Performing Public Spaces, Staging Collective Memory

50 Kilometres of Files by Rimini Protokoll Daniela Hahn

In early December 1989, the communication center of the Ministry for State Security of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) registers an incoming phone call regarding a political demonstration, which is allegedly scheduled to take place the next afternoon on Alexanderplatz in Berlin and then proceed as a protest march to the Ministry’s headquarters located farther East in Berlin-Lichtenberg, the symbol of the police state and its bloated bureaucratic apparatus.Information from a reliable source — as the informer affirms — attests to the official instruction from Wolfgang Schwanitz, who had succeeded Erich Mielke as head of the Ministry for State Security in November 1989, to take all necessary measures to secure the State Security’s buildings.1 Has this phone call announced the crucial blow against the GDR’s secret police, the Stasi, which fell after protesters stormed its headquarters in mid-January 1990 to prevent the

1. The Stasi headquarters consisted of a huge complex the size of a city block comprised of 20 buildings, including the oﬃce of Erich Mielke, who was head of the Ministry for State Security between 1957 and 1989. The complex was hermetically sealed oﬀ and protected by armed forces.

Figure 1. Audience members for Rimini Protokoll’s 50 Kilometres of Files. Berlin, Germany, 2011. (Photo ©Dorothea Tuch)

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28 Daniela Hahn vented throughapresent-dayperformance. of acitycanbemademanifestthroughreadingthetracespast — even asthatpastisrein- 50 Kilometres ofFiles50 Kilometres , createdbytheGermanperformancecollectiveRiminiProtokoll. experience asIcross Alexanderplatz onalateOctoberafternoonin2011duringtheaudiowalk produced andgatheredbytheStateSecurityService, thusconjuresastrangereturn, whichI sation betweenaninformerandofficial, pulledfromthevastquantityofdocumentsanddata ent periodsoftime, foritmakesthepastuncannilyreappearinpresent. The tapedconver- that wasstoredontapeandhadendedupintheStasifiles, hastheeffectofblendingdiffer- destructionoffiles? Theaudiofragment, consistingofanoriginalrecordingthephonecall environmental art, and artistic research. andartistic environmental art, [email protected] therelations art, between andarchive,focusing ondocumentary art aswell asonmovement studies, andvisualart ofscienceandis dedicatedtoperformance studies, culturalandthehistory movement andscience around 1900. Her inart experiments research and teachingentangletheatre University. In 2011, shereceived herPhD from Freie Universität on Berlinwith adissertation Daniela Hahn isa2013/14Postdoctoral Fellow attheMahindra Humanities Center atHarvard 2. ofaseriesradioplaysentitledRadioortungThis audiowalkwaspart — Hörspiele für Selbstläufer, produced ent-day walk-in audio-installation, usingmobiletechnologytobringdocumentarymaterialintopres- their dossiersfromtheStateSecurity’sfiles. ings, aswellinterviewswithandaccountsofthevictimsdictatorialsystemwho(re)read the StateSecurityService, recordingsoftelephoneconversations, notesabouteventsandmeet- Western andtheEasternblocafter World War II:participantshearobservationprotocolsof ers backtotheatmosphereofCold War andthepoliticalmilitarytensionsbetween shaped place. as dwellingplace, builtvisuallandscape, statisticalunit, socialphenomenon, andhistorically that FlorianMalzacherhassuccinctlydescribedas “scripted realities” (Malzacher2010:80). term “experts ofeverydaylife” (Dreysse/Malzacher2007). The resultisahybridtheatricalform well asbyworkingwithnonprofessionalperformers — for whomRiminiProtokollcoinedthe imental dramaturgies, whichtheycreatebyinterweavingdocumentaryandliterarystrategiesas and Daniel Wetzel. The groupproducestheatre, film, audio, andinstallationworkswithexper- 3. Examples are 4. In October 1990,theFederal CommissionfortheRecords oftheState Security oftheformerGDRwas Service Since itsfounding, RiminiProtokollhasrepeatedlyengagedwithperceptionsofthecity Rimini Protokollwasfoundedin2000bythetheatre-makersHelgardHaug, StefanKaegi, into voyeurs; with binocularsandearphones,are placedatthewindows onthe10thfloorofaskyscraper inHanover andturn geolocation onmobilephonesforexperimentalradioprojects. ventions intourbanspacesinBerlin andCologneinorder toinvestigate thetechnologiesofmobileinternetand tives — Rimini Protokoll, LIGNA,andHofmann&Lindholm — were invitedtodevelop audioplaysasinter- by thenationalradiostationDeutschlandradio Kultur (www.dradio-ortung.de). Three collec- performance tiny” (BSTU2012). regarding them,sothattheycanclarifywhatinfluencetheState Security hashadontheirpersonaldes- Service Democratic Republic [...]inorder tofacilitateaccesspersonaldatawhich the State Security hasstored Service custody, preparation, administration anduseofrecords forState oftheMinistry Security oftheformerGerman State Security’s archive. According tothe Stasi Records Act of29December 1991,thecommission “regulates the founded inorder toorganize ofrecords thedisclosure ofinformationandtheinspectiondelivery from the online gamestagedonthecity’s streets. 2008) inwhichdifferent citiesare represented by 100statisticallyrepresentative residents; or tour guidedby telephone; Berlin, aplacethatisrepositoryofstoriesandmemories. The audioplayleadswalk- 3 (2006), a truck ridethroughCargo European Sofia-X(2006),atruck cities; In50Kilometres of Files, RiminiProtokollexploresthecity’sstreetsthrougha Sonde Hannover piecefrom abird’s-eye (2002),anobservation inwhichspectators,equipped view Ciudades Paralelas festival forurbaninterventions; (2010),aportable 4 These revivedvoicesdemonstratehowthehistory Call Cutta inaBox (2008),awalking Remote X(2013),an 100% City (since 2 Performing Public Spaces 29 can be understood as imprints 5 (trace), the philosopher Sybille Krämer has reminded us of the ety- Krämer has reminded (trace), the philosopher Sybille Spur

