Method

Classic Archeology

     Classic Archeology researches and studies the material legacy of mankind from elapsed centuries and milleniums using the methods of natural science and humanities. It is a science deeply orientated into the past.

     Contemporary archeology, which means the examination and evaluation of the material legacy of mankind only a few years or a few decades old, is disputed controversialy. And that seems justyfied: What story does a rusty cork-screw tell, which is only a few years old and industrialy produced in masses?

Neo-Archeology

      Abandoned buildings in urban or rural environment, deserted crop areas or fallen out of use industrial structures – even quitted only half a generation ago – are locations of rich findings of material legacy relating to human activity.

     Most of the time these findings are banal articles of daily use like tools, fragments of furniture or crockery, kitchenware, toys, bottles and cans, or keys. These artefacts may not tell history but they for sure tell stories of human life. That's why it is of high value to pay attention to them.

     But to do so neo-archeology had to develop a unique approach: First phase is dliberately collecting these seemingly  meaningless objects. Second and most important phase is a creative act of transformation. It means to intensify the impact of these findings by concentrating them into phantastic arrangements or by tying them to powerful bundles. Treated that way the banal findings now are turned into astonishingly vigorous, spectacular, poetic or surreal artwork, worth exhibiting them.

     And: The act of bundeling the findings already can be demonstrated as a art-performance.

Location: Unterrettenbach Village / Lower Bavaria / Germany

The Situation:

     By reading a feature story in the newspaper SÜDDEUTSCHEN ZEITUNG reporting on the many abandoned farmhouses in Lower Bavaria my attention was drawn on this phenomenon. At one of the mentioned locations I undertook an exemplary examination and extensive documentation of the situation.

     I left all objects untouched and unchanged in their original arrangement.