Humus Neukölln
The topic of the arts and culture festival “48 Stunden Neukölln” (48 hours Neukölln) was “Humus” in 2009. As an artist I was inspired by the topic because I love the Earth. To me it is living material with a quiet voice that we humans do not, or not enough, listen to. The consequences of this disregard are noticeable worldwide.
As there are people from more than 160 nations living in Neukölln, I planned to collect earth in glass jars from each of the 160 countries. I asked friends, neighbors and institutions to put earth in a glass jar. If possible, the glass jar should be wrapped in a local paper, not only to protect the jar, but also to indicate the origin of the earth. The “Earth Carriers” were also kindly asked to translate the sentence “The Earth is indivisible” into their national language and give me their translation.
In the beginning of March 2009 the embassies of those 160 countries were asked via email to participate in the project “The Earth is indivisible”. In April/May, the same request went out to 90 Goethe Institutes around the world. The resonance to this mailing campaign was positive. There were indeed glass jars with earth and newspapers pouring in. The correspondence is collected in two big document folders that make part of the project.
The installation “The Earth is indivisible”, with 33 glass jars of earth and 27 newspapers, was first presented at the exhibition “NATurBAN” during the festival “48 Stunden Neukölln” (48 hours
Neukölln), in the old post office in the Karl-Marx-Straße. Many visitors were excited and spontaneously wanted to participate in the project.
Anschreiben an die jeweiligen Botschaften
Empfehlungschreiben von Dr. Martin Steffens, “48 Stunden Neukölln”
The installation “The Earth is indivisible”, with 33 glass jars of earth and 27 newspapers, was first presented at the exhibition “NATurBAN” during the festival “48 Stunden Neukölln” (48 hours
Neukölln), in the old post office in the Karl-Marx-Straße. Many visitors were excited and spontaneously wanted to participate in the project.
Part of the collection “The Earth is indivisible
In autumn 2009 the project “The Earth is indivisible” could be seen at the “Platz der Stadthof” in Neukölln