of observation, tracking, and surveillance techniques. Traces or vestiges (etymologi- Traces and surveillance techniques. tracking, of observation, ’être

mology of vestige (2007:13). mology of vestige As the participants walk the streets, over a hundred audio fragments are accessible to them accessible to them audio fragments are over a hundred walk the streets, As the participants sonic space turns the city into a of Files 50 Kilometres these audio files, In bringing together Alexanderplatz roughly circumscribed by the The walking tour takes place in central Berlin, & Sites proposes in Wrights as the British performance collective with the city,” “deal To that Urban spaces in particular are comprised of a multiplicity of past and present traces via a mobile phone with location-based technology (Global Positioning System) and mobile System) and mobile (Global Positioning technology phone with location-based via a mobile con- to historical knowledge, facilitating access is a data-map At the walker’s fingertips internet. of “technology as a so that the performance across the city, audio files and scattered densed in of data the walk- and on the activation is based both on walking (Bleeker 2012:2) remembrance” the city as in the topology of doubly territorialized: the audio files are In this way, ing generates. are being placed and retraced. topology of the internet in which the files well as in the virtual that trans- audio parcours The walkers follow a documentary open to peripatetic exploration. archival records into a durational of the State Security’s 111 kilometers of lates the vast expanse duration for each participant depends The of up to several hours. audio walking performance time they spend in each spot on the length of the quickly they walk, upon how slowly or how far they wan- they listen to, how many of the audios be received, where a new audio can After having received the equipment they are taking breaks between stations. and if der around, basic instructions on how to use map) and some smartphone, for the audio walk (headphones, as that tend to dissolve quickly, participants go off alone or in small groups the the smartphone, audio files automatically locations, When walkers near particular begins. soon as the audio play into sound and setting stories in motion in specific thus transforming movement start to play, the walker from ambient noises and thus induce a split The bulky headphones separate places. track lures while the audio perceived through sight, of perception: the present surroundings are and interviews that comprise the participatory perfor- The documents the walker into the past. practice that Roland Barthes the kind of dis-cursive mance can only be rendered audible through (1984:15). steps” of of comings and goings, “action of running here and there, describes as the a space once the Berliner Ensemble and Checkpoint Charlie, Tor, and the Brandenburger as Berlin- Germany and today known West and bisected by the border between East Germany and is traversed by the two for both tourism and commerce, It is the heart of the city, Mitte. (running Unter den Linden (connecting east and west) and Friedrichstraße main boulevards, from south to north). is neither a functional “a walking that is to envision Culture,” Walking for a New Manifesto “A urban envi- to work) nor a passive appreciation of (or complaint about) the necessity (to shop, the city, Instead we present a manifesto for a walking that engages with and changes ronment. nei- of Files 50 Kilometres In a similar vein, & Sites 2006). (Wrights particularly using the arts” neutral space nor does it describe a audio-installation, ther uses the city simply as decor for the by the taped stories that capture and recall events that accompanied Walking, or a neutral time. creates an opportunity to see and interrogate the city happened at specific places in the city, and qualities, affective personal experiences, charged with traces of the past, as a chronotope, social regimes. offer opportunities for when followed, coexist on an abundance of visual and auditory trails that, capitalizes on the inevitable pro- of Files 50 Kilometres creating interventions into the city’s life. and also the traces that are the data from which history is constructed, — cess of leaving traces d raison meaning footprint) , cally deriving from the Latin word vestigium called to the volume her introduction In 5. of volatile movements; as such they do not merely visualize the absent, but in their very belat- of volatile movements; as such they do not merely visualize the absent, According to the Italian historian Carlo edness refer to the process of being passed/past. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00371 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00371 by guest on 02October 2021

