art in public space, Munich, 2003 – 2006

“Homeland” is something that cannot be handled or depicted. “Homeland” is a feeling that is composed of the most varied moods, memories of experiences and hopes for a happy life. Not until this feeling has been matched up with a section of the real world can an image, “a picture of my homeland”, arise. Empfangshalle converted a garbage truck into a camper so that these pictures could arise. The men were to set off on their way in the camper – one after the other – to photograph their very own, personal feeling of “Homeland”. One single photo, in which the camper was always to be visible, was to say everything, tell their stories, answer all questions. Back in Munich, each of the “Homeland” photos was displayed on the garbage truck with which the garbage man who took it worked every day. In this way a mobile exhibition swarmed out into the city in the morning in which the garbage men showed and explained their photos of their homelands to the people of Munich. Communication and interactions on the street are the art worker’s media in public space.

supportet by Quivid and Abfallwirtschaft München

BUDDY, WHERE DO YOU COME FROM, WHERE ARE YOU GOING
Documentary film of the same name as the art project, 2004
A film by Thomas Adebahr and Andrea Zimmermann together with Empfangshalle

Three garbage men were accompanied by the camera on their journeys to their homelands, to München-Neuperlach (a suburb of Munich), to Accay in Turkey, and to a small village in Ghana. Thus an 80-minute film arose that was nominated for the Civis Prize for 2004.