The Mountain / Zwischenbericht (2020)

1st presentation in space, 2020 as ZWISCHENBERICHT

@DISKURS, Berlin, 2020
(part of the Corona Exhibition Relay 2020: Solidarity Fight Back Sun Goes Up)

UMBRELLA PROJECT: READINGS

CASE: The Ascent of Mont Ventoux, 1336 (F. Petrarca)

LOCATION: Mont Ventoux, Provence, France

DATE: Day of full moon in August 2017

INVESTIGATOR: Y. Jungesblut

ACTION: A walk up and down a mountain

NOTE: Between times, between worlds

The Story

In the cultural section of a newspaper, I had found a splendid title: Faulpelz mit Weitblick (which would be translated to something like „lazybones with an overview“ or „slacker with a vision“. It was a note on Petrarch’s letter about his climbing Mont Ventoux in 1336 and how some scholars had claimed that this climb and the subsequent letter signaled a profound change in world views, the advent of a new age. The invention of the modern subject, the birth of humanism, the transition from medieval times to the renaissance. The first pleasure walk. Well, kind of.

I feel a natural sympathy for idlers and sloths, and also for overviews (hoping they might give insight or foresight). Furthermore I was most impressed by this postulated effect on a man/ of a man walking up a mountain (and down again). So I was curious – what would happen if another idler were to climb this mountain? Would the view on the world also shift? The outer and the inner world collide? And how should the story be told? It was a thought experiment, put into action in 2017. Following Petrarch‘s lead I proposed the ascent to my only sister, who is younger than I. On a day following a full moon (and a lunar eclipse) we finally made the ascent. …

The Exhibition/ The Intervention

For the Corona Exhibition Relay 2020 – Solidarity Fight Back Sun Goes Up at Diskurs Berlin I revisited this project, rereading Petrarch’s letter. I thought putting it out there might be a somewhat interesting proposal for a street in Berlin, an exhibition that will not be really open, during times of the Corona pandemic.

So ZWISCHENBERICHT takes up on the “Zwischen”, the in-between, and the parting and connecting it entails. However, this “Bericht” is more a pondering: an off-road/way-side speculation during times of pandemic constraint. The intervention is developed from the feeling of a forced pause, that nevertheless allows for the forgotten to resurface, sometimes to strange effect. It also tells of the longing for an overview but also of the longing for spaces or times which have become inaccessible. ZWISCHENBERICHT in its present form, circles around Mont Ventoux in the Provence region of France. Nowadays, the Ventoux enjoys fame as part of the Tour de France. So in sporting comparison, this part of the DISKURS relay resembles the mountain stage. It is based on the “expedition” to Mont Ventoux that I undertook in 2017. And in its form of presentation it reflects on the question how much can be experienced if you cannot enter the presentation, cannot walk through its space.

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