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erich pick

Jeu de la trace ou de la différance qui n'a pas de sens et qui n'est pas. Qui n'appartient pas. Nulle maintenance, mais nulle profondeur pour cet échiquier sans fond où l'être est mis en jeu. (2014)

Exhibition view.

The artist Reinhold Engberding has invited collegues from around the world to shape four sheets from 60-year-old shorthand copybooks.

Shorthand is now considered obsolete medium but is still used in order to create transcripts ›immediately‹. Common fonts are shortened by simplifying the letters, by omission of vowels and abbreviation of whole words to one character in order to speed up writing.

For my work »Jeu de la trace ou de la différance qui n'a pas de sens et qui n'est pas. Qui n'appartient pas. Nulle maintenance, mais nulle profondeur pour cet échiquier sans fond où l'être est mis en jeu.« (»The play of the trace, or the différance, which has no meaning and is not. Which does not belong. There is no maintaining, and no depth to, this bottomless chessboard on which Being is put into play.«) I use a French, geometric shorthand font to reproduce a quote from Jacques Derrida's text Différance as a cut out ›pattern‹ of paper. Derrida's text deals with the incessantly shift of the sense of characters and put into question the immediacy of any writing and spoken language.
More images.

Cadres Foucaultiens (2011)

Exhibition view.

The work Cadres Foucaultiens bases upon the first publication of the lecture “Of Other Spaces” by Michel Foucault in the French magazine Architecture Mouvement Continuité. The article, published in 1984, willingly entered the international discursive field of architecture and arts, mainly with his concept of Heterotopia, a realized utopia, which he coined in this article and which also for me, at a certain moment, was very important.

But my acknowledgment for Foucault, for his analysis of structural meshed spaces, was accompanied by an inquietude, because I felt that Foucault's understanding of spaces was too functional and, thus, for me the possibilities of negotiation between subjects and of deferrals of structures receive inadequate attention. I experienced the set up of the framework by describing Heterotopias as too strong and, therefore, as still too inflexible, so that I wanted to mitigate the text to provide clearance.
More images.

Floating Volumes #1 — #3 (2010/2011)

Cover of the catalogue.

City and Identity within Artistic Research – in Hamburg and Istanbul Series of exhibitions and events curated by Emine Şahinaz Akalın, Nancy Atakan und Erich Pick

The project, Floating Volumes, dealt with the topics of city and identity within artistic research an examined the cities of Hamburg and Istanbul. Within this project, city was defined as a social space built from narratives and visions. Those standing to gain from the political, economic, and cultural visions determine the way of reading the urban space. Media presentations such as that seen in the daily press or blogs, travel guides or Google Panoramio and television spread specific stories about streets, squares, neighborhoods and organizations. Therefore, only specific histories and specific (re)presentations of spaces are produced. Empty and deserted lots and lower income areas become places for reflections on new visions, utopias and dystopias. The people who make these reflections and tell these stories not only re-generate given versions of narratives, but also subjectively rewrite interpretations. Our aim is to show how designs for these projects and these types of stories are generated and how subjective differences can be engrafted. While doing this, we want to investigate and point out representative examples and ascription of identity.
Our aim was to show how designs for these projects and these types of stories are generated and how subjective differences can be engrafted. While doing this, we wanted to investigate and point out representative examples and ascription of identity. Diversity of artistic positions and a differentiated exchange of perspectives and information stimulated controversial debates presenting different point of views about our cities.

More information: Floating Volumes @ FRISE
Order catalogue: Textem
Pissing in the Corner, Reverse (2009)
20 x 10 x 10 cm and 70 x 180 x 0,2 cm, Plastics

Installational view.

For me this work comprises two main subjects: First, considering that building shells of biomorphic and organically shaped architecture is connoted as feminine, e.g. as uterus, but this female character is subjected to a masculine logic, corresponding to Luce Irigaray, the building shell could be understood as an upended phallus. This argument is also relevant for current biomorphic architecture.
Second, the work broaches artistic and curatorial practice: A field of media or content is claimed to assert and mark an artisic position, which could have the potential of outcome. To elude this practice is difficult because of materialistic and symbolic economics.
Not least I’m curious about how this work can emerge and can be integrated in a new space. I hope for an unexpected constellation and surprise.
To give orders space (2008)

Poster for the exhibition program.

