For six nights, the top floors of the Funkhaus Wallrafplatz, the Hansahaus, the high-rise complex of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences, the KölnTriangle, the Colonia building and the Kölnturm were transformed into a temporary tent camp. Those who populate the floors on a daily basis were present as hosts and active participants in the project. During the overnight stay, a new, personal relationship to the place was established – for the hosts through a different use of the places familiar to them from everyday life, for the other participants through the exchange of the familiar perspective of the passer-by ascending from the ground for a personal appropriation of the otherwise inaccessible places above.

“The artists invite you on a camping tour through the upper floors of Cologne and combine the high-rise longings of the 20th and 21st centuries with people’s nomadic roots: When the everyday users leave their floor above the rooftops of the city in the evening, they move into the group of tents with their one- to two-person bivouacs, which are looked after by the artists. They get to know the place, their hosts and fellow campers, enjoy the view, explore the existing architecture and go to bed sooner or later. After breakfast together the next morning, everyone goes back to their usual ways. For one evening, one night and one morning, a non-public place in an exposed location is redefined and taken possession of like a natural space.”

Oliver Gather with Rebekka Reich.
plan09 Forum of Contemporary Art and Architecture in Cologne, Cologne (D) 2009, www.ncp-koeln.de
Supported by: Cultural Office City of Cologne, State Initiative StadtBauKultur NRW, Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR)

Six times camping in normality on the outskirts of the city.

“Camping where others live” – the Nomad City Passage was a wandering campsite. Residents of the residential complexes, interested Linzers and visitors to the festival were invited to spend a night in a tent on the outskirts of Linz. They spent the night in places that characterize the “normality” of the outskirts of the city. Setting up and using a temporary, wandering campsite together in unusual places offered an unusual approach to one’s own living space. The overnight stays, which were close to everyday life, took place in the middle of the week, with the associated insights into the night-time routines of the locations. A communal breakfast concluded the overnight stay. We interpreted urban planning as the occupation of officially designated places and cut through them with the action of camping, as an archaic principle of land occupation and the exploration of new terrain.

Rebekka Reich together with Oliver Gather
Festival of the Regions “Normality”, Linz09 Capital of Culture, Linz (A) 2009, www.nomadcitypassage.at

Everything goes home. We stay. To sleep. For 5 nights, a campsite moved through Düsseldorf and invited people to spend the night in unusual places.
We visited places that stand for Düsseldorf’s self-image as a prosperous city: Art Museum, Media Harbour, shopping mall, tennis club and golf course.In the afternoon, the tent team installs the tent site reception on site. The guests arrive in the evening. At check-in, each guest receives a tent, air mattress, towel, flashlight and night reading material. Together with the “site owner”, the tent team informally discusses the background, history, function etc. of the site with the guests, creating a personal connection between the individual city dweller and a place that is primarily oriented towards representative aspects. The nocturnal disuse, the functionless state offered the opportunity to understand the place outside of its staging; the relocation of one of the most intimate human activities – sleeping – to a public or semi-public place opens up a new perception of the square and with it the entire urban structure.