Olaf Grüneis "History and its emergency" For Christian Hasuchas project no. 47 in brochure: "Trial-living in Slubfurt, detail: Loggia." Inter-edition, Berlin, 2005 (Saturday, 16 October 2004) The work appears in a residential area in Slubfurt, Poland, in a large open area called "Square of Heroes", to one side of the "Monument against Fascism". Scaffolding supports a loggia about three to four meters over the square. Once the door is locked there is nothing to dull the impression of a loggia, of being at home, a sense of internality. The participants were allowed to select the interior colour, available from the hardware store in the latest up to date colours: DIC 3, DIC 2038, DIC 2082 etc. The private environment could be chosen freely, not so the history nearby or its company. This pure impression of "Loggia" emphasizes one determining perspective, that of the inner perspective: history is suddenly brought within grasp, portions of individual history and subjectivity become a topic of dialogue at eye level, part of the ensemble of private equipment, especially because the loggia is untouched by the public open space, not merged into a new context (left in an empty square where formerly only parades took place) it is abandoned to be arbitrarily collected from all sides. Thus, in exactly the same way as history materialises "cum grano salis", lying 'on the street': you could stand two Red Army soldiers watching over you whilst you ate.Handling history gets a new meaning. "Man remembers, only to forget", Freud said. It is the emotional reality of what this monument stands for, inexpressible sorrow, unparalleled mass murder, that today seems to be long forgotten, sunk into the "everyday business" of society. History is administered. It has become part of a process of socialization instead of being used to pose critical opposition. It doesn't disturb us anymore, nor does it lead to the bone of contention. It has instead become the commercial activity of historical professionals. Past notable authors such as Ovid or Rabelais, however, knew that history had a vital human function and to simply waste it with literal rhetoric satisfied nobody. A society lives from the history of people and not from history as media event or of materialised monuments of history. Thus this intervention promotes a discourse, reminding us to participate in alive and personal ways, which could therefore release history from it's 'Babylonian shanks', from its vagabond existence as "street dog". History should be real common property and not only the property of those who administer it. Historical culture cannot come up in "memorial culture" merely to exist, administered, on the stage of Diaspora. History will cease because, lifeless, as if packed in preserving jars, future will cease. In the long run this causes what Alexander Kluge call the "offence of the present on the time remaining". At the very moment pedestrians pass the monument, (long since forgotten), and notice the inhabitants of the loggia, the pedestrians regard them as intruders. The pedestrian's views give the internality an importance, and reveal a context that could never be found in a housing development. In such a development it would be viewed as normal. The internality suddenly gains a meaning that it previously lacked. It is taken up in discourse. It does not appear as partitioned and private anymore, where it would purge to the verdict of immediately being out of date, but appears and acts as "dialogical", in the sense of a dialogue with history and a dialogue between the social participants. The attention is directed at a characteristic that is inherent in history, a characteristic that does not loose the well-intentioned desire to deal with history: all things historical are external. Thus this dialogue opens up the view of historical perspective, which was long since drowned by the public discourse, determined by social institutions. Thus internality becomes the event of individualising the interior perspective of humans and achieves a well-earned position, in a literal sense. There have to be forms that work towards the real practical value of public itself and don't settle for pseudo-legitimising values with empty standards.       It is probably true - as formulated by Michael Theunissen - that "first comestime, then comes what we do with it", but the fact should not be overlooked that we are the ones who do something with it. This is shocking and promising, order and chance, at the same time. There must be people willing to approach history. They will be the heroes: Humans of flesh and blood. © by Olaf Grüneis, 18 October 2004 Comments about Hasuchas project: "Trial-living in Slubfurt, Detail: Loggia" see also: www.slubfurt.net Cf. Project documentation Nr. 47 Probewohnen in Slubfurt