The series of exhibitions and events at FRISE presented artistic positions, which deals with architecture and urban landscape as a media of communication and its possibilities for appropriation and redesignation. Firstly, as a starting point, the focus of the series were discussions like ‘prospering city’ and ‘creative city’. However, the invited positions do not reflect specific discussions of certain cities, but in fact they are trying to make visible general conditions of the production of space. The events are covering two exhibitions and six evenings with presentations and films. Contributions by: Jörg Adolph, Arne Bunk, Ania Corcilius, Marie-Luise Heuser, Moira Hille, Volko Kamensky, Andrea Knobloch, LIGNA, Nicole Messenlehner, Julia Münz, Erich Pick, Annika Unterburg, Kathrin Wildner. Compiled by Arne Bunk and Erich Pick.
Programme.
Possible Events (2007/2008)

Conversation with participating artists of the show Politische Ereignisse (Political Events).

Artistic director of Galerie der HFBK Hamburg
The programme of the shows reflected the current exihibition business, which more and more is based on event culture and spectacle. Orientated at Derridas remarks on »events« arists were invited to dealing with notions of planning, goal and achievement, considering their own perspectives as artists, a subject involved in art biz.
Beside this, various aspects were discussed like what does it mean to presenting in a specific space or the context of the gallery. Different emphases were made within each show.
Archive of events. Catalogue of the gallery (2.5 MB)
Theory and speculative practice (2006)

Installation and venue at Kunstverein Hannover. In the background paintings by Lena Schmidt.

A rotating stage at a lawn served for concerts, lectures, performances and film-screenings. Stage and lawn were realized in co-operating with the artist group Busy-Beaver.

A series of events accompanying the show Plattform #3, Kunstverein Hannover, 2.11.2006 to 6.11.2006.
For the show ‘Plattform #3’ at Kunstverein Hannover Max Hinderer and I planned and moderated a series of events to reflect reciprocating relationship between scientific research and fine arts. To this end, we chose the term ‘speculation’ as a starting point: Within the field of the arts and imagination, which are provided by the terms ‘speculation’ and ‘speculator’, we tried to figure out the relation between knowledge and its (unconscious) assumption formulated by acting and speaking subjects. Every text and artistic action, every formulation of knowledge do not only pursue one specific logic, but will constitute manifold logical concepts via interpretation and economic speculation.
The contributions of Frank Hesse, Hanne Loreck, Katrin Mayer, Tim Stüttgen and Renate Wieser covered such events as concerts, lectures, performances and film.
Wenn sonst nichts klappt: Wiederholung wiederholen (2005)
(If nothing works out: Repeat repetition)

Cover ‘Wiederholung wiederholen’ (Repeat repetition)

A book including a music CD treating the topos of repetition within art, pop culture, film, music, everyday life, theory and pratice.
Eds.: Sabeth Buchmann, Alexander Mayer, Karolin Meunier, Stefan Moos, Erich Pick, Martina Rapedius, Thomas Rindfleisch, Mirjam Thomann, Sabin Tünschel
Series polypen, verlag b_books and materialverlag, 2005.

The reader summarizes a series of courses and workshops and a conference, which were organized by Sabeth Buchmann and others. Subsequently, a team was formed to reflect the findings and to compile and edit the reader, including entirely new contributions.
With contributions by
Katja Diefenbach, Juliane Rebentisch, Josephine Pryde, Eran Schaerf, Diedrich Diederichsen, Gunter Reski, Tabea Metzel, Stephan Dillemuth, Stephan Geene, Judith Hopf and others

Own contribution: an artistic and scientific glossary about sampling within music and fine arts (together with Alexander Mayer) as well as the music CD.
Order
Art and Work (2005)

Shot for the film series ‘Good work is anywhere, but not at our place.’

How do cinematographic images reflect the changing concept of labour? With some examples of today’s cinema, different in form and content, we compared these with some historic precursors.

The project encompassed a series of films with the title ‘Representation and Images of Labour within Film’ (moderated by Erk Schilder, Anja Steidinger, and myself) and the panel discussion ‘Artistic Production in the Era of Postfordism: The neccessity to revise the categories and the apparatus’ (with Michaela Ott, Gerburg Treusch-Dieter, Hanne Loreck, moderated by Erich Pick und Erk Schilder, HFBK Hamburg).
Both events were linked to the Euromayday 2005.

A reader compiled by HFBK Hamburg is planned, wherein the panel discussion will be documented.