art as diverter

Workshops and other activities with the artist collective Baggenstos/Rudolf

Art as diverter is a subproject of «Politics Of Space» of the cultural theorist and artist Jürgen Krusche , the filmmaker Song Yun-Long and the artist collective Baggenstos/Rudolf.

The project examines (post-) democratic spaces in Hong Kong and Zurich. It addresses the question of whether it exists despite an increasing capitalist or post- democratically oriented spatial production - or again – these kinds of spaces that can be described as radical democratic? This project investigates and examines such democratic spaces and meanwhile observes and analyzes the related organization, material form, and concerning discourses and actors.
The Politics of Space becomes visible I

The workshop art as diverter puts its emphasis on light situations in public spaces, which meets the specific functions and representations. With lighting on the one hand the situations will be put under the light, on the other hand it’s always an expression of social, economic and capitalist power relations. Any public light source can serve as a starting point for this work. The light will be converted into electricity with solar panels and will be reorganized with a personal element of display. In a playful way, not only the light is derived – captured – and transformed, but also the respective light sources and locations will be critically surveyed according to their functions and representations.

From DIY to DIWO

The participants of the workshops can make their own electronic solar modules, which are consisting of solar cells, a memory circuit and a self-designed display. The display module opens a broad design space with LEDs. In a further step, the modules will be installed and documented by the participants in urban areas.

This workshop format allows a DIY (do it yourself) to approach to a DIWO (do it with others). This switch of level is not just about producing objects, but also to throw discussions by putting the objects in the specific places, where the social situations will be included – especially with regard to public spaces. It should detect the dissonances, fractures and contradictions, between what is and what is not; between the omnipotence of capitalist consumption spaces and the desire for creative and democratic open spaces.

Intervention in Zurich, July 2014

Cardboard and Tape

Hubertus Zürich

Lux Us

Karton / Klebeband / Lichtleiter

«Lux Us» entstand im Kollektiv mit Sandra Lang, Ruth Lang und Daniel Marti.
Wir zeigten die Arbeit anlässlich der Gruppenausstellung «Le terrain vague - Interventionen im grauen Bereich» am Hardplatz Zürich vom 28.09.-04.10.14

This is my private garden

Cardboard and Tape

The intervention took place in Hong Kong, April 2014

Intervention in Hong Kong, April 2014

Luck/joy/happiness

Cardboard / optical fibre / electronics / solar cell

With a solar cell, we derived electric light from the public space and operated with the harvested energy the character 樂. The solar module served as a kind of sensor to measure brightness. Depending on the light intensity of the tapped light source, the character 樂 shined more or less strongly. In this context, a correlation between brightness and the state of gentrification emerged. 樂 serves as a Lux-meter and at the same time as a luxury meter.