30 Daniela Hahn Berlin, Germany, 2011.(Photo ©Dorothea Tuch) Figure 2.Audience membersforRiminiProtokoll’s dation ofurbansociology.Regarding thelogicofcities,Parkstates: social lifeundermoderncityconditions,publishedinhisbook TheCity,whichlaidthefoun- In herSociologyofCities,LöwreferstoRobertE.Park’sseminalstudiesthemid-1920s on in whichtheyliveandhowthecityitselfactsuponhabitus ofthecitydwellers(2008:96). tured praxis,”asMartinaLöwnotes,basedonhowurbanites perceiveandexperiencethecity network ofroutesandroutinesthatischaracterizedbyapeculiar logicofitsown,a“struc- transformed bythemovementitself. tice involves, quiteliterally, asteppinginto differentrelationshipswithspacethatiscreatedand roads throughchanginglandscapesondifferentcontinents(Fulton), walkingasartisticprac- accumulating singularfootprintsinastraightlineongrassland (Long), orwanderingpathsand around theperimeterofasquaredelineatedwithmaskingtapeonstudiofloor(Nauman), Whether bysuspendinganindividualfromarooftowalkdownwall(Brown), leadingawalker or evenmonthsasinHamishFulton’swalkingjourneys, whichhehasundertakensince1969. Made by Walking byRichardLong(1967), tounfoldingoveratimespanofseveraldays, weeks, Walkhour inthecaseofBruceNauman’svideotapedSlowAngle (1968),A Line afewhoursin number ofminutesfor Trisha Brown’sAMan Walking DowntheSideof(1970), aBuilding one an ongoingrepetitionofsingularsteps), anditsvariationsindurationrangingfromavariable walking practicesputanemphasisonthetemporalitiesofwalking, itsrhythmicity(intermsof of perceptionthatwouldilluminatetherelationshipbetweenspace, time, andthebody. These performing arts — have exploredwalkingasanartisticpracticeinordertoengendernewmodes struction. Itisinvolvedin thevitalprocessesofpeoplewhocomposeit[...]. (1925:1) tion. The cityisnot, inotherwords, merelyaphysicalmechanism andanartificialcon- attitudes andsentimentsthatinhere inthesecustomsandaretransmittedwiththistradi- The cityis, rather, astateofmind, a body ofcustomsandtraditions, andoftheorganized The spaceofacity,inparticular,offersthepedestriandense, multisensory,anddynamic 50 Kilometres of Files. toriographical practice? walking beconceivedofasahis- a publicspace?Inwhatwayscan shape ourideasaboutthecityas through anurbanenvironment the organizationofmovement ing throughthecity?Howdoes do walkersleavewhenmov- left ofthepast? What traces by theartists: Which tracesare follow thetracesasdetermined ipants totakeawalkinorder Kilometres ofFiles invitespartic- knowledge practice(1979). 50 describe amoded’actionand and deciphering, bothofwhich connection totheactoftracking Ginzburg, tracesstandinclose tices ofvisual, conceptual, and prac- the Nauman —straddling Richard Long, andBruce Trisha Brown, HamishFulton, Since the1960s, artistssuchas of WalkingThe Art Performing Public Spaces 31 . Berlin, Germany, May 2012. (© Anja Kühn, Kühn, 2012. (© Anja May Germany, . Berlin, The Walk The courtesy of Martin Nachbar) Figure 3. Martin Nachbar, Zoe Knights, Noha Ramadan, and Jeroen Peeters Peeters Ramadan, and Jeroen Knights, Noha Zoe 3. Martin Nachbar, Figure in Martin Nachbar’s to which individuals put the city’s infrastructure, social conve- infrastructure, put the city’s uses to which individuals

Man Walking Down the Walking Man

Contemporary perfor- Historically walking performances in the city can be understood, in Simone Hancox’s words, in Simone Hancox’s words, performances in the city can be understood, Historically walking Beyond an understanding of the city as geographical or administrative unit, Park stresses or administrative unit, city as geographical understanding of the Beyond an mance uses different forms of exploratory urban and rural wanderings through tempo- rary interventions into public such as the 2007 Bodies spaces, Willi in Urban Spaces by Cie. Dorner; audio/video walks in the work of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller; performa- & Sites (since 2003); Wrights Mis-Guide project by such as the above cited tive guide books, Nachbar invites his audi- (2012) by Martin Nachbar. such as The Walk or choreographed walks, through a — ence to perform a procession-like walk and directs the attention of the walker lin- speeding up, walking backwards, slow walking, series of walking exercises (shifting weight, , In The Walk bodily actions of putting one foot in front of another. to the different — gering) regimens of Nachbar thus engenders a changing perception of the urban landscape and of the daily movement in the city. Side of a Building inaugurated a series of site-specific performances in which slow walking served as a way of exploring the on the body’s gravity (Walking 1974) or pro- , 1971; Spiral , Wall cesses of communicating and transmitting movements from one performer to another (Roof 1974). 1971; Drift, Piece, niences, or vehicles of transportation and communication. Traces, as the philosopher Mirjam the philosopher Mirjam as Traces, and communication. or vehicles of transportation niences, and Janet Alÿs, Francis by Sophie Calle, walking performances noted with regard to Schaub has the with regard to in a two-fold perspective: of urban spaces disclose this malleability Cardiff, the city is or how and to its performativity, city has been shaped, or how the city’s historicity, walking the city streets becomes a In this context, practices (2007:129). used within everyday and shaping urban spaces. “composing” way of art from the late twentieth wider proliferation in participatory and site-based “indicative of as epit- spaces for the arts, In moving away from institutionalized (2012:257). century onwards” their conventionalized concep- cube as well as the proscenium stage and omized by the white and rooftops, streets and buildings, the city’s and enactment, representation, tions of display, the organization and func- way, In this into sites of artistic investigation. walls have been turned they impose have been reconfig- city spaces and the disciplinary forces tionality of architectural and their relationship and early 1970s by theatre and dance performances ured since the 1960s Experimenting with pedestrian and public spaces (see Dempster 2008). to everyday practices and untrained performers offered a way to perform pub- commonplace movements, practices, city’s infrastructure and probing into different modes lic spaces by using (and transforming) the artists Especially important and audiences. of organizing the relationships between performers as well (1967), Steve Paxton’s Satisfyin’ Lover A (1966), Rainer’s Trio Yvonne and works include Brown. Trisha as early works by Brown’s the “living city” (2) and the (2) and the city” “living the Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00371 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00371 by guest on 02October 2021

