THE RED CARPET - the social plastic
This is a performance pleading for
“more art instead of violence
!!!
Imagine you take a walk through Berlin one fine day on a Saturday or
Sunday, (even on a Monday or Tuesday) with your family, with friends
or with your dog.
At the Brandenburg Gate you find a Red Carpet spread out for you.
You let it guide you. You step on it with due devotion, and you let it
guide you. The town, you is assumed to be real, vanishes.
All around you theatrical scenes ascend into the air to your surprise
and amusement. Of course, this is puzzling. But you know there is a
thread leading
out of every maze. What we have in mind:
We want, say, spread out a
Red Thread - A RED CARPET, shaped like a star,
it resembles a human
figure of a woman or a man.
Logically, his or her head is round, circling the REICHSTAG,
to enable the
thoughts to change their directions.
Your chest, including your heart,
forms the
Brandenburg Gate.
Going from there, your left arm stretches as far as
UNTER DEN LINDEN
to the TV Tower, as location for communication.
The other arm reaches up to the Siegessäule,
Your trunk covers the former
No-man`s Land, the border strip of the Wall,
as far as to your private
parts.
The Potsdamer Platz. - the markstone of the town.
From there your other
leg jumps across Potsdamer Str. up to
the air raid shelter at Pallasstr.
The other leg stretches along the Landtag passing
Checkpoint Charley.
From a bird's eye view they give you the impression as if
they are moving
in a dancing gait and telling you stories.
This is a 3 hour walk - a carpet of about 10 km.
Width of the path – half a
metre.
The Scene: Ebertstr., Postdamer Str, Street of 17th June,
Unter den
Linden, Karl Liebknecht Str. - Stresemann- Mauerstr.
passing the Berlin
House of Parliament, Niederkirch-to Friedrichstr.
THE STARTING POINT: (perhaps)
THE CALLER
Francesco Petrarcu
the humanist, the lyricist, Monk. With the back to
the Tiergarten and to
the Siegessäule. ( What has been defeated? )
And: Which animals are still living there, in the Tiergarten?
Are there any connections?
Who or what turned his back to Petrarca?
Petrarca declares peace.
( How are we able to find it? )
THE WAY
Where do we come from - where do we go?
We continue walking through the Gate into the maze.
Or better: We are already in.
We are guided by the Red Thread.
There are mazes in crowds.
The town is one of them.
Another one is in the head.
The thread leads the way.
Ariadne gave it to Theseus.
Theseus went into the maze.
In the maze he defeated Minotaurus the bull-like human being,
so it was
told by the Greeks.
Athens was at this time subjugated by Crete, the island state.
There ruled King Minos.
His wife, Pasiphae, drunk, has intercourse with a bull and
brings forth a
monster, the man-killing Minotaurus.
Why does he destroy men?
He has the body of a man, but the head of a bull.
What does that mean?
A human creature with the mind of an animal?
How can we explain this?
Does this involve a phantom of a human being?
A chimera
What is he frightened of?
We walk along Ebertstr.
and farther on to Potsdamer Str.
History is buried under our feet and a lot of
historical events are
surrounding us.
Where Minotaurus is buried?
We already reach Potsdamer Platz.
This is the place where the future is built -
and this is the question!
Where is the journey leading us to?
THE END OF THE WALK:
An atom bomb shelter was finished after World War II.
From what war have we protected ourselves?
“In the midst of this disorder we have to find the simple way.”
Albert Einstein.
( Übersetzung: Annemarie Gerlach)
Der rote Teppich soll als roter Faden
die globale Vision vieler Menschen symbolisieren, die davon überzeugt sind, dass
Kunst statt Gewalt
ein sichtbares Zeichen setzt und das Neue in die Welt bringt.
