Lieblicher Ort (A Lovely Place) Project by Ralf Jurszo and Mathias Wiill
"Lieblicher Ort" ("A Lovely Place") is organizing hikes through the urban landscape of Hamburg since 2007. These promenades are augmented by on-location readings and performances.
Routes and places are partly based on pre-scouts and partly found by using an intuitive approach called “follow-your-nose”. They are documented on our website www.lieblicher-ort.de. Participants are encouraged to look at the surroundings with fresh eyes. Titles and themes of the walks, like for example "Stroll of the Absence", are meant to help in the associative process. Also, by providing explanatory models and stressing certain aspects we try to influence the perception of the experienced landscape.
Lucius Burghardt in the 1980ies introduced a similar technique. He founded the science of the “Spaziergang” by publishing his book “Die Kunst des Spaziergangs" (”The Art of the Promenade”).
As an additional feature we invented the “Amoenometer”, a small wooden marker formed like a stick. With this instrument the participants of “A Lovely Place” have the chance to mark their own lovely place (Latin: locus amoenus).
Lieblicher Ort Wechselnde Standorte, Alternating locations
The working group “A Lovely Place" (Lieblicher-Ort) goes to Ruegen.
Seduced by glowing chimeras - "the white cliffs of Ruegen* and "Prora* shining all the way to Hamburg - we are heading for the island of Ruegen to discover a place totally unknown to all of us.
We are going on our trip undercover pretending to be the authors of dime novels. Supposedly we are reflecting on traveling. We expect that our disguise will change our own perception and experience. Nevertheless we must never forget our real breadwinning occupation. Our imaginary task is to create a kitschy love-and-tears photonovel – reviving an almost forgotten genre.
Therefore our journey is structured by the outline of the novel. We will travel to the locations where the main plot takes place - the white cliffs of Ruegen and Prora. We probably will discover more places, which could be useful in the novel. By being completely open-minded we might even find some other off-scene art groups at Prora.
On one of its different layers the produced photonovel will also serve as documentation of the project.
We will travel in August/ September 2009. After our return we will continue to work on the created material. The photonovel will be completed and presented in March on occasion of the final presentation of all projects of WSW#3.