32 Daniela Hahn Peripatetic practicestherebytake thenotionofchoreography, whichtraditionallyisbound to or slowingdownofthepace, stopping, passingby, shortcutting, meandering, orgettinglost. tered, constantlyshifting choreographyofdiverseactions, tracings, and turns: the There isnosynchronized, coordinated, orpredeterminedmovement, butrather amulti and whoknowhowtoorganize themselvesinthecourseofaperformance” (Van Eikels2011:2). as performersandaddressesthem as “co-professionals, aspeoplewhoknowhowtoperform directing, orevencontrollingparticipation, Rimini Protokollhereconceivesoftheparticipants voice occasionallydirectsattentiontowardsthesurroundings andpassersby. Insteadofplanning, Rimini Protokollrefrainsfromgivingthewalkerinstructions aboutwheretogo, eventhougha audio walk, HerLongBlack Hair, throughNew York’s CentralPark, in 50 Kilometres ofFiles, walking, mostprominentlyinJean-JacquesRousseau’s Rêveries dupromeneursolitaire (1782). world’s order(Mayer2013:20), fledthecity, andwhosesolitarysauntersgaverisetoapoeticsof tury who, inspiredbythesublimeinnatureandconnected toaself-consciousperceptionofthe our present” (2012:47). These areurbanexplorers unliketheliterarywalkersof18thcen- of thepastandactivetriggersforassociationsexperiences ofcountlessothersubjectsin verse,” William Uricchiowrites, “are loadedwithsignification, silentwitnessestotheunfolding city inordertomovethroughandexperienceitsmnemonictopography. “The spaceswetra- are divergentindividualsontheirowntrajectories. The 50Kilometres of Files walkertraversesthe performed inordertocreateanetworkofdivergingandintersectingpathwayswalkerswho just astheydisseminateaudiofragmentsthroughoutthecityspace. Thus 50Kilometres of Files is ofFiles50 Kilometres , constructsanotionofcollectiveactionbasedonthedispersal ofindividuals, uals onlyoccasionallysteppingouttoobservethegroupasawhole), RiminiProtokoll, with Whereas Nachbardevisesawalkascollectiveventureforgroupofpeopletogether (individ- Choreographing thePublic Nachbar’sMartin Figure 4.EhudDarash, Charlotte De Nachbar, Somviele,Martin and Tommy Noonan (spectator)in In contrast to walks that take participants on a guided tour, such as Janet Cardiff’s 2004 In contrasttowalksthattakeparticipantsonaguidedtour, suchasJanetCardiff’s The Walk . Berlin, Germany, May 2012.(©Anja Kühn, Nachbar) ofMartin courtesy acceleration cen- Performing Public Spaces 33 Aimed at the creation of an experimental, site-specific interac- of an experimental, Aimed at the creation 6

