I wanted to present Heimat as an open place for everybody, to welcome them with love. Then I started to do exhibitions worldwide, in countries that don’t have a word for Heimat. I want to spread the feeling and the message that was born here in Germany in a new, exclusively positive way.
Then, I started travelling and people used to say: you're from the Black Forest, the Heimat place that Bambi comes from, where everything is easy. I used to say: "Come on, no. Whilst I was spraying I was creating an area within which I felt good. Stefan Strumbel: As an artist, I started with graffiti.
By contrast fast food is an empty significant because it tastes the same everywhere in the world.Ĭafébabel: What is the story behind the series? Stefan Strumbel: Yes and no, because you cannot buy Heimat and pay for it with money. Of course, Heimat is also related to the traditional food of a certain region. Is Heimat thus associated with consumerism? When we embellish them with violence, pornography and stark colours, people wake up and start revising their notions.Ĭafébabel: In your exhibition you also included some petrified models of takeaway fast food. Normally, nobody gives cuckoo clocks a second thought. Everybody knows them. I transform the tradition and make something new to provoke people into thinking about what Heimat really is. When you google Heimat one of the things you can find is pictures of cuckoo clocks. Stefan Strumbel: I am breaking existing conventions to find something new.
One trend replaces the original elements of cuckoo clocks with motifs associated with violence, pornography and death. Heimat will mean a different thing for everybody.Ĭafébabel: The artworks in the exhibition are sometimes contradictory. Today, some refugee kids travel on similar inflatable boats to their deaths. Back then I felt safe and happy with my family. This is an island from my childhood I used to float on it with my father and mother during the holidays. In my exhibition you can see a bronze inflatable island with a palm tree. For example the situation of 60 million refugees at the moment – they have to leave their countries and their homes and they are hoping to be able to create a new Heimat in a new land. Stefan Strumbel: In terms of my art, and myself, yes! However, Heimat can also include the bad sides of life. Once I had an exhibition in the USA called " Deine Heimat" (Your Heimat) and everybody was asking me: "What the fuck is Heimat?" That’s the origin of the question.Ĭafébabel: So is Heimat inherently a good thing? It's a happy place? Even if you can translate the word Heimat into English, you cannot translate this feeling. However, Heimat exists everywhere in the world everybody needs that feeling of love and warmth.
#STEFAN STRUMBEL KUCKUCKSUHR SHOP MOVIE#
That movie generated so much publicity that afterwards people thought that Heimat was solely a Black Forest phenomenon, and that it only consisted of a good side. The word was already appearing in 1833 in a dictionary by the Brothers Grimm. The first big motion pictures in Germany – like Schwarzwaldmädel– were Heimat films. It has always appeared to be strongly related to the Black Forest (or Schwarzwald in German). Stefan Strumbel: It's a big question for me because Heimat is a feeling. What does this mean for refugees coming to Europe? Can a Heimat also be a hostile place?Ĭafébabel: So Stefan, to quote the name of your exhibition, what the fuck is Heimat? It refers to the place and state of mind that we associate with home.
#STEFAN STRUMBEL KUCKUCKSUHR SHOP SERIES#
For many Germans, heimat refers to their origins, either where they were born or where their family/ancestors are originally from.In his series of sculptures and artistic installations, German artist Stefan Strumbel takes as his subject Heimat, a continually recurring notion in Germany. It is irreplaceable in the individual psyche, because it isn’t just your home – that place you live – it’s your home, that place you feel most content and rooted. Heimat has a lot to do with nostalgia and community. The best definition I’ve come to for the word is this: Heimat is a sense of belonging that transcends the concept of “home” as a physical space and ventures into territory that involves social and spiritual belonging. I first learned about it while living in Germany and then, again, through a German boyfriend, who insisted on Heimat’s sanctity in defining one’s identity and place in the world. The Spirituality of Heimatįor all intent and purposes, Heimat is relevant on a much deeper, fundamental level. The essence remains sensible, even if the political application is suspicious. But the true meaning of Heimat is subject to abuse the same way the concepts of freedom and democracy are abused by governments around the world.
0 kommentar(er)
