A FORTIFICATION PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR GERMAN PAVILION, VENICE by Hakan Topal, 2009 In the beginning of February of 2009, I proposed a project to Liam Gillick to be realized at the periphery of the German Pavilion in Venice's Giardini. I had no intention to intercept Liam's installation but in a way to realize a landscaping project for the pavilion by temporarily transforming the immediate vicinity. I wanted to be create an extension. I thought that since Liam exclusively mentions collaborations and collective production, I felt a strategic opportunity, and precisely the proximity to his ideas was the reason that we approached him. I wanted to utilize the grass field without obstructing the main facade or entrance. The project was considered to be a landscaping project; I would select certain flowers and plants from Anatolian landscape in different colors and smells to design particular sections. The new garden would, both visually and olfactorily transform the Giardini's dry landscape. Landscaping would be integrated design of fortification and gardening. The fortification pattern part was planned towards protecting the German Pavilion from possible enemies that may arrive from the waterfront— historically they were the Ottoman vanguards (some call them Barbarians) who were constantly attacking Venice. Italians are probably still using the term "Mamma li Turchi!" ("Oh my, the Turks are coming!")— and other national pavilions which are strategically positioned around the German Pavilion positing an eminent cultural threat. I talked with Liam in person and over e-mails, he was interested in the project and possible collaboration, he was generous with his time and ideas, but understood the conceptual pitfalls, dangers and the problematic of including us in German territory. After almost 2 months of low intensity negotiations, Liam concluded that our project did not fit what he was doing. Maybe it was a bit risky involving "Turks". Or perhaps the curator or the foreign ministry rejected the idea. The space was disputed from the beginning. Liam mentioned that only 10cm of the periphery was owned by the Germans, the rest was Italian land. The project was proposed in order to problematize many issues at once and create conceptually significant connections between different localities, time-zones, cultures and perhaps. Germany and Turkey share shreds of memory, in addition to this, and perhaps most importantly, is the contemporary history of immigrants from Turkey now living in Germany, which, in my opinion, made the German pavilion an interesting site for a radical intervention. The idea was to question the borders, fortification and exclusion mechanisms as a subtle but important contribution to the understanding of existing conditions on the ground. I regard the gardening and landscaping of the periphery as a suggestive contribution and it coincided with the idea of collective production. In between the other national pavilions, an unfortunate attempt of gardening would create a temporary zone, with no papers— just like slums or illegal immigrants in a way— where multicultural EU visitors of the art festival could engage without even knowing it was there. The possibility of utilizing the building's periphery for gardening and landscaping is mostly concerned with the rise of rejection of 'hybridization' in Europe i.e. the mixture of bodies from different ethnic backgrounds.
A FORTIFICATION PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR GERMAN PAVILION, VENICE by Hakan Topal, 2009 In the beginning of February of 2009, I proposed a project to Liam Gillick to be realized at the periphery of the German Pavilion in Venice's Giardini. I had no intention to intercept Liam's installation but in a way to realize a landscaping project for the pavilion by temporarily transforming the immediate vicinity. I wanted to be create an extension. I thought that since Liam exclusively mentions collaborations and collective production, I felt a strategic opportunity, and precisely the proximity to his ideas was the reason that we approached him. I wanted to utilize the grass field without obstructing the main facade or entrance. The project was considered to be a landscaping project; I would select certain flowers and plants from Anatolian landscape in different colors and smells to design particular sections. The new garden would, both visually and olfactorily transform the Giardini's dry landscape. Landscaping would be integrated design of fortification and gardening. The fortification pattern part was planned towards protecting the German Pavilion from possible enemies that may arrive from the waterfront— historically they were the Ottoman vanguards (some call them Barbarians) who were constantly attacking Venice. Italians are probably still using the term "Mamma li Turchi!" ("Oh my, the Turks are coming!")— and other national pavilions which are strategically positioned around the German Pavilion positing an eminent cultural threat. I talked with Liam in person and over e-mails, he was interested in the project and possible collaboration, he was generous with his time and ideas, but understood the conceptual pitfalls, dangers and the problematic of including us in German territory. After almost 2 months of low intensity negotiations, Liam concluded that our project did not fit what he was doing. Maybe it was a bit risky involving "Turks". Or perhaps the curator or the foreign ministry rejected the idea. The space was disputed from the beginning. Liam mentioned that only 10cm of the periphery was owned by the Germans, the rest was Italian land. The project was proposed in order to problematize many issues at once and create conceptually significant connections between different localities, time-zones, cultures and perhaps. Germany and Turkey share shreds of memory, in addition to this, and perhaps most importantly, is the contemporary history of immigrants from Turkey now living in Germany, which, in my opinion, made the German pavilion an interesting site for a radical intervention. The idea was to question the borders, fortification and exclusion mechanisms as a subtle but important contribution to the understanding of existing conditions on the ground. I regard the gardening and landscaping of the periphery as a suggestive contribution and it coincided with the idea of collective production. In between the other national pavilions, an unfortunate attempt of gardening would create a temporary zone, with no papers— just like slums or illegal immigrants in a way— where multicultural EU visitors of the art festival could engage without even knowing it was there. The possibility of utilizing the building's periphery for gardening and landscaping is mostly concerned with the rise of rejection of 'hybridization' in Europe i.e. the mixture of bodies from different ethnic backgrounds.