The City is our Factory, by Christoph Schäfer, 2010, 308 pages, 28 €,

ISBN: 978-3-940064-95-0

Spector Books

Easy mail order: Send your name and adress to Spector Books: spector@spectormag.net

Readings / Presentations:

2012

July 16 - August 4: I will be a Professor again at the International Summeracademy in Salzburg - my workshop is called Drawing as desiring-machine: Reinventing the city. Check out my blog to see the wonderful results of the class 2011.

May 4: Opening of raumsichten, the new episode of kunstwegen. I'll contribute a three-piece installation between public, private and common spaces: Topografie der Gemeinheit in Samern near Bad Bentheim/Nordhorn

2011

November 14 - December 18: Architecture, the City and your Imagination, Kunsthojskolen Holbaek, Denmark

November 4 - 5: SKOR Amsterdam Social Housing - Housing the Social Actors Agents and Attendants Symposium -> Video is now online

September 24 - October 16: Park Fiction @ Living as Form exhibition Thursday–Sunday, 12–8 PM The historic Essex Street Market Southeast corner of Essex and Delancey Streets, New York City

September 21, 19.00 Uhr Vortrag Art goes green III. Park Fiction, Gerisch Stiftung, Neumünster

September 14 - 17: Conference on Gentrification, art and social movements, City Museum Gothenburg

August 8 - 27: Salzburg, International Summeracademy, Zeichnen als Wunschmaschine

June 18: "I got framed" Symposium Kunstproduktion jenseits des Kunstmarkts, mit Margit Czenki, Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen

June 16: Das Buch als konzeptuelles Werkzeug - Hebelwirkungen zwischen Kunst und Öffentlichkeiten Mit Präsentationen von: Peggy Buth zu Desire in Representation / Christoph Schäfer zu Die Stadt ist unsere Fabrik / Jan Wenzel zu Spector Books, 19 Uhr, Würtembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart

June 2 - 5: Recht auf Stadt - Der Kongress. Wir betreuen: AAA & KEBAP, PRO-TEST Lab, Heure Fixe: Centro Sociale, Gängeviertel, Rote Flora

Mai 26: Stilvorlagen, Vortrag, Aula Armgartstrasse 24, 19 Uhr

March 26 - June 5: 2 oder 3 Dinge, die ich von ihr weiss - ästhetische Positionen zur Stadtentwicklung, Ausstellung The Chain - MAP, Bachstrasse 139 - 143 Düsseldorf

März 25: Kurzvortrag, ÖGFA Österreichische Gesellschaft für Architektur: Wer bestimmt hier? 19 Uhr, Gumpendorfer Straße 63b, 1060 Wien

März 24: Die Stadt ist unsere Fabrik Vortrag / Buchvorstellung, 19 Uhr, Salon für Kunstbuch, Mondscheingasse 11 A, Wien

März 18: Die Stadt ist unsere Fabrik Vortrag, Recht auf Stadt Kongress, 21 Uhr Zakk, Fichtenstr. 40, Düsseldorf

März 11 - Mai 14: Installation für KÜNSTLERISCHE KOMMUNIKATION UND INTERVENTION IM SOZIALEN RAUM. Vier Beispiele <rotor> Graz, Österreich

März 11 + 12: Vortrag bei KONFERENZ Annenviertel! Die Kunst des urbanen Handelns, Theater im Bahnhof, Elisabethinergasse 27a, 8020 Graz

März 11 - Mai 14: Installation für KÜNSTLERISCHE KOMMUNIKATION UND INTERVENTION IM SOZIALEN RAUM. Vier Beispiele <rotor> Graz, Österreich

März 11 + 12: Vortrag bei KONFERENZ Annenviertel! Die Kunst des urbanen Handelns, Theater im Bahnhof, Elisabethinergasse 27a, 8020 Graz

January 30: 11:00 Gedankengut mit Yvonne P. Doderer im Malersaal - Deutsches Schauspielhaus

