Corvus corone cornix, the hooded crow, is not just any old crow. It is an indicator of east and west. Because the various crow families have divided up Europe among them-
selves, we only encounter hooded crows east of the Elbe, where – like their western relatives – they inhabit border regions

between populated dis-
tricts and the countryside as followers of civilisation.
When the Dutch artist Roderick Hietbrink crossed over the former border of the old political blocks on his way to a guest studio in Berlin, he also moved from the habitat of the carrion crow to the terri-
tory of the hooded crow, and this is a detail of his research into urban space which plays an important part in his Berlin installa-
tion.
Hietbrink’s new installation “Corner Corone” consists of video projections and sound sources showing the audience the interior of an empty Berlin office block. Nothing much happens in this unused, unfurnished space. A few movements, diffuse shadows passing by and changes in the light visualise the passing of time rather than firmly outlined events, while subtle quadrophonic sound enables us to presume or recognise events outside the space.
In this way, Hietbrink investigates the extent to which our experience of space can be manipulated and how familiar urban surroundings may be given a fresh interpreta-
tion. The viewer’s per-
ception alters according to his perception of details. Controlled addition of insignificant changes redirects his attention. Corvus corone cornix thus becomes the audience’s perspectival partner, and we experience an unexpected encounter with the hooded crow.


29th April – 16th May 2004, Studio 2

Jan Zakrzewski has made it his aim to investigate the full complexity of the relations - still characte-
rised by a range of emotions - between Poland and Germany. The great distance that he has developed from his home country – he has lived in the USA for twenty years – permits him to take a relaxed view of the Ger-
man- Polish relationship beyond existing stereo-
types, and to view the two countries in the context of several centuries of European history.
Zakrzewski’s installation confronts the visitor with political and national

citations and slogans from the past.
The artist has symbolically divided the space into two parts: he represents Germany in one half of the studio, Poland in the other. Mirrors set up opposite each other - the visitor passes between them - reflect the German and Polish quotations fixed to them. The viewer is therefore offered a mirror-inverted view of the nations’ “typical” identities; they have been interchanged.
In addition, Zakrzewski transforms historical and political facts into abstractions. The audience is not only able to walk, symbolically, along the Polish border. They can also view a “German-Polish” night sky in the apse of the exhibition space, an experience of unity between the merging facts of national-political identity.


29th April – 30th May 2004, Studio 1