Looking for…

Wij creërden voor de bezoekers een ervaring die hen liet kennismaken met onze specifieke manier van kijken én met die van de bezoeker zelf.

Belangrijke inspiratiebron voor Looking for… vormden een doos fotorolletjes die Lena vond in Praag tijdens de PQ in 2003. De rolletjes werden ontwikkeld. Het waren foto’s uit de jaren ’60, genomen in Praag en omstreken, soms geënsceneerd, soms met een theatrale inslag. Deze foto’s vormden de basis van het project en waren het uitgangspunt bij gesprekken over kijken, over het creëren van theatrale beelden. Wij spraken over ons werk, probeerden te verwoorden wat ons raakte. We zochten naar de betekenis van de foto’s en letterlijk naar de fotograaf die ze had genomen. We hingen posters op in Praag, met afgebeeld de jongen waarvan we dachten dat het de fotograaf was.

Zo ontstond ‘Looking for…’ een zoektocht naar onze manier van kijken en die van de

bezoeker. Een aantal locaties op de foto’s konden we herleiden. Deze bevonden zich in de buurt van het museum waar de PQ 2011 werd gehouden. We stelden een route samen langs de plekken waar de originele foto’s gemaakt waren. De toeschouwer kon de route lopen met behulp van een mobiele telefoon, die geleend kon worden bij Nederlandse paviljoen. Op deze telefoon was het programma 7scenes (ontworpen door de Waag Society) geïnstalleerd. Ook konden bezoekers op hun eigen smartphone dit programma downloaden. Aan de voorkant van het paviljoen werden de originele fotorolletjes tentoongesteld en konden mensen op een scherm volgen welke routes er op dat moment gelopen werden.

Het programma – 7scenes – maakt het mogelijk om via het GPS-signaal de route te volgen waarop op de door ons aangegeven locaties een foto verscheen en/of audio te horen viel. De foto’s (door ons gemaakt) stuurden de toeschouwer in zijn kijken. De te beluisteren teksten gaven een weerslag van onze gesprekken, onze fantasie bij het zien van de foto’s in combinatie met historische informatie. De originele foto’s werden dus theatraal besproken, maar pas aan het einde van de route, terug in het Nederlandse paviljoen getoond.

Via opdrachten spoorden we de bezoeker aan zelf foto’s te nemen, naar aanleiding van de teksten die ze net gehoord hadden. Deze foto’s werden tijdens het wandelen uitgeprint in het paviljoen. Bij terugkomst konden ze hun eigen foto’s ophangen naast de originele foto’s. Altijd was één ons aanwezig om gesprekken en discussies aan te gaan met de toeschouwers over overeenkomsten en verschillen in ‘kijken’. Het Nederlandse palviljoen dat we onwierpen, was bij aanvang van de PQ een lege witte met enkel de originele zwartwit foto’s. Gedurende de PQ werd die doos door bezoekers gevuld met hún beelden, hún manier van kijken en hún uitsnedes van de werkelijkheid.

Tekst Marloeke van de Vlugt en Roos van Geffen

De tekst die de toeschouwers hoorden en lazen op hun smartphone:

LOCATION 1

Hello

We are four designers from the Netherlands.

Lena Müller, Theun Mosk, Marloeke van der Vlugt and Roos van Geffen.

For our contribution to the Prague Quadrennial, we used the black and white photographs Lena found, to guide us.

A path was formed.

Let us accompany you on this route through a strange city.

We’ll share our thoughts about the found pictures and

about our personal way of looking.

This is not a sightseeing tour.

We created our own visual map to help you find the route.

Through locating the photos you’ll be guided to the specific locations.

Use your phone to search, to watch, to listen and to take pictures.

We will provide the frame.

Assignment as text on screen:

Please walk to the right into Dukel. hrdinu.

LOCATION 2: Bench at Tramstop overlooking the butcher

Do you see the tramstop at the left of the street?

There is a bench,

please sit down for a moment

(Break of 10 sec)

…….

………

………….

…

….

Waiting for a tram

you can’t influence its arrival

if you accept this

it creates time in between

this is not waiting

……

…….

Less than 50 years ago a young woman was photographed

brown short, neatly cut hair, decent skirt on the knee.

she was sitting at the edge, on the extreme corner of the bench

Her legs a bit stretched, her arms crossed,

her hands in her lap

she sits as she is expected to sit

how she has been raised

nicely, according to the rules of decency

she looks uncomfortable

she waits until the photographer nodds

she smiles shyly

Click (audio)

Waiting for the bus, feeling unnoticed

or consciously waiting for a photo to be taken

theatre exists in between watching and being watched

take a picture here

Assignment as text on screen:

take a picture here

LOCATION 3: theatre in the grass

Audio:

Please walk to the little bloom garden

Keep the little water pool at your left

Here a thought for you to ponder on:

If a tree were to fall on a deserted island,

would there be any sound?