(1958). Théorie de la Dérive lectuals, and political theorists around the central figure, Guy Debord. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s theory of Lefebvre’s on Henri Drawing Debord. Guy the central figure, lectuals, and political theorists around of dif- for the emergence as constructed moments that allowed “situations” set out to create moments, the group capitalism and the society the temporal economies of advanced spatio-temporal configurations, beyond ferent of spectacle. The experimental practice of the dérive, however, links the walker’s meandering with its links the walker’s however, The experimental practice of the dérive, great they had left behind the some material, Although the Stasi had indeed destroyed enough information to compromise almost every- which contained bulk of their records, one of any importance from the old regime and many of the leaders of the revolution. Many would discover that a neigh- [...] Everyone would demand to see his or her dossier. or their bor had been a spy and that he had reported a love affair of their wife or husband not to mention political or professional con- own liaisons with other neighbors’ spouses, (1991:131) tacts that they would rather not have publicized. Oscillating between the ephemerality of walking and its retraceable temporal trajectory, trajectory, its retraceable temporal of walking and between the ephemerality Oscillating from one place to walking not primarily as a directed movement Rimini Protokoll stages , as Debord formulates, “is a technique of rapid pas- as Debord formulates, , the dérive tion with urban environments, notions of travel and promenade which is opposed to classical sage through varied ambiances,” Inspired by the (1958:19). “usual motives for movement” because it involves the dropping of , constitutes a laisser-aller of Files Rimini Protokoll’s 50 Kilometres Situationist mode of drifting, movement routines of each walker as well as a moving along that involves the (unconscious) In this way, and affective qualities of the terrain. their variations in response to the material often unsettling interaction with highlights performance as a dynamic and 50 Kilometres of Files par- and how to interact (or not), where, on when, the city deriving from individual decisions walk on (or not). take (or not), In the case of encounters. directions, very antithesis: a procedure to produce opportunities, displaying the spots and the movement of the walker is guided by a map, , of Files 50 Kilometres walking becomes a process of constant Here, zones where audio documents are receivable. the mobile phone serves as a tracking tool In addition, (dis)localization on the hunt for stories. of reso- and as a means for enabling the creation to locate oneself in the city-as-audio archive, and navi- Both map and mobile phone act as organizing nances by making documents sound. the peripatetic exploration of the city as a historically gating elements for the parcours and steer the built in part with traces of the past that reveal the extent to which shaped environment, had infiltrated almost every aspect and place since its foundation in 1950, State Security Service, As the British historian Robert Darnton has noted in the city and the life of its inhabitants. the pervasiveness of the surveillance performed by the Stasi 1989–1990, Journal in his Berlin their secret archives: became apparent only after the opening of of artists, intel- movement (SI) formed an avantgarde International the Situationist in 1957 in Paris, Founded 6. the walking choreographies — in the literal sense of spatio-temporal tracings of movement — — tracings of movement of spatio-temporal in the literal sense — choreographies the walking (1988:188). “walking rhetoric” a or in Michel de Certeau’s terms, engender their own narratives, individual walk generates a Each pieced together during the parcours. These narratives are but rather chronological script, that does not follow a linear or fragmented (audio) dramaturgy and stories encountered of the walk itself as well as of the documents creates a unique version on the way. a wander- but as a roaming, walk is reminiscent of a sightseeing tour), another (though the outlined by Guy Debord in Situationist experimental practice of drifting, similar to the ing, his the composition or arrangement of movement in time and space, and expand it to embrace expand it to embrace and and space, of movement in time or arrangement the composition the movement of the performance, Both elements pathways. of dispersed walking a mapping entangle in technologies, in mobile communication spaces and the partaking through urban audio walk. Rimini Protokoll’s Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00371 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00371 by guest on 02October 2021

34 Daniela Hahn trolled spaces. the invasionofprivacythroughdatagathering, whichturnedpublicandprivatespacesintocon- ings fromtheStasifilesenablelistenerstoeavesdroponworkingsofsecretpoliceand people whoseliveswereonlylearnedaboutthroughthesurveillancenotesandoriginalrecord- veillance, oppression, psychologicalabuse, anddetention. Inthisway, thepersonalstoriesof and statementsofunofficialcollaborators, todisturbingpersonalaccountsaboutpersistentsur- shots (reportsondemonstrations, distributionofpamphlets, censorship, operationalplanning), range fromoddities(thesightingofaheart-shapedballoonontheboulevard), historicalsnap- to thefilessothat, atthesespots, thewalkturnsintoastationaryaudioplay. Thestoriestold locale, thewalkingslowsdownorstopsaltogether. Movementissupersededbycloselistening spersed withpauses. Inthereceivingzones, whereanaudiofragmentistriggeredbythenew ing, storing, andresearchingdiffersfromthearchiveasanarcanespaceofhistoricalknowledge. mance. Here, thecitybecomesanopenlyaccessiblearchivalspace, wherethelogicofcollect- at theirveryhistoricalplaceoforiginiswhatturns50Kilometres of Files intoapoliticalperfor- of previouslysecretdocumentsbytranslatingthemintoanothermediaandmakingspeak and thearchiveaspublicspaces. The makingpublicofarchivalmaterial, sharinga(small)part Rimini Protokoll’s50Kilometres of Files seekstoaltertheparticipants’appreciationofcity 8. Regarding thearchive as 7. With regard tothedistrict ofLesHalles incentralParis, theSituationist Abdelhafid Khatibintroduces psycho- or centralleadership. As such, thewalkin ers make(andrevise)movementdecisions, occurringatcontingenttimes, withoutjointaction will becomepast. Therefore, theaudioplay “uses” thecityasaspaceinwhichdispersedwalk- a multiplicityofindividualtrajectories, determiningandatthesametimeshapingwhathasor ence ofspace, andtheproximityofbodies” (2006:11). Martin writes, whatis “outside thearchive — glances, gestures, bodylanguage, thefeltexperi- into aBenjaminianchroniclerwhoexperiencesthecityanewand(re)assignsvalueto, asCarol a historicizingpracticethroughwhichthepedestrianinthisdocumentarywalk-inplayturns The meanderingofthewalkerrollsoutasacollectionandre-assemblingstorieson-the-go, tionings inwaysthatmakethemsensitivebothtothedifferent temporallayeringsofcertain of everydaywalkingmovements. Inthiswork, theperformer-listeners takeupmultipleposi- contingency, opacity, andinsufficiencyofrepresentation withregardtothemultipletracings transparency andvisibility(Kammerer2012:7), Rimini Protokoll’swalkconverselyrevealsthe between twopoliticalsystems, butalsopresentedaphysicalbarriertofreedomofmovement. the borderbetweenformerEastand West Germanynotonlymarkedanideologicalfrontier sis onfreedomofmovementcanalsobeseenasareactiontothehistorycentralBerlinwhere both politicalactionandartisticperformance(Van Eikels2013:15). Inthiscontext, theempha- public thatispredicatedonthefreedomtomoveand “freedom toperform,” whichconnects mined byitsconstituents’dispersalratherthantheirgatheringortogetherness:anotionofthe Whereas thedérive’sobjectivewastomateriallytransformarchitectureandurbanism, In thisway, 50Kilometres of Files exposesamodeofcollectivityandhistoriographybasedon This dynamicinteractionwiththecity — moving fromonefocalpointtothenext — is inter- explore thepsychogeography terrain. ofacertain tistics, graphics,andsociologicalresearch), Khatibintroduces thedérive asapracticalandexperimentalwayto affective behaviorofpeoplemoving through thisspace.Besides the theoretical sta- tools(suchasaerialviews, effects withinageographicalspacewhose features are andparticularities supposedtohave adirect effectonthe AsgerJorn’sartist understandingofpsychogeography anddefinespsychogeography asthestudyof the lawsand actionsandprocesses ofenvisaged long-term change.Khatibrefers as short-term totheDanishon interventions geography inhis“Essaidedescriptionpsychogeographique desHalles” methodbased (1958)asaperformative Though theconceptofpublicisnotoriouslyconnectedto aestheticcategoriessuchas arcanum see Wolfgang Ernst (2002)andCornelia Vismann ([2000]2011). 50 Kilometres of Files bringsabouta “public” deter- 7

