Marc Brinkmeier: photographer & worldwide adventurer

Marc B Fosten , Platoon´s highest agent, and im not just referring to his rank here but especially to his actual physical size... had some of his extraordinary pictures featured yesterday by South Africa´s Sunday Times, with an alleged article about his experience with the children of Rainbow United, a football club based in one of Cape Town´s poorest area.







Marc has been traveling widely during the past few years, his compelling desire to capture some very human epiphanies within different cultures, kept feeding his unsatiable curiosity about human social relationships, conditions and the corresponding factors making different cultures closer rather then spread afar in a set of wrong and disputable assumptions. you have to go there to see with your own eyes....









with projects taking him from South Africa. Congo, Namibia, or places as different as Russia and Bangladesh; Fosten is surely a man constantly on the go...well, sometimes I wonder how he manages to keep his pace...here and then, in between his projects, we are glad to see him coming back to the headquarters here in the container, although it must be said he´s a freelancer and works totally independent on his own.











some of you might remember him from the World Cup times during the summer....or at the Pecha Kucha night here in PLATOON...


* the german speaking can also enjoy this podcast










Well, he surely doesnt pass unnoticed...
With his tiny pink slips stretched to the limits like he was a little boy and somehow drunk a magic potion that in a matter of seconds made him grow into an incredible giant.











so „Fäustchen“ to you mein lieber...






















*„Fäustchen“ being the PLATOON Salute...
fist against fist then bouncing against your heart... like sharing energies...and if it doesn´t make any sense to you, nevermind,,, who knows...knows.



## and now you can find him also on myspace ##

BLINKS & BUTTONS by Sascha Pohflepp

on yesterdays PECHA KUCHA there were a lot of very interesting speaches.. sorry if you missed it!

one of it was a project presented by its inventor, our old friend sascha pohflepp. his diploma in visual communication at the Berlin University of the Arts (UDK) presents us a vision in how we share our photographic moments in a worldwide community.. via flickr a lot of people already share.. with his gadgets you get something else.. maybe more interesting: a camera without any lenses. you just press the button in order to decide a specific second of time you want to take a picture.. and the camera gets the pictures for you: not yours but the one someonelse has made in this exact second worldwide and has then uploaded it to the internet.. the gadget searches online the datas of all available pictures and displays them on a screen.

fantastic!!

check it out on : www.blinksandbuttons.net

Between Blinks & Buttons are two projects about the camera as a networked object. Through making their photos public on the internet, individuals create traces of themselves. In addition to their value as a memory, each image contains a multitude of information about the context of its creation. Cameras become context-recorders which create references that go well beyond taking a photo.

Through this metainformation, every image is linked to the precise moment in time when it was taken, making it possible to see what happened simultaneously in the world at that instant. This work tries to focus the user's imagination on that other, to create narratives that run between one's own memory and a stranger's moment which happened to coincide in time.

The installation Blinks is a prism which refracts the ray of time running through a photo into all the moments that were captured simultaneously in different places. Buttons is a camera that actually shoots other's photos, taking the notion of the networked camera to the extreme.

Highlights of the artfilm-biennale-Köln in Berlin

our very good friend taygun always plays again and again in totally crazy movies. last year it was a film by Antoine Prum.

a selection of this international competition for the arts will run in the coming weeks as part of the ArtfilmBiennaleKöln




unser aller freund taygun spielt ja immer mal wieder in ganz verrückten filmchen mit. letztes jahr war es ein streifen von Antoine Prum.

im rahmen der KunstFilmBiennaleKöln läuft in der kommenden woche einen auswahl aus dem internationalen wettbewerb in den Kunstwerken.

monkeymen.tv

a nice movie on monkeymen.tv, well, about the monkeyman there is nothing to find out, the only thing I know is that our friend Marcel Schobel has his fingers in the game....

guter film auf monkeymen.tv.. über die affenmänner ist zwar nichts zu erfahren auf ihrer site.. das einzige was ich weiss ist, dass unser freund marcel schobel die finger im spiel hat..

THE SINGAPORE MIRACLE

our artist-friend IEPE presents his miracle-tree at THE SINGAPORE BIENNALE, Sept. 1st - 12th of Nov. 2006

here his current e-mail + pictures:

"after three weeks of talking to an Angsana Tree in Singapore it started raining out of the crone just before the opening of the Singapore Biennale. It is said that the rain of the tree washes away sins, cures diseases and even makes us younger. So we took the test and had a shower last sunday.

