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| Kate Hers' "deutschsprachliche Projekt", 2012 |
In Berlin I used to participate in a
great hip hop course taught by Justin
F. Kennedy. Justin always reminds me of my one-year stay in
San Francisco - a year of pure sun, light, and happiness. His dance
is invested by this positive vibe. Now living and dancing in Berlin,
he returned to SF for a residency in 2011. In the Uferhallen of
Wedding I went to see the result: Flitter, Flutter, Glitter,
Gutter (or any combination of the four).
Modern dance has a way of confronting you with your greatest agonies.
Not so in Justin's SF dance piece. It made me laugh and it was as if
the spectators' smiling faces were intrinsically part of his
choreography. Also in the hip hop course we learnt plenty of
good moves, which I still use to tackle daily life in Berlin. There
is the “drop bounce bounce” movement, bouncing off a negative
comment like a basketball. Brushing the dirt off the shoulder exactly
three times à la Michael Jackson works too.
Only recently I discovered that happy
moves are not necessarily only triggered bodily but also by using
words. It was while re-reading Andy Warhol's Philosophy book
that I became aware of this – his favorite word being “so what”:
“My mother didn't love me.” So what.
“My husband won't ball me.” So what.
“I'm a success but I'm still alone.” So what.
The Mongolian, originally SF and now
Berlin-based painter Ali Mongo has a similar way of ending tough
topics: “Why not?” Ali Mongo goes through life with an ease that
is remarkable. Traveling around the world he encounters trouble
regularly. Yet, when the trouble is not too big (in which case a
change of name will do. I once used to call Ali Mongo Sammy.), a “why
not?” suffices. In my search for a German equivalent Sebastian Jehl of
the Walter König book shop in Hamburger Bahnhof came up with a
proposal: “Was soll's.”
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| Ali Mongo in his studio in Berlin |
It seems, however, that a lot of people
moving to Berlin are anticipating a harsh culture. Therefore they are
eager to master a “bad” vocabulary to face the situation. The
Singapore artist Ming Wong prepared for his move by doubling Petra
von Kant in her terrible breakdown in Fassbinder's Die bittere
Tränen von Petra von Kant: “Ich bin im Arsch ... ”. On June
29 I attended the screening and presentation of the work of Kate Hers
in Art Laboratory Berlin. Kate Hers is the brain behind the amazing
website estherka.com which brings together the latest updates about jobs and residencies for artists and useful information
on, for instance, how to apply for an artist visa in Germany. Born in
South-Korea and raised in the United States the issue of
transmigration is key to Kate Hers' artistic work. Living now in
Berlin she started this year an interactive language project called
“Das deutschsprachliche Projekt” (germanproject.estherka.com).
Mostly in collaboration with the person who offers her a peculiar
German expression or word Kate Hers makes “teaching” podcasts,
which are published on her blog. Swear words fill the main part of
the project. Through repetition the viewer is taught the correct
pronunciation because, of course, you want to get these things right.
The statistics have not been made yet,
but Kate Hers told me that she noticed a few particularities. Plenty
of variations came up to insult a woman as “old hag”: Kackbratze,
Schabracke, Schreckschraube, alte Schrapnelle. Swear words for an
elderly man are harder to find. Plenty of words also for “idiot”:
Dulli, Trottel, Halbdackel, Kloppi, Vollpfosten, Schwachmat,
Arschgeiger, Dumpfbacke, Hornochse, Saftsack. Whereas in the United
States swear words using genitals are much more common (asshole is
the most famous one), in Germany it is apparently a bigger insult to
affront somebody's intelligence. Indeed, one would go so far as to fake a PhD just to avoid the offenses. Kate Hers' “deutschsprachliche
Projekt” is not exactly a happy words projects. Yet by tracking
those bad words and tackling them in a humorous way she opens up a
space where they lose their weight and power. Additionally, it
might bring you in a good mood to be able to recognize an insult
while also proposing your offender a few alternatives. Recognizing an
insult is not so easily done when you are new in Berlin. Berliners
have a way of saying the most harmless words, such as “bread”, in
an, at first hearing, angry tone. An Icelandic friend of mine learnt
it the hard way at his local bakery. After a while he finally barked
back. Since then the bad vibe has vanished into thin air.
See for Justin F. Kennedy's dance piece: http://vimeo.com/36000917
and Kate Hers projects: http//:estherka.com; http://thegermanprojectpart2.wordpress.com/; http://usartberlin.org
See for Justin F. Kennedy's dance piece: http://vimeo.com/36000917
and Kate Hers projects: http//:estherka.com; http://thegermanprojectpart2.wordpress.com/; http://usartberlin.org