Performing Public Spaces 35 9 10

rhetorics of surveillance and control from the paradigmatic notion of controlled space articulatedrhetorics of surveillance the paradigmatic notion of controlled in the architec- from and control catalogue for the the extensive See tural model of the panopticon to the new in dataveillance. episteme of control exhibition. (Levin et al. 2002). as an opponent of Kremlin 2005 has been connected to his role on 25 October his arrest fraud and tax evasion, pres- the Russian from 2013 after a pardon in December was released policies and his criticism of corruption. He ident Vladimir Putin. and on his childhood wanderings Benjamin’s writings on the Parisian passages Walter who from Benjamin’s concept of the flâneur, The inspiration this audio walk receives through the streets of Berlin open up a perspective on the complex temporalities of walk- through the streets of Berlin open up a perspective he orbits the In the ambulatory practice Benjamin performed in the city, ing in urban spaces. as a passage of time: both as a transitory action and question of how walking can be conceived faced Inspired by the surrealist poetics of walking and being as a reverberation of the past. an architectural phenomenon in the 19th century with the disappearance of the passage as “botanizing the Benjamin’s idea of of city planning, through transformations of the concepts For past. (1974:34) calls attention to the ephemerality of things and how they become asphalt” as concrete places in the city and as — walking appears as a way to explore passages Benjamin, What do you “The space winks at the flâneur: dream: and present, thresholds between past, (1991:527). think may have gone on here?” tackled as a literary figure and only rarely been in the wake of his writings has mostly been becomes even more evident in the 2010 audio play Blur the acknowledged as a performer, a German collective of the three theatre and media artists Ole Frahm, by LIGNA, traces! the area By scattering 32 audio fragments across Michaelsen. Torsten and Michael Hueners, this audio walk features a mon- Alexanderplatz and Schlossplatz in central Berlin, between that revolve and city planners) architects, Bertolt Brecht, Benjamin, Walter tage of texts (by future projects, the present and of this space to date, around the architectural transformations of the city pal- II; the teardown War World of and their political implications: the devastation residency of the German emperors); the construc- ace in 1950 (which used to be the former opened in 1976 and then demolished by 2008 to tion of the GDR’s Palace of the Republic, make room for the (ongoing) reconstruction of the former city palace. Y. Levin was invited to curate an exhibition at the ZKM in Karlsruhe on the 2001, the media theorist Thomas In 9. Though charged with and political prisoner. oligarch, entrepreneur, is a former Russian Khodorkovsky Mikhail 10. Rimini’s walk starts off amidst the hustle of tourist crowds, near Checkpoint Charlie, the cross- near Checkpoint Charlie, amidst the hustle of tourist crowds, Rimini’s walk starts off the wandering rapidly adapts to and, Here, Germany. West East and ing point between former as “easily turning,” in the city, the usual walking practices performed drops at the same time, protesting, rioting, shopping, promenading, cruising, “into soliciting, it, Rebecca Solnit has put of the walk I am absorbed in get- While at the beginning (2000:173–74). loitering” skulking, the lon- on Friedrichstraße, properly and getting away from the crowds ting the phone to work and the more sound and city, the audio play reveals its suggestive power the more ger I walk, a transit space between , walk thus creates a passage The past and present blur. audible and visual, file of a woman who remembers so that the audio — Benjaminian sense past and present in the meets with an actual gath- on 1 May 1989 Tor front of the Brandenburger how she protested in demonstrating against the detention steps away from the Russian Embassy, just ering of people, of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The Uncanniness of Performance The Uncanniness places within the city and to the regimes of control and surveillance that, even after the end of even after the end and surveillance that, regimes of control the city and to the places within as surveillance such more obvious forms of ranging from pervade everyday life, War, the Cold tracking. or digital information insidious dataveillance TV to the more closed-circuit Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00371 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00371 by guest on 02October 2021

