Berlin Project 2001
site-specific video installation

The project acts as a mediated dialogue between three artists from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada and three artists from Berlin, Germany. Prior to 1916, the city of Kitchener was known as Berlin and the project attempts to position relationships between people and places, like communication, as a fluid, ongoing process of translation, interpretation and mediation. In both Kitchener and Berlin, local artists act as 'guides', choosing a site of particular significance to them and recounting a story in their home language. The artists also act as 'interpreters' by responding to the videos in the other language with a written simultaneous translation based either on their knowledge of the other language or by creative guessing. The written 'translations' appear as subtitles.

The video was produced for the council chambers of Kitchener City Hall, screened simultaneosly on a large screen projection and on thirty monitors embedded into the architecture of the space.

Participants:
Kitchener, Canada - Andrew Wright, Ian Newton, Mary Catherine Newcomb
Berlin, Germany - Laura Bruce, Irma-Kinga Stelmach, Lena Zeise

Produced with the assistance of: Contemporary Art Forum, Kitchener, Canada, Ed Video, Guelph, Canada,
Nathan Saliwonchyk (editor), Kathrin Becker, Vanessa Ohlraun (Cultural Officer, Canadian Embassy in Berlin).