MAP ONE About Presskit Order Contact

Making the Impossible Possible The Event X February Cut-Outs Personal Tracks Curiosity takes it all Map One: jumps

The publication February Cut-Outs (2002) investi- gates to what extent narrative formats and methods already exist in everyday life, how they are imple- mented there by chance or in a targeted way, and how MAP ONE in turn can convey its observations in a narrative form. February 2002 was determined as a special timeframe in which we documented and analysed international and national events in the Netherlands and Germany as well as everyday occurrences and personal observations. The most various events that at first had nothing in common were examined on the level of their narrative moments and strategies and subsequently brought together in the form of a calendar.

Foreword by Kirsten Weiss February Cut-Outs thematizes appearances of risk, performance, success and failure in varying constellations and in a myriad of possible narrative configurations. Maybe, these systems are contin- uously replicated not only in mass media but also in personal communication and recollection. Despite the overabundance of symbolic images navigating the thin line between individual success and failure, the desires and fears associated with consumer society are acutely felt in each single miniscule instance of perception. The smiling face of the prince’s bride Máxima Zorreguieta, for instance or the utter despair of the headless ski-jumper Sven Hannawald. Máxima and Hannawald are only two extreme examples of dramatic pop personalizations of the dilemma of public performance, that are perceived and judged upon with regards to their desirability. Success and failure here seem obvious, which facilitates passing judgements and desires they were based upon off as public opinion. But if losing a competition is obviously a failure, what about being rudely awakened and shown on public tele- vision in sleepwear, in a state of unprepare- dness, for the chance of a meagre Euro 250? On this more general, class-spanning level, the latent or overt instability of society is frequently defined as flexibility allowing for windows of opportunity: ‘If I had only ...’. Of course, even ubiquitous narratives are only acces- sible in parts and the door was slammed on the modernist enthusiasm for the possibility of ceaseless production and distribution of images a long time ago. At the beginning of the 20th century the prod- uction of a magnitude of photographs of a specific object, for example, appeared to allow for a more authentic representation acknowledging the fragmen- tated and somewhat diverse nature of perception. But postmodern sensibility negated any longing for acurate or authentic representation on a discursive level. Still, the question remains: What exactly is being represented and how does one integrate the images of current paradigms into one’s own everyday life? For as the audience, however construed, slips between the intimacy of individual experiences and the amorphousness of undefinable collective perception, it is forced to continuously reformulate its own subjective narrative strategies and metaphors. The drift through mass culture is alluring and disturbing at the same time. A calendar might be one way to struc- ture the unremitting succession of seemingly detached events by placing them into a banal format. The manifes- tation of impressions in a fixed format – temporally in the case of the calendar, geographically in the metaphor of tracks – paradoxically detrivializes their effect upon the individual. The prevalence of sports, a royal wedding and tele- vision itself effaces the aggressive marketing of leisure activities and points to the inextricable con- nection between producers and consumers of mass media. Together, they are impassioned laborers for the maintenance of an apparition of an effortless public scene.

February Cut-Outs is supported by the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, Amsterdam (NL), the Municipal Office of Science and the Arts, Frankfurt am Main (D) and the Hessian Ministry for Science and the Arts, Wiesbaden (D). The publication can be ordered at www.map-one.net/order for 10 Euro (excl. postage).