Kerstin Drobek

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Und von was träumst Du... # 01, 2008

Interactive audio installation

Syker Vorwerk / Centre for Contemporary Art

WHAT SLEEPS, ARTISTIC VISIONS OF SLEEP

And what are you dreaming about tonight?

"In the stairwell's staircase, the visitor is asked this surprising question. Kerstin Drobek deliberately installed the interactive audio installation at this point, because the staircase leading from the ground floor to the first floor forms an intermediate stage. Originally not intended for the works of art, the moment of surprise is most impressive here. The place symbolizes, as it were, the transition from bottom to top, from one level to the next, and thus comes very close to the stage of sleeping. This can also be seen as an intermediate stage. Not awake, not dead - in between there is sleep.
But who could say what he will dream of tonight?
Sleep cannot be influenced, neither can its thoughts, its game, which it plays with us. The question of the dream of the following night is therefore both absurd and surreal. Yet it makes us sit up and take notice. Kerstin Drobek is a performance artist. In this performance, created in 2007, the artist actively involves the visitor. Passing a sensor activates a sensor that starts the audio recording of the sentence she has spoken. In this way, every visitor is greeted and bid farewell."

Susanne Hinrichs
Püppchen Schön, dass du kommst!, 2005, performance and installation / video 4'7''

Spedition / Bremen
Püppchen Schön, dass du kommst!, 2005, performance und installation / still / video 4'7''

Spedition / Bremen
"In her performance "Schön dass du kommst!" ("Nice of you to come!") Kerstin Drobek presents another variant of the game about identity.
She outsources her voice - as an off-voice that recites the sentence "Schön, dass Du kommst" in an endless loop. On the one hand, this structures her performance with a rhythm and, on the other hand, appeals directly to the visitor. On several levels, the installation becomes a puppet show. The puppet house projected on the wall with the inscription "My Room" as the first level, the performance of the artist herself in the room, who acts in a strange way with sweets, as the second level and the voice as the third level create different forms of perception of space and time. Identity and puppetry are also divided into aspects. Constants, such as the projection and the off-voice, merge with the unrepeatable, the artist's performance. Drobek's works disturb the viewer, shake his canon of values, and force him into the role of an accomplice by recognizing the incompatible."

Verena C. Paulus
Püppchen My room, 2005, photo series / C-Print , 120 x 180 cm, size variable

Spedition / Bremen
For the performance "Schön dass du kommst!" ("Nice of you to come!") the photo series "my room" was also created.
Püppchen Zum friedlichen Nachbarn, 2008, draft for performance, 20 x 52 cm

With the performance / installation "Zum friedlichen Nachbarn" ("To the Peaceful Neighbor"), I am drawing on a primeval German landscape reserve, the allotment garden.
The piece of enclosed nature, in which little dolls in a pink leisure dress compulsively use scissors, appears as a piece of artificial turf between a fence and an artificial twittering of birds.
Püppchen ich möchte deine Freundin sein, 2006, performance and installation / photography / size variable

Galerie Spanien 19C / Aarhus / Denmark
At the end of 2006 I accepted the invitation for Spain 19C, Aarhus to realize an exhibition. The work "Ich möchte deine Freundin sein" ("I want to be your girlfriend") was an installation and a performance. For the first time, I gave the visitor direct access to Püppchen's world and even made participation possible.
Only You # 01, 2005, photo installation / 10 parts, 9,7 x 6,5 cm
Only You # 02, 2005, photo installation / 10 parts, 9,7 x 6,5 cm
Only You # 03, 2005, photo installation / 10 parts, 9,7 x 6,5 cm
Only You # 04, 2005, photo installation / 10 parts, 9,7 x 6,5 cm
Only You # 05, 2005, photo installation / 10 parts, 9,7 x 6,5 cm
1000 Kunststücke für Basel # 01, 2007, performance / edition (edition 1000) / documentary photo

Basel / Switzerland
My installation "Only you" was continued in 2007 with a button edition of "1000 Kunststücke für Basel" and a performance.
Analogous to the well-known street vendors, I walked mutely through Basel's center for a day and into the night, trying to sell these buttons as multiples to café and restaurant visitors from table to table.
In Basel I chose a quiet, non-verbal form, but it was also provocative, so that I experienced interest and extreme rejection.
The orange Smalcalda tool bag (No. 20) was provided for my personal use by Sandra Kuhne, Vitales Archiv.
1000 Kunststücke für Basel # 02, 2007, performance / edition (edition 1000) / documentary photo

Basel / Switzerland
1000 Kunststücke für Basel # 03, 2007, performance / edition (edition 1000) / documentary photo

Basel / Switzerland
1000 Kunststücke für Basel # 04, 2007, performance / edition (edition 1000) / documentary photo

Basel / Switzerland
1000 Kunststücke für Basel # 05, 2007, performance / edition (edition 1000) / documentary photo

Basel / Switzerland
You're Welcome # 01, 2005, performance in N.Y.C. / 180 unique photographs, 20 x 30 cm

"Sorry, Mister, can you take a photo from me and my little dog?"
This scene took place on Wall Street in New York in 2005. Every day at the same time, at rush hour, I went alias "Trudi Raus" with "Daddy" to the same busy street corner and addressed countless passers-by. During these interactions I put many different people into the role of the photographer, thus creating more than 180 unique photographs (selection variable).
You're Welcome # 02, 2005, performance in N.Y.C. / 180 unique photographs, 20 x 30 cm
You're Welcome # 03, 2005, performance in N.Y.C. / 180 unique photographs, 20 x 30 cm
You're Welcome # 04, 2005, performance in N.Y.C. / 180 unique photographs, 20 x 30 cm
You're Welcome # 05 , 2005, performance in N.Y.C. / 180 unique photographs, 20 x 30 cm
ich will mit dir gehen # 01, 2007, edition (hair clip) / edition 100, 8,5 x 6 cm

The edition "I want to go with you" I designed for Ready-Trade Trailer.
A hair clip with sponge rubber application, mounted on a small card (handmade), which looks like a mass production, edition: 100, piece 99 cents.
The Ready-Trade Trailer is a mobile exhibition project in which multiples of 20 artists from five European countries were offered for sale from summer to autumn 2007. Students of the postgraduate program in curating of the HGK Zurich developed the project and were on their way with the trailer from the Künstlerhäuser Worpswede to the Künstlerhaus Bremen, during the Documenta at Friedrichsplatz, to the Festival der Künste in Zürich, Switzerland.
ich will mit dir gehen # 02, 2007, edition (hair clip) / edition 100, 8,5 x 6 cm
ich will mit dir gehen # 03, 2007, edition (hair clip) / edition 100, 8,5 x 6 cm
ich will mit dir gehen # 04, 2007, edition (hair clip) / edition 100, 8,5 x 6 cm