UNKNOWN SPACES - an artistic investigation of the United Nations headquarters in Vienna, New York City, Nairobi, Geneva and their host communities
Inspired by the essay “Of Other Spaces“ by French philosopher Michel Foucault and the phenomenon „Worlds inside the World”, the two Berlin-based artists Janina Janke and Maurice de Martin chose to focus on the United Nations headquarters in Vienna, New York, Nairobi and Geneva as four different “Heterotopies“ positioned in three different urban environments. From 2011 onwards they collected over 70 interviews conducted with a wide spectrum of UN staff and people from the direct vicinity of the UN headquarters.
How does the socio-cultural and geographic localization influence the work of UN staff inside their offices? What impact does the physical presence of the UN have on the local community? How do the UN staff members describe their everyday work? How does it relate to the content of the original UN Charta from 1945 today? What do people working and living around the UN compounds know and think about what‘s happening inside the UN offices? What interest do UN officials have in the culture of their host community?
70 stories of everyday life in three cities and the collective struggle for „world peace“ are the theme of this artistic research work that concludes in a walk-in installation, a lecture performance, an exhibition and a workshop. An informal network of images, sounds, texts and objects spans across three continents, demonstrating the proven track record of interplay between individual microcosms and a global organization macrocosm. The complex UN-universe is artistically unfolded through a series of self-interpretations by involved individuals.
After exhibiting the work in Vienna in 2013, the exhibition travelled to Nairobi in 2014 before continuing on to New York City in 2015. The artists completed their reseach by visiting the UN Geneva headquarters in spring/summer 2016. In each city, the UNKNOWN SPACES art project has been presented in a different format, adapted to the peculiarity of the environment and reflecting its characteristics.
The art project UNKNOWN SPACES has been developed as an integral part of the large scale scientific research project “other spaces - knowledge through art”, funded by the FWF (Austrian Science Fund).
May 3rd 2013, 7 pm opening and performance
May 4th to 9th 2013, 4 – 9 pm exhibition and workshop „the artists are present!“
May 9th 2013, 7 pm finissage and panel-discussion
at Danube Tower Vienna, Donauturmstraße 4, A-1220 Wien, www.donauturm.at
June 26th 2014, 7pm opening and performance, Goethe-Institut
June 27th - July 17th 2014 exhibition, Goethe-Institut
June 27th to July 8th 2014, „the artists are present!“
July 4th-5th 2014, workshop with children of the Agape Hope Center in Dagoretti
July 8th, lecture performance at UN-headquarters Nairobi and "casual commingling" at Goethe-Institut
at Goethe-Institut, Auditorium, Maendeleo House,
Nairobi - Agape Hope Center Dagoretti – UN headquarters Nairobi, Gigiri
March 12-May 15 as part of the exhibition „United Nations Extended - The Vienna Dialog“ at Museumsquartier Wien /Quartier 21 / Freiraum INTERNATIONAL
April 20-24 Workshop with young refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia in context of the „Yourope needs You“ - initiative and in cooperation with „Zeitraum“ social profit project Vienna.
at Museumsquartier Wien, Museumsplatz 1/5, 1070 Wien, www.mqw.at
October 2015, UN-Headquarters NYC and Goethe-Institut NYC
June 5-11 2016, Research at Palais des Nations/UNOG
August 11 & 12, 2016, Lecture Performance at Assembly Hall/Palais des Nations/UNOG
August 14-17, 2016: Quartier Général with film screening, workshop, musical performance and „casual commingling“ at FAR° Festival Nyon
Cooperation Partners:
UNKNOWN SPACES is subproject of „andere räume – knowledge through art“ (www.spaciergang.org),
a project for connecting artists and scientists, generously supported by Austrian Science Fund FWF.
After a one year sabbatical, UNKNOWN SPACES decided to finally leave the UN and to move on to new project work in a very different kind of field: a psychiatry in Brandenburg/East Germany. This project (again in collaboration with the people from inside and around the institution) is called „Just Intonation“ and it will be premiered on June 19th 2019 @ Immanuel-Klinik Rüdersdorf close to Berlin.
