Was ich euch schon immer sagen wollte - 2 active speakers, microphone, mixer, cable, tripods -  2006

 

The work invites every pedestrian to step on the pedestal and use the microphone to tell the public what it always wanted to tell everyone. In this sense, the work is a tool for the public to communicate in the open field of the public sphere. With this tool, everyone has the possibility to articulate and to expose his private ideas and opinions to everyone else around. Due to the support of the installation, everyone gaines publicity for a few minutes, a publicity that is normally not possible to reach in a highly frequented public space. With this intervention into the regular functional structure of the public sphere, the setting of the public behavior is questioned and furthermore every individual who considers to step onto the pedestal has to question himself if he or she has something to say to the public. This questioning of the public brings to mind the pre-constructed behaviors, the individual adopts by entering the streets of our cities. Everyone has to decide if he or she has something to say, if there is something inside to communicate with others, with the people around who are normally mentally distanced. By deciding to speak to the public, the function of the person changes abruptly from being a part of the masses or of stepping out of the crowd to become an active figure and therefore a singular individual distanced from others because of the articulation of individual thoughts, songs, poems or what kind of linguistic articulation ever. In this sense, the work is a hommage to the individual, an appreciation of the power of the individual which is constantly challenged to be just a part of an abstract 'public sphere'.

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Installation view Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, and Herbst Salon - Gorki Theater, Berlin, Germany 

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Documentation video 2007 in Kasa Sanat Gallery, Istanbul