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  Temporary Installation on Gendarmenmarkt
  Berlin, Germany 2007

  “The history of the language of the urban populace is also part of the history of the city … Huguenots, French émigrés fleeing the Revolution, on numerous occasions occupying forces. They all left traces that linger, which, sometimes well-concealed, surface again in common turns of speech and in typical snappy Berlin sayings and are also always time capsules recording echoes of their era.”
  (Ewald Harndt, "Französisch im Berliner Jargon")

  

  From 5th May to 17th June 2007 the artists’ group msk7 is transforming Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt into a walk-in crossword puzzle. Special vegetation mats form words, citing the Berliners’ penchant for absorbing French words and sounds into their everyday speech.

  The letters of the words coined lie in columns and rows in 4m x 4m squares, structuring the Gendarmenmarkt. The ensuing “crossword puzzle” made up of special vegetation mats creates conceptual links between French and German, whilst in situ it establishes spatial connections between the French Cathedral and its German pendant.

  "An artistic reconquest of public space"
  Opening speech by Martin Schönfeld (art historian)

  

  

  Down 1 in the sense of “I feel queasy, dizzy, off colour”, for in German if you’re a bit off-colour you might say you feel “faint-blue”; derived from bleumourant. Bleu-mourant is a fading, pale blue, a particular ornamentation with which Frederick II. adorned his porcelain tableware, a delicate pastel colour, which the Berliners referred to as »forget-me-not boiled in milk«, in the 18th century bleu-mourant is said to have been a fashionable colour in Parisian haute couture. 2 naturalised colloquial term for dressing gown or peignoir, literally sloppy clothing 3 misfortune, mishap 4 meatballs, the hallmark of Berlin’s cuisine

  Across 1 wonderful, magnificent; derived from bonne fortune (good luck) 5 policeman, “armed men”, one of many naturalised colloquial terms from the days when Frederick II. surrounded himself with so many French people in Sanssouci that his guest Voltaire once remarked maliciously: “Your Majesty is the only foreigner in our midst.” 6 selection of the best 7 in the sense of “used up, worn out”; an anecdote tells of two Huguenot sisters who used to offer their handmade embroidery work and bobbin lace at the entrance to the Jungfernbrücke and would reply “c’est allé” (it’s run out, is used up) if someone asked for a particular pattern that was sold out 8 affected, excessively refined, fastidious, from être peut-être (to be in doubt)

  

  »blümerant« has received funding from the Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn (Bonn Art Fund Foundation) and the Kulturverwaltung des Berliner Senats, Referat Stipendien und Projektförderung (Berlin Senate Culture Department, Grants and Project Support Division).

  Projekt Back-up: Evangelische Kirchengemeinde in der Friedrichstadt

  Partners: xeroflor, M. Dekoj & C. Schulze GaLabau, zeitort, sally below cultural affairs

  Word Sponsors: Institut Francais, Neues Deutschland, Akademie der Wissenschaften,Thomas Kexel, Mart Stam Gesellschaft Berlin e.V, Econ-Cept/KolleBelle

  msk7: Mona Babl, Christine Berndt, Kati Gausmann, Ricarda Mieth, Ulrike Mohr, Anja Sonnenburg, guest: Sabine Laidig

  

  Publication extra verlag, 2008
  German/English
  32 pages, 21 x 21 cm
  Design: Björn Andresen
  EUR 12,00
  ISBN 978-3-938370-24-7

  

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