1999
jesus christ - so much time without writing in here, but we really have been far out:
middle of september:
we (again Teresa and omi) leave to Widnau, Switzerland, where we meet marCo, who has the wooden pieces from oneDROP, which we want to install in Vienna soon. they are exactly the same as they where in Biella when oneDROP was DROPone (italian for huge drop). Luks found a shareware program on the net which allows us to program the thousands of Segno Artes with a few clicks...great, after a few hours and all pages were done!
Switzerland is as boring as it ever was. it really seems to be stuck in the past where everything was "all right" and the world thought swissies were very clever people with integerity.
then the "nazi-gold" was found there and since then they have a similar attitude as the austrians, which also never worked on their fascist past...
what a strange strange "balance" between rich and boringness here! but we like both, sometimes, only the permanent combination makes living hard in S. but thats the view of "most people", the little circles of experiments and trans-living are great. awake.
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did we say yet that Fabio Cucci said yes to our question if we could have his online-paint-tool for oneDROP - SegnoArte ? well anyway - it gives us a lot of problems, because Fabio has no time and doesn't give us the source code...as happy as we were when he said yes, we're frustrated now when he lets us wait and wait...and Vienna is getting closer...
austria has huge holes, for example the Arlberg Tunnel
we have so many tunnel images, we should do something with them.
we arrive in Vienna three weeks before the opening. the ride from western to eastern austria is like time travel, not from past to future or vice versa, but going through all ages like going over hills of time. in some regions the last 100 years seem to have not arrived yet in the present... we feel like aliens (people look at us like we are) and our Ford transforms into a spaceship. but in Oberösterreich (upper austria) we see something reeealy strange:
they have huge banners over the bridges which cross the highway, saying:
LAND OF THE HAMMERS. is this self-critical/ironical?
because in austria they use the word HAMMER also for IDIOT. hmm, really strange, because the banners are done so "lovely", with flowers and rustic ornaments around....then omi, who is a native austrian, remembers that they have this line in their national-hymn: land of the hammers you are rich of future...they meant working not fooling...
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we are the first artists and will be the last. we like to do things slowly, try various positions and meet the stuff. the stuff always tells us more than the "directors and curators". maybe because thinking while building installations is not as attractive as working...hands say more than tongues. anyway, Viennas KUNSTHALLE has a great stuff team, Richard is the boss. he looks like he could pound a nail by shouting at it. but he and his team can do much more!: in only two weeks they built up all the architectonic structure PAUHOF developed for this show.
incredible what money and good people can move. we feel at home also because the PAUHOF architects. they are always around and take their job seriously as it should be when architects prepare space for a show. they call oneDROP "the lapidare architecture we always wanted to see". they help us with all decisions to put oneDROP in its best position...we would like to work with them in another project...
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also with Kaoli, the man who looks after all digital equipment in Kunsthalle, we'd like to work with him again...
Michelangelo and Maria Pistoletto come to visit us and to decide the last steps before they leave for Halifax to open another show. they like the space PAUHOF prepared for us as much as we do. we show them the interface and the pages we made for SegnoArte. the paint tool (§!##!!krckxs!#!!) still doesn't work! it would be so easy but Fabio doesn't give the source code.so we write him a flaming please-man-don't-fuck-us-mail. that works, it seems that it will run till the opening!
Clementine Deliss comes also for a short visit. shes in Vienna because shes presenting here her new METRONOME edition. pity we can't go, but we have to finish the installation...
our sculptural neighbour is mister Jason Rhoades. if we would have known what a hurry-hurry-career-torpedo he is we would have wished to be as far as posible from his work. he acts exactly the way we never wanted to, so its a good example to see how not to be... why do conservative american men (like the other heros from the westcoast) get so famous? faster-bigger-better-mainstream as its art version?
8th of october, big bammbamm, the show GET TOGETHER opens and so does oneDROP - Segno Arte. The book they made about it is better than the real thing. GET TOGETHER - Art as Teamwork, ISBN: 3-85256-135-3
byebye big old town, thank you Vincent Abbrederis, old treasure where we lived, ciao stuff, adios artistas, see you in another space.
we drive back in time through rainy Austria. spend days in Widnau, Teri (Teresas mami) celebrates her 60th birthday! Feliz cumpleaños!