Friedrich II. is lobbing some potatoes at a gong.
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Friedrich II. is lobbing some potatoes at a gong. A fictive re-contextualization of Rodney Graham`s Performance „Lobbing potatoes at a gong.“ with the political policy of Friedrich II, who ruled Preussen in the 17th century. My aim was to bring together Graham’s performance with Friedrich’s talent for creating „fictive settings of everyday’s life-reality“ to convince the common people on the countryside of his political masterplan – his plan was to introduce a new element into the every-day-nutrition of Preussens People, the potato – imported from America – it was a totally new to the european people. To convince people, he created potao fields, along the preussian countryroads, close to the villages. He hired soldiers to guard, to watch this fields, in order to evoke an image of the potato as something splendid and valuable. During nighttimes, the soldiers left the fields to rest over night – so some people couldn’t deny themselve the temptation of entering the potato fields to steal some of this valuable, unknown vegetables. So through these strategy, the potato got introduced to the european people at the very first. This strategy was a performative and theatrical one, and this ist what interests me and made me to re-enact this historical fiction in a performance – to create a fictive potatoe field, on the street, in front of the exhibition-space and to divide the audience in soldiers and common people, in farmers and thiefes. French Fries Fritten Fritzens. Die Kartoffel. Eine Geschichte des Erfolgs. Performance. 20.02.2016, Skulpturinstitut, Wien. (Im Rahmen der Gruppenausstellung „coperto“ mit Victoria Braith / Dana Degiulio / Dejan Dukic / Peter Fritzenwallner / Johann Groebner / Marlene Hausegger / Christian Ingemann / Julia Kolbus / Emanuel Mauthe / Michèle Pagel Peter Sandbichler / Fabian Seiz / Susanne Strasser / Franz West.)//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Friedrich II. is lobbing some potatoes at a gong. Das narrative Zusammenbringen einer Performance Rodney Grahams mit der inszenatorischen, politischen Praxis des preussischen Herrschers Friedrich des II. – mit diesen durchdacht entworfenen Settings inszenierter Realität – sie sollten laut Friedrich zur Unterstützung und besseren Einführung der Kartoffel in den Ernährungsalltag seiner preussischen Untertanen beitragen. Im Besonderen handelte es sich dabei um Bauern und Bürger. Und? Ist es ihm gelungen? French Fries Fritten Fritzens. Die Kartoffel. Eine Geschichte des Erfolgs.
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