30.04.–13.06.1999
During the course of her exhibition, the artist Maria Eichhorn (b. 1962, living in Berlin) transforms Portikus into an editorial office. Collaborating with other persons, she develops projects from various areas that become analogous, however, through their formal presentation.
On May 1st, demonstrations in Berlin and rallies in Frankfurt are filmed. These documentary videos can be accessed in the exhibition room. In a workshop, the artist Irene Hohenbüchler who concerns herself with type-faces develops an alphabet together with the participants. Emily King, who teaches at the Royal College of Art in London, gives an accompanying lecture on typography. The topic of Bernd Drücke's reading is libertarian press.
Reference is made to the city itself by drawing up an architectural guide of typical - but not always obvious or less representational - sites in Frankfurt often used in a temporary way, such as the chess yard in Bethmannpark, the mooring on the Sachsenhausen bank, or the Old Main Bridge. A large number of these places are in the vicinity of Portikus and can easily be reached from there.
Photographs of these places are in the "Reader".
The various projects are arranged and documented, filling the exhibition space over time and subsequently creating relations between them. As with the guests taking part, the visitor as participant is also of constitutive relevance. The visitor must become active and can choose from the possibilities offered. Portikus itself is a production site. No individual art works are shown; rather, things are documented in an almost lexical fashion. Maria Eichhorn offers topics important to her to the visitors, without forcing them to take a certain stand. "I don't think one has to convey anything to the exhibition visitors. Their autonomy should be accepted. I always attempt to leave them the freedom to decide whether they want to relate actively or passively to my works. They shouldn't feel themselves less free or more free than usual. I don't want to create an exceptional situation."
The individual projects are to be partially realised at Portikus. Further realisation of a respective project can take place within the framework of another exhibition institute.