Augsburg, June 2011. Being one of the hosts for Women’s Soccer World Cup and scene for the preliminary matches between six competing teams, it was our home town’s chance to stand out from the rest of the venues and their predictable, standard, beer tent events. Codename »City of Peace« stood for actual culture and set a basic positive tune. In order to participate, we conceived the project »defined by ___« and made sure of it’s smooth implementation.
The basic idea of »defined by ___« was to transfer the historic principle of a »writer-in-residence« into the present: Artists from the participating countries were invited to stay in Augsburg to be inspired and in turn share their impressions with the public. Therefor, modern, digital, but also original analogue media were combined to offer versatile results and to target a broad audience.
Every artist agreed to get creative on a single piece of white paper (42×21 cm) a day. With these »White Papers« the artist were free to do as they pleased. It was fascinating to see what people came up with, who’s daily work normally consist for code, notes or performances.
We provided the artists with an atelier in the heart of the city, which was located in the customer forum of our sponsor, »LEW Lechwerke«. The room was made of glass, therefore revealing everything, and inspiring the publics curiosity. The message being: »Please approach us!« At night, the so called »White Room« was turned into an abstract room sculpture by an eye-catching »projection mapping«, which referenced the developed work.
All »White Papers« that were produced, were digitalized on a daily basis and published on the project’s blog (www.definedby.com). Furthermore the content was also printed as a limited edition leaflet, which was distributed amongst the public and put up on the »White Wall« ? a billboard at the town hall square.
The concept was received well, proving that also a sophisticated framework program can be successful during a large sport event:
»A person from New York, who is envious of Augsburg? This alone made the project defined by ___ worthwhile for Augsburg.« (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Bayern)
»Well, we thought is was remarkable« (zdf.kultur, Der Marker)
During a finissage, the originals were officially handed over to Dr. Thomas Elsen from the »H2« the centre for contemporary art«, to be archived. We would like to express our gratitude for this acknowledgement and appreciation.
Together with our curator Hans-Christian Grimm we chose the following artists:
Kaja Marie Llereng Kvernbakken, author, Norway
Keiko Uenishi, sound activist, Japan
Lauren O’Farrell, guerrilla-knitter, England
Ramon Esono Ebale, comic artist, Equatorial Guinea
Sara Starkström, flirting artist, Sweden
Takahiro Yamaguchi, graffiti artist, Japan
Thank you for the wonderful music to our video by Manuel Branz.
Created for LEW Lechwerke . WM Büro der Stadt Augsburg
