Cities and sings
The Farewell Ritual
text and graphics: Ghazall Nematgorgani, Roman Rohrer, students at Faculty of Architecture, HafenCity Universität
Agnieszka Kępa, student at Faculty of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology,
tutors: Mona Mahall (HCU Universität), Asli Serbst (HfK Bremen), Adelheid Schultz (theater director, Stuttgart)
reading time: around 15 min
The Farewell Ritual
text and graphics: Ghazall Nematgorgani, Roman Rohrer, students at Faculty of Architecture, HafenCity Universität
Agnieszka Kępa, student at Faculty of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology,
tutors: Mona Mahall (HCU Universität), Asli Serbst (HfK Bremen), Adelheid Schultz (theater director, Stuttgart)
reading time: around 15 min
Zirma: (...)The city is redundant: it repeats itself so that something will stick in the mind. (...) Memory is redundant: it repeats signs so that the city can begin to exist.
Tamara: (...) Your gaze scans the streets as if they were written pag-es: the city says everything you must think, makes you repeat her dis-course, and while you believe you are visiting Tamara you are only re-cording the names with which she defines herself and all her parts. (...)
Hypatia: (...) ‘Signs form a language, but not the one you think you know.’ I realized I had to free myself from the images which in the past had announced to me the things I sought: only then would I succeed in understanding the language of Hypatia.(...)
Italo Calvino, Invisible cities
Spilling water for luck is a folk custom in some countries such as Iran, Turkey and Bulgaria. According to folk belief, spilling water behind the person who goes on a journey, or to do a job, will bring good luck, and is done so that the travel or the job will end happily. In Dauerwelle, the floating art gallery, all guests are invited to do this ritual before the leave the ship- as a gesture- for their friends or for strangers.
The city of Dauerwelle
While entering Dauerwelle, one finds out that it is unlike any other city. A city with a limited area, which at the same time is not in the captivity of a specific space and does not belong to one particular geography. She is a moving city immersed in space. She crosses rivers, penetrates other cities, stops, gives, takes, and leaves again to another place. It is as if the continuity of the city is in this constant movement.
It is not known when exactly Dauerwelle was founded . The only information available is that the city was built by blacksmiths entirely out of steel and iron. The inhabitants have never been permanent residents. None of them were even born here. Each of them has a different background and history. Even the languages they speak are different. The oldest inhabitants were the same blacksmiths who built it. Later when Dauerwelle began to move and enter another city, some of them left Dauerwelle for the first time and settled in the new place.
How the inhabitants communicate, depends on events and indeed the city is full of them. Events which are reflections of the cities where the inhabitant used to live before coming to Dauerwelle. Events are often in the form of a performance, an object, a structure, or a collection of all of them. inhabitants in small tribes hold these events every day.
A tribe has organized a performance to criticize the phenomenon of mass consumption in the previous city from which they came. Some Mirrors are placed all around a cor-ner of Dauerwelle and performers are constantly adorned their faces with all kinds of cosmetics. Their faces are buried between thousands of layers of cosmetics and are no longer recognizable. Another tribe organized a carpet weaving event and anyone can start weaving. The wo-ven carpet is becoming longer and longer every day.
While entering Dauerwelle, one finds out that it is unlike any other city. A city with a limited area, which at the same time is not in the captivity of a specific space and does not belong to one particular geography. She is a moving city immersed in space. She crosses rivers, penetrates other cities, stops, gives, takes, and leaves again to another place. It is as if the continuity of the city is in this constant movement.
It is not known when exactly Dauerwelle was founded . The only information available is that the city was built by blacksmiths entirely out of steel and iron. The inhabitants have never been permanent residents. None of them were even born here. Each of them has a different background and history. Even the languages they speak are different. The oldest inhabitants were the same blacksmiths who built it. Later when Dauerwelle began to move and enter another city, some of them left Dauerwelle for the first time and settled in the new place.
How the inhabitants communicate, depends on events and indeed the city is full of them. Events which are reflections of the cities where the inhabitant used to live before coming to Dauerwelle. Events are often in the form of a performance, an object, a structure, or a collection of all of them. inhabitants in small tribes hold these events every day.
A tribe has organized a performance to criticize the phenomenon of mass consumption in the previous city from which they came. Some Mirrors are placed all around a cor-ner of Dauerwelle and performers are constantly adorned their faces with all kinds of cosmetics. Their faces are buried between thousands of layers of cosmetics and are no longer recognizable. Another tribe organized a carpet weaving event and anyone can start weaving. The wo-ven carpet is becoming longer and longer every day.
The structure of the installation is inspired by the ancient methods of getting the water- Persian Panemone. Originally it was powered by the wind, which was allowing to get the water without the effort.
What changes and grows in Dauerwelle is not its area but the events within her. With the arrival of new inhabitants, new events are formed.
One wanders around the city for days, sees different events and feels amazed, learns and sometimes becomes the founder of or participant in a new event.
After days, it is finally time to leave the city. An event has been arranged for the fare-well moment. Since the city is floating in water and water is its mobilizer, residents spill water for the person who is leaving Dauerwelle. It is believed, spilled or running water symbolizes mobility and ease of movement, since it does not stop or get stuck, and so spilling of water is done so that the journey someone starts would go as smoothly as the spilled water.
Although the city is floating in water, access to drinking water has always been a prob-lem and inhabitants should take precaution for consuming it. Therefore, they decided to use water from river for this event. Some of inhabitants built a structure to lift the water, and every time someone is leaving Dauerwelle, they take water from the river, pour it into a bowl and spill the water again into the river. A return from water to water.
One leaves the city, while events floating in memory and eyes are drowning in water to remember more.
One wanders around the city for days, sees different events and feels amazed, learns and sometimes becomes the founder of or participant in a new event.
After days, it is finally time to leave the city. An event has been arranged for the fare-well moment. Since the city is floating in water and water is its mobilizer, residents spill water for the person who is leaving Dauerwelle. It is believed, spilled or running water symbolizes mobility and ease of movement, since it does not stop or get stuck, and so spilling of water is done so that the journey someone starts would go as smoothly as the spilled water.
Although the city is floating in water, access to drinking water has always been a prob-lem and inhabitants should take precaution for consuming it. Therefore, they decided to use water from river for this event. Some of inhabitants built a structure to lift the water, and every time someone is leaving Dauerwelle, they take water from the river, pour it into a bowl and spill the water again into the river. A return from water to water.
One leaves the city, while events floating in memory and eyes are drowning in water to remember more.