36 Daniela Hahn performance (2001:1). upon itsspectatorsthat ‘we areseeingwhatwesawbefore’” asthedefiningcharacteristic of Marvin Carlsonreferstothe “ghostliness [...], theuncannybutinescapable impressionimposed and imagination. Inthiscontext, itisimportanttonotethatinhisbookTheHauntedStage, performance, butrathertheanimationofpastand archivethroughthewalker’sbody neither therepetitionnorresurgenceofrepressedthat bringsabouttheuncanninessof over andagain. IncontrasttoFreud’sconception, inRiminiProtokoll’saudiowalkitis Freud himselfreferstoawalkthroughthecity, where hefleesaplaceonlytocomebackit rience ofdisclosingsomethingunknownwithinthefamiliar. Interestingly, inthissametext, niness, which, inhisfamoustext “The Uncanny” (1919), SigmundFreuddefinesasanexpe- with theambivalenceofobservingandbeingobserved, therebyevokesanatmosphereofuncan- on conversations. audio play’scommentatortolookaround, toinspecteverything thoroughly, andtoeavesdrop process ofobservation, asasubjectofsurveillanceandpotential informer, bybeingaskedthe street andofbeingoverheardwheneveryoumadeaphonecall” (1991:132). has calledthe “Stasi consciousness”: “the feelingofbeingwatchedwheneveryoucrosseda and presentduringtheaudiowalkcreatesastrangeexperiencesimilartowhatRobertDarnton she appearasatypicallocalshopper. Thus, theactoftransgressing thresholdbetweenpast gory ofthetouristtryingtofigureouthownavigatefromonesitenext, nordoeshe/ phones andmap — is regardedwithsuspicionbypassersby, forshe/heneitherfitsinthecate- same time. Alluding tothesuspiciousnessofflâneur, thewalker — equippedwithhead- the onewhoisfollowingtracesandwhosethroughcityarebeingfollowedat tice inpublicspaceandtothetendencyofashiftingreversingwalker’spositionas LIGNA’s walkingperformancespointtotheambivalencesofasa(dis)localizingprac- de Certeau, asRalphFischersuggestsinhisbookWalking Artists(2011), RiminiProtokolland regime orofspeakingaboutwalkingperformanceasasubversivetacticinthesenseMichel which theGDR’sdisciplinarysocietyanditssecretpoliceareaparticularlystriking example. for theiraudioplays — supersede theclosedandcentralizedmodelofpanopticobservation digital informationtechnologies — the sametechnologiesusedbyRiminiProtokollandLIGNA 1995:178). These dispersedregimesofsurveillanceintheformnetworks, generatedbynew Foucault, arebeingreplacedbymobile “forms ofapparentlyfree-floatingcontrol” (Deleuze trol societies. The panoptic18th-and19th-centuryregimesofsurveillance, theorizedbyMichel touch uponthetransformation, describedbyGillesDeleuze, ofdisciplinarysocietiesintocon- performances, theaudiowalkbyLIGNAaswell50Kilometres ofFiles byRiminiProtokoll blur thetraces? ing inthemetropolis’sanonymity — but canwestill conceiveofaflâneurtoday?Isitpossibleto tue ofhisslowpace, butalsofromthesurveillanceasabio-politicaldispositivebydisappear- box office. Theflâneursoughttoescapenotonlyfromthecrowdthathestoodoutbyvir- to interactwiththewalkersthroughtheirphonesandcomputersprovidedintemporary a printedmappingofherwanderingsthroughthecityanddiscoversthatotherpeoplewereable Kilometres ofFiles whenthewalker, whilereturningtheheadphonesandmobilephone, ishanded decide wheretogo, theyremaintraceableateverypointinthecity. This becomesevidentin50 of GPSgeo-data. InbothLIGNA’s andRiminiProtokoll’saudioinstallations, thoughwalkers traces onedeciphers, butalsoofthetracesoneleavesaroundcity, forexampleintheform Being confrontedwithtracesofthepastinmovingthroughtoday’s urbanenvironment, and At thesametime, inthecourseofwanderings, theobserverbecomescomplicitin Remaining cautiousofassigningwalkingtooeasilythepotentialtoundermineapanoptic By drawingondigitaltechnologiesoftrackingandexploringtheirpotentialforparticipatory LIGNA’s audioplaymakesthewalkerawareofambiguitypublic spaceintermsofthe Performing Public Spaces 37 . Bielefeld: transcript. in der Kunst. Öffentliche 50, 3 (T191):8–15. 50, . Berlin: Merve. . aus Unordnung Ordnung Archive: der Rumoren , ed. Rolf Tiedemann. Tiedemann. Rolf ed. , im Zeitalter des Hochkapitalismus Ein Lyriker Baudelaire. Charles Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. 1). (vol. Das Passagen-Werk Das eds. Sybille Krämer, Werner Kogge, and Gernot Grube, 11–36. Frankfurt am Main: 11–36. and Gernot Grube, Kogge, Werner Sybille Krämer, eds.

