The conference space was shaped using different kind of recycling elements.
The extremely dark color sceme Sparwasser HQ's walls had been painted in for the previous exhibitions,
were complemented by gravestones, donated to us, by a community garden, as well as by left over newspaper stacks of
News from the Field from the Norwegian
artists Ingrid Book & Carina Hedén, produced for the Havanna Biennial 2004. The stacks could also be utelized as seats. The link between death, life and agriculture was further highlighted by poem, written and displayed in the window of Sparwasser HQ referring to a famous German "compost story", the classical German poem In Ribbeck by the church a pear tree stands... , Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland, by Theodor Fontane.
The poem, speaks of a man who intentionally has a pear placed in his coffin. A pear tree will grow out of his grave and will provide pears for the children of the village, even after his death. We found and used an earlier unnoticed, original version of this poem that was written by his grand daughter, Herta von Wiedebach. It provided the compost story we were looking for, but came with a funny twist rather then morality.
Hertha von Wiedebach, 1875, transferred into English by Katherine Jackson:
"In Ribbeck, by the church, a pear tree stands,
fanning the church's roof with copious boughs.
Its mighty trunk bears witness to its age,
and grows or so it seems -- out of the wall,
as if from the churchís very core.
There's a story told of this odd tree
– I loved to hear it as a child – about
an old Ribbeckian, who liked to stroll
through town, his bulging pockets stuffed
with pears and apples, which he gave out,
smiling, it must have been a hundred times
– gave with both hands – a gleaming fruit,
to every village child. But when at last,
came time to place the old gent in his coffin
no one thought to check his pockets!
Next spring there sprouted from the churchyard wall,
near his familial grave, a small green stem.
And so this cheerful fellow – who for years
had lit up children's eyes with glistening gifts –
still gives out joy, when autumn comes around,
and the old tree scatters its small pears over
the ground, and children grab them with delight.
Just as the evening shadows lengthen out and deepen
swiftly, when this legend lights my soul!"
Ulrike Solbrig, Germany: Chausseestr. 110-I, 10115 Berlin, call: plus vier neun eins fünf fünf sieben vier drei fünf sechs fünf sechs drei ulrike@solbrig.de