….

Or in other words:

Something only exists if it is perceived.

But when it is perceived its state of being changes.

When does something become theatrical?

The photographer probably thought:

This time I want to make a ‘happy’ photo

Casually taken

the bright side of life

A free impression

In the grass

By putting these thoughts in words

The women became characters,

they became so self conscious

Skirts were pulled down

Although they wanted to present lightness the result looked stiff and heavy

Cheering in a frozen state

Is it possible to stage real happiness?

Make a happy photo of the stage in front of you

Assignment as text on screen:

Please walk to the little bloom garden

Keep the water pool at your left

After you listened to the audio-file,

Make a happy photo of the stage in front of you

LOCATION 4: in front of EXPO 58

AUDIO

A glass building with a glossy history

A famous pavilion that was placed in Prague

right after it was exhibited at the EXPO 58, Brussels World’s Exhibition.

Here Svoboda experimented with theater and film.

At the opening, chic and elegant people slowly filled the terrace.

cups of tea, glasses of wine, soft murmuring

A real film location.

The photographer tried to capture the ambiance

To create a tight combination of imagination and reality,

caught in an instant.

Before making this photo he had to make many decisions

Focus, depth, distance, shutter speed, sharpness, lighting

Filtering down, coming to the essence

Now, imagine: every photo you take erases a piece of reality.

Click: one cloud less.

Click: a window gone.

Click: a body vanished.

What is the image you would keep?

Take this picture

Assignment on screen: What is the image you would keep?

Take this picture.

LOCATION 5: Girl with flower above water

It’s 17.43 in the afternoon

Almost time to go for a big extensive dinner

It’s been a very warm day

He wants to make the perfect holiday picture

’postcard quality’

She has deliberately put on something pretty

She looks seductive,

wearing a blonde wig

Flower in her hair

Feather brooch on her neat suit

The suit with the bright shiny mother of pearl buttons

She carries a small handbag

The hands on top of each other

neatly

but loose,

hanging hands

this time

This woman is not posing for the first time.

She has done this before

Let ‘ s try to locate the exact position of the photographer,

Let us direct your gaze

The girl is standing in front of the bushes,

Back towards the water

behind her

at her left you see a green little church

in the back a classical building

at her right the quay with the road and some cars

on both sides different mansions and various houses.

her body is visible from the waist up

her head partly covers the river streaming behind her back

the remains of the sky above her head

Stand at the location you think he took the portrait and take a new one

Assignment on screen: locate the exact position of the photographer and take a portrait

LOCATION 6: on the way to the tunnel

At the intersection of the path

please take the left side

the path going down to the river, towards the bridge

You walk down

you walk

and you listen

you walk down the stairs

your leftfoot

your rightfoot

left

right

left

right

you can hear the parade

the march of the military

left right left right

you hear a ticking

a precise rhythm

a heart beat

like a metronome

the tapping of the traffic light

the blind man knows when it is safe to pass

he knows when he can cross

there is no blind man now,

stop here for a moment

close your eyes

……

now take a picture

ASSIGNMENT: Take a picture

Addition to location 6; text on screen:

Please cross the street. Take care!

LOCATION 7: BY THE TUNNEL

Please stand still

at the corner of the street and the bridge.

You now become an actor in a 360 degrees panorama.

Please turn around your axis.

Circle around.

Again.

Circle

Again.

stop when you are facing the tunnel.

This tunnel was built during the period 1949-53.

a time of transition

a big statue of Stalin was erected in the park

on top of the tunnel,

looking down on this area.

an ambivalent atmosphere

In this political environment

New images came to his mind

The girls walked through the tunnel

When they came out

He saw them totally different

Their typical female roles were expanded

These girls were now embodying conflicting ideals:

Presenting themselves as vulnerable but attractive

and at the same time living up to socialistic ideals;

WE ARE ALL EQUAL

we all should work to develop society!

complex roles to perform

roles that should be directed as detailed as possible

As a truly visual director,

the photographer staged this scene at the entrance of the tunnel

At this location you can do the same

You can take on every possible role

If you put your focus right.

Please take a self portrait

Locatie 8

description:

after listening to the audio-file

please follow the road up, along the tramrails

back to the PQ

We have brought an empty square box from the Netherlands.

6 metres long, 3 metres wide and almost 4 metres high.

To fill this wooden box, you as a participant are needed.

You made the images that continue the quest our lost photographer started;

your fascinations and framings of reality.

Let’s return to the Dutch pavilion and present the images stored in your mobile phone

This is Looking For …

Text Printed By The Photo of the Photographer

And the man who took those pictures, what about him?

The photographer was always there, present at the scene, but absent from the image.

What if he visits this place today, as he did then, not knowing we are using his pictures to start a dialogue about the process of creating (theatrical) images?