Januar 22: Kir Loyal Deutsches Schauspielhaus

2010:

November 27: Copenhagen,
Folkets Hus, 15:00

November 26: Odense
Det Fynske Kunstakademi / Funen Academy, 13:00

November 25: Holbaek
Kunsthøjskolen i Holbæk, 20:00

November 23: Aarhus
Det Jyske Kunstakademi / The Jutland Art Academy, 19:00

November 18: Berlin, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1) mit b-books, 20:00

November 7 - 14: Ulyanovsk, Workshop: "Re-Inventing Ulyanovsk. Subjectivity, Culture, Imagination", State University of Ulyanovsk, Raum für Raum

November 6: Dortmund, favoriten2010, GEIMEINheiten, Kunstverein

August 17: Gelsenkirchen, Kultursaal Horster Mitte, Podiumsdiskussion 90 Jahre Rote Ruhr Armee

Juni 26: Dortmund, HMKV - Hartware Medienkunstverein, Anti-Monument für die Rote Ruhr Armee, Vortrag

June 23: Black Box, Belfast, Ireland, 18-22 Hill Street, Belfast PS2 & Forum Alternative Belfast FAB

Mai 27: AESTHETICS IN A TIME OF EMERGENCY? – beyond the relational-aesthetic paradigm SYMPOSIUM, Lewinsky Building, University of Plymouth

Mai 26: Kingston University London, 10:30, Arts Faculty

April 16:
Gängeviertel
Hamburg

März 26:
Pudelsalon, Golden Pudel Klub, 20:00

März 24:
Pro m2, Berlin

März 19:
Café Pilot im Centraltheater, Leipzig

März 4: artsprogram der Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen

2009:

September 28: "City as Stage - City as Process", MIT Visual Arts Program, Cambridge Massachussettes

 

We do it. Die Isola Nachbarschaft in zwei unzulänglichen Beschreibungssystemen kunstraum lakeside, Klagenfurt

Pudel Art Basel Hamburg

Public Garden - Public Generation Neuer Aachener Kunstverein 2009

Public Turbulence / Disordine in pubblico Art ISOLA ART CENTER, Mailand

2008

Neue Künstlergeneration ›im Tal‹ Kunstverein Hasselbach

parcours interdit 2008 Künstlerverein Malkasten, Düsseldorf

Participation Galerie Martin Janda, Wien

Karussel der Katastrophen, (Disaster Carrousel), with Margit Czenki, NGBK, Berlin

2007

Ganz wie zu Hause, (with Margit Czenki) Wilhelmsburger Freitag, Public Space, Hamburg

Shrinking Cities, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit 2006 Impossible India, Frankfurter Kunstverein

2006

City of Glass, Christoph Schäfer, Ashok Sukuman, COLAB Gallery, Bangalore

2005

Groundworks, (with Park Fiction) Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh

World Information City, Bangalore

Migrations, Kölner Kunstverein 2005

Shrinking Cities 2 , GFZK, Leipzig

2004

Ambulantes. Cultura Portátil, Centro Andaluz del Arte Contemporaneo, Sevilla

Shrinking Cities 1, KW, Berlin, and Halle (2005) and New York (2006)

2002

Site-seeing, Group-Exhibition on the Disneyfication of Cities, Kunsthaus Vienna

Info-Offspring-Boogie-Woogie, Groupproject in Public Space, Dresden

Documenta11 with Park Fiction, Kassel Summer

Revolution Non Stop, Kunstwerke Berlin in the series "Positionen 1 - 4"

Big Social Game - Biennale Torino

Ökonomien der Zeit, group show, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Migros Museum, Zürich

Gewalt ist der Rand aller Dinge, group show, Generali Foundation, Vienna

Der 3. Sektor, group show, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig

2001

Televisions - Kunst sieht fern, Tele 5 – the true story, (with H.C. Dany), Kunsthalle, Vienna

