Rudolf Macher, Susen Okotie :
Achtung Zwischenraum/Mind the Gap

Can there be common denominators between two locations that are separated by thousands of kilometres and a 'cultural gap'? Apart from the street signs are there other commonalities in the lives of the people in the market town of Kematen/Ybbs and those in the metropolis of New York? These questions were pursued by the artist Rudolf Macher together with Susan Okotie, and undertook a journey that led not just over the horizon but also back into their own histories. In a large number of encounters with different individuals from NYC and Kematen an attempt was made to approach the notions of hometown, identity, freedom and the future. The result is a subtle filmic portrait of those questioned entitled …home…sweet… as well as the large-scale photographic installation New York Goes Kematen, mounted on the façades of two buildings. Mind the Gap was conceived by the artists as an interactive project that aimed to give local residents an impulse for further productive engagement with their own hometown in the future. Both a new image of their hometown as well as a new self-perception that led away from merely being the product of a through road to an interesting cultural interstice were the envisaged results. Local residents' readiness to embark on the adventure was unfortunately limited.
(Katrina Petter)

May to October 2007