The Green, Aberdeen

When you read these lines, it’ll be roughly 400 years since the man named Indian Pete has passed. The history books tell us, this wall that you are seeing in the picture, “is one of the oldest in this grand city [of Aberdeen]. It had formerly been a part of an old townhouse known as Aedies House. Built around 1604 and finally demolished in 1914 it held a dark history. Believed as it was to have been a holding house for children stolen off the streets to be sold as slaves in America. […] Around 700 children would be kidnapped from the streets. Their fate, to be kept in holding houses like Aedies until there were enough of them to transport.”

Someone told me that a bagpipe was played every night, to drown the screaming of these doomed kids. Who knows really, but the one story everybody agrees on is the story of Peter Williamson. His parents “reputable though not rich” sent him to live with an aunt in Aberdeen. In a cold night in January 1743 Peter was kidnapped while playing on the quay. With the age of 8 years, he was abducted to America as a slave, and sold for 16£ to work on a plantation.

I’ll spare you the details of his gruesome return to his birthplace of Aberdeen, since you can now easily look it up online. And I tell you in advance it is a story of deep desolation, describing the cruelty of the so-called “discovery of the new world” and the horrors of slavery connected to it. But it is also a story of hope. And, as his clumsily chosen name suggests, there are Native Americans involved as well as the final return to Scotland which, however, left him “banished from Aberdeen as a vagrant” for telling his story.

Ultimately, Indian Pete was able to make a living from a succesful tavern he ran in Edinburgh, for poets and lawyers. But until this day, his story haunts the Aberdonians. Another local whispered to me on the night i took this picture, on the staircase that leads up from The Green to buzzing Union street, that him and others had seen, from afar and late at night, children in nightgowns sitting on precisely these stairs.

Pietrapaola

ABRACALBRA – the residency to be in Calabria. Nothing but inspiring beauty in Architecture and Nature, only healthy Food and the weather always matches your mood!

Phoenician Wall, Batroun

The Phoenician Wall might well be the oldest man-made structure I have ever personally visited, within the city of Batroun, dating back to at least 5,000 years. The wall was most likely carved directly into the solid rock as a protectetion against the tidal waves and it stands there until today.

Batroun Batroun

Look closely, right there in the middle: I was here.

BatrounBatroun

Ulitsa Metohia, Sofia

Sofia

We went to a neighbourhood called Fakultete. Here you find none of Sofia’s historical buildings but beautifully self-crafted homes. Like a different city, maybe a whole different country, and, with horse-carriages passing by, also a different time.

Within a couple of minutes after having started, all the kids of the neighbourhood took notice of us and joined. 

 

Sofia SofiaSofiaSofiaSofiaSofiaSofiaSofiaSofiaSofiaSofiaSofia

Ulitsa Parizh, Sofia

Sofia SofiaSofiaSofia

A question I get asked frequently is if I know who takes the patches out. I have multiple of these people on tape, and you would probably be surprised on who these people would be. This security guard from across the street ISN’T one of them. When I left he crossed the street and took the patch out on curiosity. I approached him and took the picture because I was amused about his initiative to leave his post and check out my work.

SofiaSofia

Church St. George Rotunda, Sofia

The city now called Sofia was established in 5 BC or earlier, under the name of Serdica and gained much importance over the centuries due to its central positioning in the balkan region. Over the course of time it was under the reign of the Romans, the Ottomans, the Huns,… just to name a few.

This is the Church of St. George, build by the Romans in the 4th century. There had been some debate on social media about whether or not this was disrespectful towards the believers. The priest however just walked by us as we were in full action and didn’t mind.

Plage, Hossegor

I was in Hossegor meeting my friends from androphyne to work on their project about Elias Pozornski. One day we went out to surfer’s paradise on the atlantic ocean. There’s this bunker, which used to be sitting entirely above the dunes, overlooking the ocean. Now the waves are slowly luring the tons of concrete into the depth.

Metelkova, Ljubljana

Ljubljana LjubljanaLjubljana

Metelkova, an ancient police-station now place for the independent slovenian art-scene. At night you will find it is the place for partying. At daytime, you see people going along their daily business, with artist-studios and flats.

UN Buffer Zone, Nikosia

Cyprus

I didn’t grasp the full impact of the ’74 Turkish invasion in the north of this island in the eastern mediterrenean. Cyprus has been divided since between a government-controlled area, comprising the southern two-thirds of the island, and a north third de facto administered by the Turkish. No country recognizes the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” other than Turkey.  Around the city center, lays a starshaped citadel. Inside it is divided by these walls:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/azerty/5220924209/

Tabakfabrik, Linz

1ysmall

I was invited by Platform21, with Arne Hendriks, Lotte Dekker, Heleen Klopper, Martijn Dijkhuizen to the 2010 edition of the Ars Electronica festival in Linz around the topic of ‘Repair’

The Ars Electronica festival is one of the oldest and biggest festivals for new media Art, so  imagine how happy I was to take part and have a close look!

The festivals location, an old Tobacco-factory, has a size of more than 30000 sqm and was constructed by Popp and Behrens in 1935 and is protected world heritage.

LinzLinz Linz

LinzLinz Linz LinzLinz Linz Linzz

Rue du Chevaleret, Paris

After the first patch I realized that I wouldn’t be able to live up to the full potential of these walls, so I sougt help from my cousins and some inspired passersby. We still didn’t manage to finish the whole wall. A friend of mine works in the Collège Guy Moquet de Gennevilliers and I didn’t need to convince her much to drop by with her pupils.

Rue du Chevalret, Paris

After the first patch I realized that I wouldn’t be able to live up to the full potential of these walls, so I sougt help from my cousins and some inspired passersby.  A friend of mine works in the Collège Guy Moquet de Gennevilliers and I didn’t need to convince her much to drop by with her 24 students to help me fix up the walls.

 

Paris

Rue du Chevaleret / Rue Charcot, Paris

The Nuit Blanche is a huge art-event which the city of Paris organizes each year. The whole night through, from 7pm to 7am, everyone is invited to discover events throughout the city and to follow a parcour connecting the different events in all parts of paris.  Thousands of parisians came to the streets, and also the Paris mayor herself was expected to visit and shake hands.  (Nuit Blanche de Paris)

And I was invited to install Dispatchwork in the 13th arrondissment, where I met a wall, which could hold three big patches easily. So in the course of the next three days me and helpers erected these patches within the parcour of nuit blanche in rue Chevalret. Each of these three patches took us around 9 hours to set up, and us working basically from dusk till dawn.

Paris

Alter Markt, Arnsberg

I was invited to the city of Arnsberg to contribute to their event called Internationaler Kunstsommer Arnsberg. Many things are there to be seen, with one of the best Kunstvereine Arnsberg is a very busy place, and is definitely worth a travel. For both the medieval appeal of the old part of town and for the involvement in contemporary art! Many thanks to Andrea and Johannes Teiser for their great hospitality!

Arnsberg

Submit New Patch

Soon you’ll be able to directly create your very own post here!

For now, join by submitting your speaking Images to:

subs@dispatchwork.info

Please send preferably unedited images of the patches close-up as well as the view inside the Street, with you in it if you like, along with your name(s) the city-/streetname(s) and a brief description of the building/neighborhood/websites, etc, which you want to stand out.

Disclaimer

2007

Responsible for content: Jan Vormann

This website was built by Steffen Klaue

All of the content published on this website is copyrighted. Nothing contained herein may be used, reproduced or redistributed for commercial purpose without permission.

Despite attentive checking In spite of attentive checking, I do not take responsibility for the content of any websites linked to.