Victor Kégli

Ahorn und Buche treffen sich Unter den Linden / TranspOrtale

TranspOrtale, Berlin, colaboration with I. Mahn

Installation, performance

Garden sheds, fences, trees, plants, soil, assistants

2003

Photos: Jochen Steinig

Ahorn und Buche treffen sich Unter den Linden / TranspOrtale

We take the term „TranspOrtale“ literally and seriously. We actually transport, we transport places, we move them. The stations are linked and kept in motion.
We send a small garden plot from northern Berlin and a small garden plot from southern Berlin, each of which is at home at the end of the line, on a journey. They are en route during the exhibition.
The finally encounter each other at a station in the center of the town. They come together at Unter den Linden, maple tree and birch meet under the lindens.

It functions like this: at the last stations on the train line, Buch and Lichtenrade respectively, a replica of a garden plot is constructed which resembles those in the nearby garden colonies.
The parcels differ significantly, even though the components are the same. They both consist of the garden cottage measuring approximately 2 x 2 meters, 1.5 cubic meters of soil, 20 meters of fencing, three trees each roughly 3 meters tall, and some plants.
The plots are constructed at the abovementioned train stations for the opening of the exhibition, dismantled the next day into manageable pieces and, during the course of the exhibition, transported from station to station.
Using the S-Bahn [Berlin´s light rail], two desingnated assistants take the materials to the next station with wheelbarrows, handcarts or by hand. All the materials must assembled, ready to be constructed, before the next transport to the next stations begins.
This happens after a pause of a day or two, as if the place is apparently unsuitable. So the two places move from opposite directions, transported by S-Bahn toward the center.
At Unter den Linden – the station is just about equidistant from the two end stations – the two plots meet and are constructed within sight of each other, only soon to be dismantled again and move away from each other once and for all.
I. Mahn