Travel Bursary 2017

6

Venus

Leipzig via Werdau; a route recommended by the DB representative in their Plauen ticket office. Food first. We’re heading to Maza Pita which is the other side of the park. We follow green and blue on the map. “The canal made Leipzig” says CC. It’s a big drainage ditch (makes me think of a German proverb I can’t pronounce or remember but just know exists because zwei German women recently explained it to me). We reach a reference and CC asks a walker which bridge. This one, this one or this one? This one. Danke!

It’s hot so we walk in the shade of the trees close to the canal drainage ditch. A fork in the path. We ask again; either/or, same/same. We go left and it leads us directly to Industry Street and there’s Maza Pita (we recommend it). At the end of Industry Street, with a little dog leg shimmy should be Spinnerei “undoubtedly a role model for other spaces in Saxony”. There was shade then there wasn’t. We’re exposed to the nuclear furnace fusing in the sky – feel the fucking heat of that thing! Mad dogs and…across another bridge and entschuldigung ask for more directions (course correction).

Plagwitz, familiar territory, under the tracks, this time there’s a big sign on the side of the building that says – The Harris, sorry, Spinnerei – that way with a big arrow. We clock the café closes time. We descend down a set of steep steps into the reception stroke gallery. We ask, we get, the spiel. So, the man in the mill in the corner was the last man standing, in a huge mega massive Fordian factory whilst all around him had fallen into disrepair; broken windows, derelict dance floors etc. Until the facilities managers stepson (an artist) somehow managed to move into an empty, unused space and the rest, as they say, is history.

Spinnerei branding says “…from cotton to culture”. Where else do I know that used to have a cotton industry? It rhymes with Dankeshire. Manchester may have been a neighbour but Preston springs to mind. Inside The Harris (on the 1st floor of the social history section) there is a model of a mill – Horrocks. I used to be in a band that practiced, in a mill (it’s still there, on Aqueduct Street). I used to work for Littlewoods Catalogues, in a mill (it’s still there, on Balcarres Road).

The owners of The Spinnerai are property developers. Their original intent was loft apartments but the bank didn’t lend them the money. Instead, an other natural order spieled out, a pattern re-iterated…artists move in, creative colonisation and, ‘as if’, ‘by magic’, voila! There’s no I scream deal at The Spinnerei but the artists seem to be getting a fair affordable deal. The call centres, commercial galleries and art suppliers also sited in the complex pay more so there’s a symbiotic socialism at work. It’s possible that the owners could sell up at any time; the value of their asset has undoubtedly risen – a once dark and satanic mill complex is alive again. There are enough artists across the spectrum, of all creative creeds, to keep a Fish n Chip Shop, or a falafel shop, or two, busy, lunch, tea and supper. Maybe the cultural capital is greater than the capital.

http://www.spinnerei.de/

Supported by a bursary from a-n The Artist Information Company.

7

Moon day

CC’s arranged a meeting at the building of the Plauen Art Kollective (He’s shown me how to get there, it’s near the Sternquell brewery). Big doors, wide stairs and high ceilings. It reminds me of, it’s a cross between, a Glasgow tenement and a primary school art room – tables pushed together in the middle so everyone can sit around, konducive to kollective art action. The kollective has a floor it uses kommunally; they rent the space and chip into a kitty for shared materials; inks for screen printing, chemicals for darkroom developing etc. The ‘leader’ Anja gets paying ‘gigs’ which the kollective work on as a whole – kollectively, earning money together. Their kurrent kommission is making external graphics (in the style of E.O. Plauen) for the local kino, as part of making the main street look better, so called regeneration.

There is more than one art kollective in Plauen. Ines shows me around another building she has the keys for; the owner gave it to the town to up keep. This kollective is using the space to host workshops.

Ines confirms CCs assertion regarding the movement of people ‘west’, hence the quiet streets and empty buildings. I ask about the ‘west’ because it’s talked about in a way that suggests a divide is still there – geographically and psychologically. It is, doch! They, we’ve been joined in the beer garden drinking the local beer by Otto, ask about Brexit. Ich weiss est nicht! I voted to remain but tried to explain…

I’m pro people so their movement is a positive. Regarding not being able to speak a ‘local’ language I would argue we didn’t integrate enough and suggest all school pupils could spend a year in another country/culture.

Ines and Anja are making a visit to England (Leeds) in July – I suggest East St. Arts and invite them to Preston and The Birley.

Supported by a bursary from a-n The Artist Information Company.

8

Mercury

Meeting Paul Elsner at GEH8 (Gehstraber). I know where to go because Daniel gave me directions from the S train stop. Local knowledge. I go to STORE on Pulsnitzer but unfortunately it’s closed. CC would’ve rung ahead but sans my bag carrier I took a punt. From outside looking in it looks like its change over. There’s a cactus in the window.

I walk around Neustadt, mooching. A couple of bike shops. Back on the S train to try and find but don’t find so walk back to Neustadt across the old cobbled bridge which crosses the River Elbe.

I see a sign that says You Are Not The Target Audience. It’s a Cosmic Coincidence. I’ve been thinking about the phrase ‘target audience’. It’s a poster for an exhibition at Dresden Kunsthaus (http://kunsthausdresden.de/), its 4 Euros entry. I say I’ve got a meeting but I’ll be back later. Walking a new street, I see new things (galleries). There’s a sign on a door in German that may say ‘back in 10 minutes’. At Albertplatz I get the three train to somewhere beginning with W via Liststrabe.

I’ve never been to this place before. How will I know it? I think about it. It’s called GEH8, it must be no. 8. Well done! Max introduces himself. I don’t think about it and forget his name sofort. And I’ve just been reading a Derren Brown book, the bit about remembering names. He introduces me to Paul and I ask Max his name again and shake his hand again…

Paul shows me the newly renovated reception office kitchen bar café area and disabled toilet. All looks fit for purpose. We adjourn to the main space. The building was owned by DB, it’s a former train shed. Paul’s been there about ten years or so, first solo then he sub-let to other artists and now it’s a not-for-profit organisation. He runs the space but has only pulled a nominal, running wage for the last couple of years. We discuss the shared experience of attending meetings with people who are employed and are being paid to be at the meeting whereas the artist maybe losing their wage for the day because they’ve had to take “unpaid leave”. There’s bias built in to the system.

The City of Dresden are applying for City of Culture 2025, the same year as Preston. Before being an artist Paul studied architecture and worked for the city (town planning) for three years so he has some familiarity. We have a good old moan about the system, as if we’ve known each other for years rather than ten minutes. Our mutual concerns cross boundaries but, here’s the rub, at the same time we’re grateful, very, for what we’ve got (whilst it lasts) but just give us the building, none of this ninety nine year shenanigans. If Hawking is[1] right it’s all over in a hundred!

The land surrounding GEH8 studios used to be green but The City of Dresden has bought the land off DB and is building two schools (2000 children) on it. However, as the new owners, they’ve designated GEH8 as cultural land which isn’t the same as ninety nine years but it’s better than the one month rolling contract they were previously on!

Supported by a bursary from a-n The Artist Information Company.

[1] CC had noticed a banner on the homepage of his computer saying Professor Hawking predicts human extinction in a hundred years.