A „visitation“ from the Förderkoje® [Nurturing Berth]

Assuming that "Ariadne's Thread“ was broken long ago and that we are currently living in the "Theatre of Now"*, the trendy gallery scene in the centre of Berlin, with its uniform thinking, language, posture, outfits, clothing, facial expressions, gestures, speculation and disappointment, dark rooms and white cubes, has been evoking the rather stable image of a mouse. Thanks to continuous repetition and mitosis, this image is reminiscent of a „Bottle Dryer", serving as a „ready-steady-made“.

From 1998 to 2005, the Förderkoje occupied a small space in our private flat. Through the connection of living and exhibiting, a semi-public space came into being with visiting hours instead of opening hours. At times the alienated gallery-hopper could not escape and, consequently, found him/herself sitting at the kitchen table for a talk. Not a "wrong" one as in Chelsea NY, but rather a „factoidal“ gallery in Berlin Mitte, focusing on different types of promotion and representation, oscillating between simultaneous offer, comment and resistance.


GIOTTO " The Visitation", 1310s, Fresco, North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi

As of March 2006, the Förderkoje will temporarily be moving into the private homes of individual hosts. The type of presentation will be worked out, organised and promoted together with the host. Not a „Visitation“ from the Virgin Mary, but rather from his/her „own“ inspiration …

Ralf Schmitt, February 2006

*Cp. Deleuze, Gilles & Foucault, Michel: Der Faden ist gerissen. Merve Verlag Berlin 1977