Ute Tischler CHRISTIAN HASUCHA Transfer. Kreuzberg-Aschaffenburg 1 In the 1990s, urban space developed into a fundamental field of action for art. Public space, as a production environment and presentation surface, expands the functional relevance of art and seemingly ensures its reception. Those who, like Christian Hasucha, engage in the reconstruction of public space anticipate points of friction outside of art and the challenges of a new public sphere. Modes of reception in urban space function differently than those within the white cube because urban contexts and the associated flâneurial perception disperse concentrated content. 2 Nowadays, there are hardly any exhibitions without a connection to urban space. The increasing culturalization of urban space has institutionalized and visibly privatized public space. The incorporated space is regulated and ultimately also constrained by aesthetic practices. As artistic production methods increasingly orient themselves toward function-based areas, the distinctions between everyday places and artistic spaces of representation also become blurred. In interventions such as System B (1990, Cologne), Public Diary (1993, St. Petersburg), and Ebene Tisch (1993, Langenhagen), Christian Hasucha designs counter-models to the perception of public space. Visual barriers, platforms, instructions, etc., channel ways of seeing and urban behavior according to the artist's specifications. 3 Public Interventions activate socio-spatial perception. With a time-limited scope, they intervene in the urban organization and disrupt the view of the familiar surroundings. Through processes of inclusion and exclusion of urban and social conditions as well as aesthetic criteria, public space becomes a space for action and experience. "Accordingly, for Christian Hasucha, public space is not merely an architectural or urban planning phenomenon, but a network of diverse practices and habits, automatisms - in any case, a web of events and actions that are carried out deliberately or almost unconsciously - a psychogeographical system." (Reinhard Braun, Christian Hasucha, Interventions, Events, Implants, Attributives, Dortmunder Kunstverein, 1990–1994, p. 36) 4 Site-specific and public art rely on a re-socialization of art. The basic structure of these context-related forms of production can be considered to be critical stances toward representation, to which shifts in perspective and novelty effects are linked. From this, models of publicity are derived, from which urban art projects increasingly benefit. "Günter's Window," created in 2000 in the Mülheim Media Passage, was commissioned by the city. The elaborate installation provoked a media response that transformed the intended "constructive alienation" (Christian Hasucha) into sensationalist desire. 5 Due to their extended public impact, urban art projects function as a marketing tool. Because of their provocative nature, interventionist measures include a desire for communication and, moreover, a thirst for sensation. "As a counter-image to the prevailing Disneyfication of art, intervention in the forms I practice remains relevant. However, its comprehensive aesthetic perception and immediate experience in its multifaceted manifestations are only accessible to those who happen to be affected, residents, or participants." (Christian Hasucha: The Pulheim Relocation and Other Interventions, Pulheim Cultural Office, 1999, p. 35) 6 To use urban space as a display for information that lies beyond image transfer and the spectacular would mean refusing to engage in a specific form of public production. Public interventions outside these mechanisms, that is, beyond the predetermined project framework, cannot consequently be considered artistic contributions. The shift in context between art and the public sphere occurs in reverse. The transfer between Kreuzberg and Aschaffenburg takes place over six weeks on ten lampposts. Unannounced, private advertisements and flyers from Berlin-Kreuzberg are affixed to duplicated display surfaces in downtown Aschaffenburg. A semi-public information system, common in large cities, is transformed. In the small-town context, these notes from everyday urban life are imbued with meanings that convey possible forms of reality beyond cultural and political connotations. The public handling of information, its format and distribution, proves to be a communicative misunderstanding in this unfamiliar location, or, in other words, art. Cf. Project documentation No. 37: Transfer