this hauntedness of performance becomes tangible as the work retells becomes tangible of performance this hauntedness Files of 50 Kilometres

In Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. (4 September 2013). _englisch_2012.pdf?__blob=publicationFile Michigan Press. 177–82. University Press, Berlin: Alexander Verlag. transcript. Theatre 2:237–50. Contemporary Review 22, Art and Life.” of Perambulating the Boundaries Between 2 (December):13–17. Wissenskunst, Suhrkamp. Arts and Media. Karlsruhe: ZKM Center for Bentham to Big Brother. Palgrave Macmillan. York: New 80–87. Carol Martin, ed. , Stage World stories and restages recorded voices in places within the city of Berlin, a space ghosted by mem- a space ghosted by the city of Berlin, in places within restages recorded voices stories and to experi- of the walker to perform, the body and senses It requires ories and associations. By entangling performance, through it. archive by wandering activate the city as public to ence, the the question of how not only addresses Rimini Protokoll and archive, mobile technologies, into but also inquires and participation, concepts of audience performance and internet impacts memories. and perform experience, share, store, the ways in which we References am Main: Suhrkamp. Frankfurt der Liebe. Sprache einer Fragmente 1984. Roland. Barthes, 1974. Walter. Benjamin, Benjamin, Walter. 1991. Walter. Benjamin, 3:1–7. 17, Research Performance and Memory.” Technology “Introduction: On 2012. Maaike. Bleeker, www.bstu.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/StUG bstu.bund.de. Act.” Records “STASI 2012. BSTU. Ann Arbor: . University as Memory Theatre Machine of The The Haunted Stage: 2001. Marvin. Carlson, Norton. W.W. 1989–1990. New York: Journal Berlin 1991. Robert. Darnton, Internationale Situationniste 2 (December):19–23. de la Dérive.” “Théorie 1958. Guy. Debord, Berlin: Merve. Voullié. by Roland Trans. Kunst des Handelns. 1988. Michel. de Certeau, Columbia York: New 1972–1990. In Negotiations “Postscript on Control Societies.” 1995. Gilles. Deleuze, 1:23–28. 13, Research Performance “The Choreography of the Pedestrian.” 2008. Elizabeth. Dempster, . Rimini Protokoll Theater von Das Alltags: Experten des 2007. eds. Miriam and Florian Malzacher, Dreysse, 2002. Wolfgang. Ernst, Bielefeld: . Künsten in den performativen des Gehens Artists: Über die Entdeckung Walking 2011. Ralph. Fischer, http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/freud1.pdf. MIT.edu. “The Uncanny.” 1919. Sigmund. Freud, 3:273–88. Theory and Society 7, Paradigm.” “Clues: Roots of a Scientific 1979. Carlo. Ginzburg, The Politics Practices and the Situationist International: Walking “Contemporary 2012. Simone. Hancox, Das Publicum: Vom 2012. ed. Dietmar, Kammerer, Internationale Situationniste “Essai de description psychogeographique des Halles.” 1958. Abdelhafid. Khatib, und als Orientierungstechnik In Spur: Spurenlesen also ist eine Spur?” “Was 2007. Sybille. Krämer, from Rhetorics of Surveillance (SPACE). CRTL 2002. eds. Weibel, Peter Ursula Frohne, Y., Thomas Levin, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Soziologie der Städte. 2008. Martina. Löw, of the Real on the In Dramaturgy Scripted Realities of Rimini Protokoll.” “The 2010. Florian. Malzacher, TDR “Bodies of Evidence.” 2006. Carol. Martin, Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00371 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00371 by guest on 02October 2021

38 Daniela Hahn http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/suppl/10.1162/DRAM_a_00371. To view supplementalmediarelatedtothisarticle, pleasevisit Wrights &Sites. 2006. “A ManifestoforaNew Walking Culture: ‘Dealing withtheCity.’” Mis-guide.com. Vismann, Cornelia. (2000)2011. Akten:Medientechnik undRecht. FrankfurtamMain:Fischer. Van Eikels, Kai. 2013. DieKunstdesKollektiven: Performance zwischen Theater, Politik undSozio-Ökonomie. Van Eikels, Kai. 2011. “What PartsofUsCanDowithEachOther(and When).” Performance Uricchio, William. 2012. “A PalimpsestofPlaceandPast.” Performance Research 17, 3:45–49. Solnit, Rebecca. 2000. Wanderlust: of A History Walking. London: Verso. Schaub, Mirjam. 2007. “Die KunstdesSpurenlegensund-verfolgens. SophieCalles, Francis Alÿs undJanet Park, RobertE., Ernest W. Burgess, RoderickD. McKenzie. 1925. TheCity. Chicago:UniversityofChicago Mayer, Andreas.2013. www.mis-guide.com/ws/documents/dealing.html (4September2013). Fink. Munich: Wilhelm Research 16, 3:2–11. und Wissenskunst, ed. SybilleKrämeretal., 121–41. FrankfurtamMain:Suhrkamp. Cardiffs BeitragzueinemphilosophischemSpurenbegriff.” InSpur:Spurenlesen alsOrientierungstechnik Press. am Main:S. Fischer. Wissenschaft vom Gehen:DieErforschung derBewegung im19. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt