Reclaim your Brain / Phillip Fischer

SUNDAY

First Things First.
Me and Christian are working together building skateparks in Germany since the beginning of 2014.At the construction site in Landau he tells me about this exhibition, he is going to be part of, REClaim your Brain, located in Dresden, his hometown.Well, he asks me if can help him build some ramps in this art space, Rockefeller Center, the idea appeals to me so i give him my promise to show up in Dresden and get this thing done.

Weeks later we are still working in Landau, Christian already spent the week in Dresden organizing the exhibition. It is Saturday as I leave for Frankfurt, my hometown at that point. Loading my car late at night, with all the tools necessary, working materials, parking blocks, metal pipes, wood… Since I don’t really know what would happen in Dresden I wanted to be prepared for every situation possible.
On Sunday I head for Dresden. Christian doesn’t answer his phone. Dude, what got me into?

Close to Dresden big dark rainclouds come up, the sky turns black, still no answer from Christian. It starts pouring rain, thunder and lightning, the feeling in my stomach doesn’t get better considering the situation on the freeway.
Finally Christian answers, and I make it to Dresden late at night. Without a glimpse were in Dresden I am Christian and his lovely girlfriend Luise welcome me heartily.

MONDAY

The plan is to show up at the art space at nine, take a look at the situation, talk with the owners, who are involved as artists too, make a plan and hopefully get started right away.
But what happens? Nobody shows up. There is no key to open the gate which leads to the art space in the back. Good start, hein?! Finally we get inside the backyard.
The area used to be an old engine manufactory. Work spaces in every corner of the building. Mason, screen-printing, painters….The art space for the exhibition is beyond beauty. Square windows on one side and in the ceiling, steel beams cross the room. Beautiful lightning. Surprisingly the room still is filled with random stuff we don’t need. Baum’s old recycled wooden miniramp parts, some steel bars, a euro pallet of concrete bags are already there. But half of the room is filled with a bar, empty bottles, chairs…

By now it is midday, we need to get started, vernissage is on Friday. With coffee in our hands we start to make a plan and find ideas on what to build and what is possible to be build up in 4 days. The exhibitions intention was to use as much recycled materials as possible. As many different ones as possible, too. Another idea was to connect the inside and outside of the room. So a performance is made possible inside and outside, a connection. Viewable from both sides by all viewers.
A moveable obstacle, non moveable ones, metal, steel, glass, wood and concrete…Ideas exchange.

Our goal is to build a ramp outside, with parking block on top; concrete and wooden runaway. A bank/corner combination inside, concrete bank with a glassy wallride; corner with steel coping; extension with pool coping. To create a moveable obstacle we want to try to transform the old wooden miniramp into a moveable wallride.
Nearly all the building/filling material can be found in the ruins of this old building. The whole backyard is full of trashy stuff that still can be used in one way or another.

On the first day we still manage to build the framing for the outside ramp and clean the room from all the unnecessary stuff.
Pizza fills our empty stomachs late at night.
One beer in the pub for feierabend. We are done.

TUESDAY

First task of the day is to get sand and stones for concrete´n. The concrete bags got delivered, but the other parts still need to be picked up at the harbor. With the art gallery’s own old Mercedes 611 truck we get to the harbor. Two tons of material make its way into the back of the truck. Shovel by shovel, hand by hand, slowly.
Hey it’s a converted camping truck with no truck bed.We lose too much time with that kind of fun.As we are back at the gallery and ready to start pouring the outside quarter it is already getting dark. Only one dented old mixer. Hard rain is coming down; we need to build a roof while pouring. What did we get ourselves into??
Finally the Trini locals show up to help. Thanks to Robert, Bernd, Tom, Axel, Sven, Kai, Carsten and Ali we get flowing. Bucket after bucket of concrete makes its way into the framing.

As pouring takes so long we manage to set up the big glass plate, for the bank/wallride on the inside. Tons of europallettes, stones and gravel make its way inside. Filling material for the corner.

Ahh, the coping needs to be set up. So I start welding 10cm long parts of steel pipe together. All leftovers from constructions in the past. That way we get a round coping without bending. Many joints make it a little harder to grind, kind of like poolcoping but with that metal look and feeling.
Darkness has long come when we finish the outside ramp for the last time.
Feierabend.

WEDNESDAY

Still sleepy we realize the concrete bags will not be enough for the whole inner obstacle. So as I start cutting the concrete floor to make a connection at the flat bottom, the mercedes truck rolls again to get more bags. It is a small room, the only windows you can open are in the roof. Dust everywhere from the cutting. No air to breath, even with a mask you can hardly stand it. Dessert storm inside, and rain on the outside again.

Carsten and Ali start building the wooden wallride, considering that there is nearly no air to breath and you can hardly see. The bags arrive, and we decide to mix inside this time. The mixer bangs so loud you can’t even understand what people are saying. I am still laying steel rebar while Christian pours the first mixes.
Concrete Voodoo, Wrestling Masks, Metal, Beers. It s a wild session till 6 in the morning.

THURSDAY

3 hours of sleep aren’t enough, but we need to get up. Back at the gallery we start pouring the platform right away. This time it is only me and Christian. The others probably get their well deserved sleep. We don’t. There is no time for sleeping now, vernissage is tomorrow.

Shades hide our sleepy eyes. Marx shows up, the idea of colored concrete pops up. Well, why not? So father and daughter Marx start floating the concrete with magenta pigments.We set up the parking blocks on the outside quarter. Christian loads the mixer and fills the buckets with concrete again, while I set up the framing for the outside flat runaway.Darkness is back again when Sergej and Quentin show up. Their plan is to start putting up their works tomorrow.
The pouring goes on deep into the night.

In between working on the runaway, we start skating the corner. Running out with working boots on your feet isn’t that easy. Great laughter follows hard slams onto the in dirt n dust covered floor.It´s a lonely finishing session, Ali left to print the shirts for the upcoming Broiler Jam on Saturday with Marx and Christian hurt his toe so bad that he can’t even wear shoes anymore.I don’t care, having in mind we only have 15 hours left.

FRIDAY

Today we show up late for the first time. Well, considering the days behind us, this is no wonder.Sergej and Quentin are already working hard. Mounting prints to the walls, painting these big beautiful murals. Christian installs the lightning for the session. Helping hands try to clean up the room, but all that concrete dust is not really to get out. Everything comes together nicely now. With a lot of help from Ari I manage to get down the wooden runaway just in time for the vernissage. Everybody involved in the building process at least now realizes a great loss of power, on the other hand a great gain in satisfaction.

The first people show up. Skaters, non skaters, people interested in art, randoms, locals. Skaters from Dresden, Leipzig, Bautzen, and Berlin take the first runs.

Dust covers the sweated bodies as the session takes off. Incredible noise drowns the music. Sergejs wallride marks become more and more,like scratches they get cut into the walls. Beers float at the bar; the music gets louder and pushes the session higher. Suddenly the wooden runaway gets removed. A heavy gap session breaks loose.

It´s hard to get people to stop skating in time for Sergej´s performance. Crawling in the corner he is channelling spirits on his amplified guitar string. Banging, scratching it with his skateboard he sets the air on fire.

Wide eyed, dropped out, the sweaty bodies get their minds hypnotized.

Text: Phillip Fischer
Fotos: Alexander Endrullat, Christian Petzold

This exhibition was supported by Kulturstiftung Sachsen.

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