The work Parkverbot (2010) and its various descendants included) is semantically not specific, which means it happened in Bonn that the object was referred to in a different context and meaning than back in 2010. In light of current discourses in media and politics, observers have connected it to migration politics in Germany. That was fine but never intended. However, it made sense in 2017, and it is an international construct (Danto) that is on the side of the observers and their thoughts. We are happy that the piece triggers sense-making autonomously from our intentions, but here is why we did it in the first place.
The first time Nadia came across bird control spikes was in Paris, France. She did not know such appliances from Tunisia. Let it be because old architecture is not considered something in need of protection, or that the municipality isn’t aware of the erosive force of bird poop, or is it only that birds are loved more in North Africa than in Europe. Moving from Tunis to Paris and stepping into this totally different and much-accelerated mode of life, she read the bird control spikes as if it would tell some characteristics about European societies: all amenities are close at hand, but no one gets the time to profit and rest—hustle and bustle rules. Today, we would rather understand it as a typical phenomenon common to late-capitalist societies. For this reason, we are excited about the possibility of showing a bench in the framework of a 24/7 exhibition since this book is precisely about the radical exploitation of human consumption power.
Here are some thoughts and valuable tags that express why we feel that bench pieces are open artworks that can only result in context-sensitive variations. First, a spike-covered bench seems – oh no, I cannot miss this pun – to nail some conditions of contemporary life. It expresses how an inter-connected and media-propelled society hungry for attention seems to reproduce by a steady and omnipresent drill for self-optimization. Work hard, party hard, get in shape, have sex, eat healthy stuff, be informed, continue learning, etc. These are all good pieces of advice, and they would be even better if someone else could make some bucks. Yet all these are productive activities that sell as if they were consumptive benefits. Yes, it’s fun, and everybody is doing it anyway, so what? As long as it feels good, it’s okay, but when one reaches the tipping point and feels exhausted, one feels that Nam June Paik was right when he said there was no rewind button in life.
The comfort zones in late capitalist societies still smile at our faces while they turn into spas of hostility. The echo chambers in the media install a universal state of fear that blinds the perception and thought of individuals. On the other hand, the public space get more and more controlled by media such as surveillance cameras, etc. The executive force undermines large gatherings as if it would be an aggression against a peaceful order. In European countries, we can witness that public authorities treat populations like they have to defend themselves against an enemy.
Total control is the old and the new fetish of states. Actually, the state is an ancien regime element underlying modern societies’ structures. When it comes to the state’s interests, the state does not feel a mandate to defend all modern things, such as human rights, freedom of expression, justice for all, and equality. In Germany, they even speak publicly about the raison d’état, a pre-revolutionary French expression that put the interest of an absolutist regime over the people’s rights. Absolutism is the rule that follows the idea that everything always requires control. This ideology counteracts freedom and creativity; therefore, it is not surprising that governments prone to more control over the people cut down funds for culture, science, and education.
As mentioned above Nadia discovered the spikes first in France, where even the gardens, trees, and bushes are cut with geometrical accuracy to demonstrate that nature subordinates the human mind. In this sense, Nadia understood the spikes as a territorial aggression against birds. Bird control creates no-go areas for animals that become symbolic figures for freedom. Birds are free but not free to rest. That is a viable metaphor since one has nothing to fear from the state. If one needs rest, the power of economics and politics will find other ways to exploit a non-active human resource. You will support the system by becoming subject to different therapeutic attempts and pills. A patinet can be as productive to the industry as a worker. In any case, the exploitative regimes find ways to proceed.
Modern social theory is a theory of exploitation – which makes it an economic theory in the end. People’s vote is exploited by politicians; weakness and fatigues are exploited by the pharma industry; illness by health care systems; ignorance allows ignorants to become educators, coaches, and teachers; hope is an infinite resource for religions; real love lost its innocence and became the best lure for the dating industry; injustice is exploited by activism; attention, thrill, and fear are fueling the interconnected media systems. All these economic cycles of exploitation and recreation of human resources enable the individual to participate and be a part of society.
Does all this sound bad? Yes, it does. However, the good news is that it just sounds bad. No one can really say that it is actually bad because all of this is not something external that thappening to us like a storm blowing from paradise. We all create it, and we probably do so to learn something from it. The main reason for us to continue with the benches is that all of what motivated the first bench (Parkverbot, 2010) is now very drastically coming to light. Everywhere in Europe and the USA, individuals seem loaded with relegation fears and the horrors of social decline. For decades, they were told to continue learning, train their skills, and optimize all their capacities. These recommendations seem reasonable to us since we are the subjects that create the system. Therefor it seems the right thing to do. We try to follow it until we reach a point where we realize that it is rather a burden. Now, in Europe, we experience a new fear of migration, the rise of right-wing extremism, and civil street protests in almost all European countries. Maybe this is just a kind of people’s burnout? This kind of burnout feels like walking in the park with benches everywhere but no place to rest.