LE GRAND MAGASIN SYMPOSIUM
LE GRAND MAGASIN dedicated itself to the investigation of collective forms of production. This initiative not only facilitated cooperation between artists and European cooperatives, but for over a year also operated a model department store in Berlin, for goods manufactured by producer cooperatives. In conclusion, artists and curators introduce the results of the 2-year process and, with their invited guests, discuss the redefinition of the concept of work and artistic entrepreneurship.
- My project also deals with cooperatives,00:31:24.284
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- but perhaps in a different way00:31:27.582
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- than the other projects.00:31:30.582
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- The project has been categorized00:31:33.019
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- as conceptual art with a social component.00:31:35.610
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- I disagree with both.00:31:39.204
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- I think that the most important part00:31:42.060
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- is the visual form.00:31:45.315
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- At first, 16 farmers sold their fields,00:31:47.861
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- then 7 others. Finally, only one farmer remained.00:31:50.837
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- They threatened him and his family.00:31:54.331
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- He had an idea that everyone in the village00:31:57.562
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- can get a 100,000 of compensation00:32:00.831
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- if all 16 farmers sold their fields.00:32:03.450
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- The village desintegrated absolutely.00:32:06.063
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- were delivered00:32:08.563
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- the last threatening letters, and finally,00:32:11.659
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- everyone agreed.00:32:14.704
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- The new village is as big as an airport.00:32:16.786
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- It took the whole space of the original village.00:32:19.931
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- The cooperative took00:32:24.042
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- and spread it on surrounding fields.00:32:27.536
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- The rest was covered in concrete.00:32:30.311
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- A high levee rose around the car factory00:32:33.028
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- to make the place nicer,00:32:36.294
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- so suddenly there were dead end roads everywhere.00:32:39.613
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- From the beginning, my idea was00:32:43.695
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- to connect the people, as I find no sense00:32:47.063
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- in connecting people who betrayed each other.00:32:50.680
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- I thought about the car factory,00:32:54.424
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- illuminated at night,00:32:57.571
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- as a kind of light that makes people blind00:32:59.907
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- because it is turned against them.00:33:03.407
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- So my purpose was to try to turn the light00:33:06.148
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- back towards the factory,00:33:09.726
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- realizing at the same time that I came late,00:33:12.111
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- that I need a place where this hasn't happened yet.00:33:15.123
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- I came to a village named Trautenfels,00:33:18.805
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- in Austria, under the Groebming mountain.00:33:21.956
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- When I first got there, I had a feeling00:33:24.591
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- of approaching it in a Czech way.00:33:28.205
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- Czech people see hills as obstacles00:33:31.853
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- hiding the view.00:33:34.771
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- I wanted to find out how it works here.00:33:36.754
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- That's why I asked the Austrians00:33:39.870
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- to draw and describe00:33:43.288
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- what lies behind the hill.00:33:45.788
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- The result was incredible, when compared00:33:48.490
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- to Czech people:00:33:51.785
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- The Austrians could describe every detail00:33:54.029
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- behind the hill.00:33:57.568
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- They saw the hill as a joint,00:33:59.782
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- but Czech people see it as an obstacle.00:34:02.782
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- I also asked the people in Trautenfels00:34:06.352
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- about what they would like to change there.00:34:09.940
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- And they said they wouldn't change anything!00:34:13.498
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- When I came back a month later,00:34:17.282
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- the mood in the village was very different00:34:19.826
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- because the government decided to build00:34:23.277
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- a huge traffic circle right next to the village,00:34:26.524
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- without asking anyone,00:34:30.396
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- seeing it as the best thing for the area.00:34:34.267
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- So it was the same situation00:34:38.753
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- as in the Czech village.00:34:41.253
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- The people had no idea about what was going on.00:34:43.393
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- I wanted to connect them00:34:48.002
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- in this initial phase00:34:51.385
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- through the blinding light,00:34:53.621
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- so it occured to me00:34:57.417
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- that they should see the whole thing00:35:00.117
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- in dark colors.00:35:02.617
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- I wanted to connect them by everything00:35:04.619
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- that separated them.00:35:07.619
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- But first I had to create the dark outline.00:35:09.944
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- I could only do that if the individuals00:35:13.834
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- looked in the same direction00:35:17.334
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- through the blinding light I talked about00:35:20.130
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- in the case of the car factory.00:35:23.651
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- I made them draw their vision00:35:26.008
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- of the traffic circle, which was very hard00:35:28.863
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- as they had to feel a little insecure00:35:32.439
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- so I gave them some limitations.00:35:35.953
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- Although they saw it in dark colors,00:35:38.570
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- they couldn't draw it in dark colors.00:35:41.362
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- I didn't show them what they drew afterwards,00:35:44.464
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- so the whole village was in turmoil00:35:49.762
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- because they felt tricked.00:35:52.969
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- And that's the end so far.00:35:56.017
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- My plan is to show them what it looks like00:35:58.682
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- when I join all their visions together.00:36:02.273
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- The project is still in progress.00:36:05.273