Since 1991, Doris Koch has been producing participatory projects in public spaces. In 2006, the project “Achtung” (Watch out!) was developed for the Stadtpark (city park) in Dessau in dialogue with the residents, and cancelled in Spring 2007. In the context of the exhibition she will reflect on this project, and continue it as a part of her work in progress series “KunstMachen” (Art-Making) (actually it was supposed to be something completely different…).

A project in collaboration with residents
in and for the Stadtpark Dessau
conception, as of August 2006

The Stadtpark

The Stadtpark Dessau has been a public park since 1927. Previously the gardens of the Prince’s palace, it was redesigned as the “Stadtgarten” (city garden).
By the end of the war in 1945 it had taken on the form of a potato patch surrounded by ruins, with only isolated trees.
In the following years the park was reconstructed. Many people helped in doing this. From the middle of the 1960’s it was extended to the main post office.
In 1970/1971 three Y-form tower blocks were completed at the edge of the park. Because of their innovative construction and attractive location the flats there were in great demand.

For the aspiring large city of Dessau the Park was a flagship. Lying at the centre of the industrial city the park was seen as an oasis of peace.
After 1989 the garden paradise transformed itself slowly into a social combustion point. It was seen as a dangerous place besieged by drug dealers. In 2000 the park became a crime scene. The murder of a Dessau man of Mozambique extraction didn't only shock the city dwellers.
Although lying at the centre of the city, the park is experienced by many as being on the periphery. Due to lack of communal funds, the care of the park is limited to the bare necessities.
Working with enormous commitment, various groups have attempted to bring positive life to the park, or tried, at least, to initiate debate about it (e.g. playing Boules in the park, ParkTV project, Future Workshops).
As part of the programme of Urban II, the project “- Achtung Quo Vadis - Stadtpark?” turns once again to the Stadtpark. The artist and art theorist Doris Koch is responsible for the concept, coordination and realisation.

The Conceptual Basis

The park consists of about 50 individual zones that are separated from each other by pathways. There are smaller and larger zones, raised up zones and zones in depressions.
There are zones where trees predominate and zones of predominantly grass. Some are at the centre of attention and others disappear unobserved under the shadow of the trees. Every zone is considered separately. The viewpoints and categories taken into consideration have been previously introduced and determined in a questionnaire about things in the park which you should “watch out” for. Every criterion is uniformly applied to every zone.
The consideration of individual zones allows a different way of looking. A more playful and uninhibited interaction becomes possible.

The term “Achtung” (Watch out!) and its related verbs and adjectives play a special role in every part in the project. For example, the question wasn’t: What would you like to happen to the park? But rather: What have you observed (“beobachten”) in the park? What do you particularly value (“achten”) in the park? What should we particularly look out for (“acht geben”) in the park? The term “Achtung” is applied to the maintenance of the park (aspect of caring), to the park as a meeting place (aspect of consideration and respect for others) and to the park as an explosive social space (aspect of awareness, reflection).
The actions of the “individual”, together with its consequences, help to determine the nature of our environment, and are the starting point for this project. Both the desirable and undesirable “consequences of actions” found in the park are recorded. This also allows the inclusion of absurd actions.
Due to its distance to reality, the artists’ way of working opens up a space of possibility in which we can think differently and where perceptions can be changed. Familiar questions are explored from the opposite direction.

The Project

The Project - Achtung - achieves a inventory of the park using an artist’s methodology. Many people should have the opportunity to participate in the project on different levels. For this reason, the complete procedure isn’t determined at the beginning. From August to October 2006 Doris Koch will undertake further investigations and surveys. Following this, the form of the process and of the organisation will become concrete.

The actual participatory process will take place in spring/summer 2007. The process will be created out of a mix of various mechanisms and methods: a publicly accessible info pool, with constantly updated information about the process and content of the project, achieves transparency and allows the later entry of interested parties into the already running project. Site visits and workshops will certainly take place. Accompanying public forums in the evenings can also encourage dialogue. There will be public events at the start and end of the project, or to present intermediary points. Interventions and actions in the park that originate from and develop out of the findings are also possible.

In autumn 2007 the results will be collated and the, hopefully, dynamic collaborative process documented. The process will be allocated the same importance as the results. Concrete results build a pool of information and an archive.
The creation of the information pool will already begin in 2006. A variety of information about the park and its associated issues will be collected and made publicly available in 2007.
The inventory will be initially saved in a digital archive and printed onto file cards. The archive will be designed and set up in 2006, then filled with the diversity of information in 2007.

The Objectives

The project should promote dialogue between different societal groups. It should offer a space for encounters and debate on an equal footing. Due to an approach that is shaped by the artists’ way of working, new possibilities of creating a participatory process will be tested.
The concerns of people either using or engaging professionally with the park should be taken up. It should be made possible for participants to reflect on their familiar ways of looking at things and to be exposed to other approaches. Urban spatial qualities like, e.g. the attributes of the park zones, should be linked to social qualities like, e.g. recreational behaviour. Aspects that would normally not be considered by a planning inventory should play a part in this project.
The inventory of the various park zones and the options for their exploitation should embrace both current and possible structures of usage and, in so doing, make the potential of the park visible.
In order that the project can be effective over the long term, the archive should be available for future protagonists, whether planners, committed residents or artists, and so offer a basis for future planning, redevelopment, actions or for artists’ projects.