstadt flat
19. reproduce my usual moves and see where it brings me
20. question people on their journey to work and map the results
21. film inside the shopping mall
22. take a picture a day from my balcony
23. ask the neighbors to hang a flag of their own country on their balcony and film
24. or to leave the lights on at night in order to draw “G” for Gropius
25. ask children to play an imaginary ball game, film from my balcony
26. watch the neighbors with binoculars and draw
27. record and edit sounds from my balcony
28. play bush telegraph from one balcony to another
29. list prejudices about Gropiusstadt
30. list all the possible projects