Der 3. Sektor, group show, Kunstverein Wolfsburg

Arte al Centro, Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella, Italia

Le Republiche dell' Arte: Germania - la costruzione di un immagine group show at Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena / Italia

2000

Cowdemonstration, Werkleitzbiennale

Revolution Non Stop Nonstop-Filminstallation at Metropolis-Cinema, as part of Aussendienst exhibition of art-in-public-space in Hamburg

Hey International Competition Style, groupshow, T.E.N.T., Rotterdam, NL

Park Fiction – die Wünsche werden die Wohnung verlassen und auf die Strasse gehen Margit Czenki's Film and exhibition, Parkhaus, Berlin

1999

Park Fiction – die Wünsche werden die Wohnung verlassen und auf die Strasse gehen Film (Margit Czenki) and exhibition at wienerkunstverein, Vienna

1997

Park Fiction, art-in-public-space project officially supported by Kulturbehörde Hamburg in the frame of weitergehen 1996 Park Fiction 4 – organisation of park-related exhibition in the community, shops, flats, around the not-yet existing park

1995

No Hesitation No Repetition No Deviation, (with Cathy Skene) Kunstverein München

1994

Objektive Begierden der Epoche - Vorschläge zum Umgang mit Architekturen (with Cathy Skene), Kunstverein in Hamburg,

1993

Begierdengeneralisierungsgeräte, 0-100%, Gerlingisierung, Mediapark, Die Privatisierung des Elends (with Cathy Skene) in Stephan Dillemuth’s, Joseph Strau's and Kiron Khosla‘s “Friesenwall 120” Köln

Oppositionen & Schwesterfelder, group show, Wiener Secession, Vienna, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel

1990

Diorama, with Cathy Skene, Münzstrasse 10, Hamburg

1989

Promised Land - Das Versprechen der Stadt, with Cathy Skene, Disco UNIT, St. Pauli

german

Something had changed...

...when we began carrying paper cups of hot milk and coffee through the streets.

Maybe already earlier: people tell the story of how Manchester began regenerating, or rather reinventing itself in the very moment the first restaurant owner had the crackpot idea of putting chairs out into the rainy streets of the northern industrial town in the end of the 1980s.

For me it had started in Café Regenbogen (Rainbow). One could read the „Radikal” there and it was 1983. Of course this coffee-drinking habit was influenced by the Parisian Bohème and its existentialist street cafés. Consistently, the drink was called café au lait and was served in white bowls.

Some part of it (Bohème, literature) must have transported itself to the United States and influenced the founding of Starbucks (Seattle). My first visit to Starbucks was, of all places - in Vienna.

Its Indian counterpart is called Barista. The one located in Calcutta’s Park Street in 2003 had an acoustic guitar which you were allowed to take from its hook on the wall and next to it, it had a sign saying „Play me”.

The moment when things start talking to you and ask you to participate. When something inside the store goes beyond consumption. The café as stage – more than that: the guest as producer.

The promise of a world waiting to be designed by me; in which my thoughts, affectations, ideas could find some resonance. A world open to be appropriated by me.

The Indian guitar tells me all this. And something else. It very clearly defines the scope within which my participation is desired. By saying „Play me”, it tells me that the rest of the location does not want to be played. This café is not a game, has no poetry and needs your poetry. Keep it here. Put it into the café’s context. Here, your creativity is not embarrassing, but legitimate. Don’t just carry it out into the streets – put it into this context of the creation and utilisation of meaning.

Spaces encourage actions. They prohibit other actions. I’m writing these lines into a sketch book in a café in the Schanzenviertel which used to serve as a hangout for the Hamburg School. The city is our factory.

 

 

Christoph Schäfer,

Die Stadt ist unsere Fabrik -The City is Our Factory,

Spector Books, Leipzig 2010, ISBN: 978-3-940064-95-0

 

Saloon La Realidad