SMILE AT A FIRE HYDRANT

“I don‘t know why it should be precisely here that my feet take me, here that I almost invariably go without specific purpose, without anything to induce me but the obscure clue: namely that it (?) will happen here.”

André Breton. Nadja.

At selected locations in different cities, posters line the way. They surprise and accompany passers-by and challenge them to observations, actions and thought experiments.

Following the example of Yoko Ono‘s Grapefruit and Acorn, Erwin Wurm‘s „One Minute Sculptures“ and the  Situationist, Surrealist and Fluxus artists in Paris of the 20th century, Kapsamer undertakes research tours through the city, observes and writes instructions for selected locations.

Passers-by and visitors involuntarily become participants in a perception experiment. Even a non-reaction or ignoring is a possible answer.

In addition to current questions of urbanism such as „Who owns the city?“, the main aim of this work is to explore the theme of strolling at the place of strolling itsseld and to use the act of intervention to set impulses, ask questions and seek to negotiate possible answers.

SMILE AT A FIRE HYDRANT is an attempt of an artistical approach to engage with the themes of movement, observation and encounter in public space, with the aim of opening spaces for thought and discourse.

In the edition as part of the Human Rights Festival Philippines in December 2018, the work develops an increasingly participatory, sociocritical and political component. 

Supported by Stadt Salzburg, Land Salzburg & the Austrian Embassy in Manila.