This time I could bring the Miracle Team from Berlin with me to Singapore. They worked closely together with local specialists. And then of course there was the help of allround support from Tokyo by Michi 'KO' Ogura, who is an outstanding specialist on metaphysical issues.

Let's cut the crap. Enjoy the photos!

If you are in Singapore go to:

The Singapore Miracle
Angsana tree in front of the Asian Civilisations Museum
@ the Singapore River, Empress Place

best time to visit is between 17:00 and 23:00, you will have a 70% chance that it will rain twice an hour."

the quest of an artist

"kabul matters" is an art-project directed by luis berrios-negron, a puertorican artist and conceptual architect, living in berlin. the artwork was commissioned by rahraw omarzad; director and founder of the „centre for contemporary art afghanistan“ and was executed during the time of the berlin biennale 2006.

"the motivation behind this art-project was to inspire a sense of hope in the people of kabul. it was for this reason a green theme was established, symbolizing rebirth in the afghani culture". - luis

kabul is a city of overwhelming disarray; with no solid infrastructure, no garbage disposable system, frequent power failures, and extremely limited access to water resources. kabul is a city that for centuries has seen social, economic, and political instability, not only in the recent past with the control of the taliban regime.

„it is a real challenge to be a woman in kabul these days. woman have no access to education, as a matter of fact girl schools are still being burnt down, like recently in helmand- south of afghanistan- one of the last strongholds of the talibans“. - luis

as a woman, the streets of kabul used to be very dangerous:
“before, during the taliban rule, if you had shown even just a glimpse of your ankles or you walked the streets without company, you may have incurred the risk of getting stoned to death“. - luis

the project itself consisted of a performance involving several people carrying a gigantic green cloth up a hill where a large billboard was displayed.
the green-drapery was than ufolded over the massive billboard, which during the soviet union regime displayed strict, political slogans. - pictures -

bibi mahro, the hill, rises from the middle of the city. on its very top we would find the remains of a remarkable soviet olympic sized pool

"this served as a tool for promoting a sense of community, providing a platform whereto combine their ideal of athletics with their political ideology – in other words: propaganda". - luis

during the taliban regime the hill was used for its strategic position as a military stronghold. In fact one may still observe (as shown on the google earth map), the remains of an exploded tank on the right of the pool.

„some people said, the pool itself used to be the taliband´s favorite place for executing prisoners and dissenters“. - luis

initially, the performance was supposed to be carried out by only a group of painting students but a random and curious crowd, mostly composed of children, joined forces in this symbolic gesture, giving it an edge of solemn ritualism. as a result, the performance turned out to be an authentic experience; not only a staged ceremony.

as a sign of gratitude, luis gave a workshop for the students of the institut, introducing them to the berlin biennale. this was running at the same time of the project.

*we would like to thank the photographer massoud hosseini for the very touching pictures documenting "kabul matters".

most of luis berrios artworks seem to be defined by a need for denouncing extreme social conditions.
however, his main preoccupation does not appear to be one driven by sterile criticisms. more accurately is seems to be paving the way for solutions. the striking factors, when faced with his work include the interaction of contrasts, subtle sarcasm and a passion for provocation. these are all ingredients that make him a remarkable artist fighting for reconnecting “loose ends“, where individuals or whole communities are living in fear, lacking a sense of hope or blinded by consumerism.

this was the case for “tzunami safe(r)“, a housing project for tzunami stricken communities in sri-lanka. the project was conceived through carlo ratti and the prajnopaya foundation as a psychological tool meant to give a renewed sense of optimism to people struck by this sort of catastrophy -- a move to ease them from their constant fear.

the government of sri-lanka had infact already planned to move an entire sea side community approximately 2km inland. this was something unthinkable for people whose main sustainability was based on the ocean.

another example of his guerrilla-style, sarcastic exhibitions infiltrating the strongholds of corporate establishment was the project "people's republic of z pod", which runned under the tutelage of lot-ek, an innovative and very succesful architect duo in ny. in this case, luis wanted to create a transitional object symbolizing the condition of consumerism and how it affects social disparity.

“z pod“ is infact a housing system made out of cut-out, collaged billboards which would provide housing for young aspiring models and exploited sweatshop workers in new york.

„the reality of sweatshop workers is still very real in new york as in many other countries around the world“. - luis

the project was presented for two hours at the diesel-denim gallery in soho – where a pair of jeans can easily cost $200–500! the humor was seen in the missunderstanding of those operating the gallery, as they did not realize exactly what the performance was about right up untill the final point. this project fundametally criticised their entire industry and blantely made fun of them.

a video documenting this project was recently shown at the filter gallery in hamburg, with certainly far less complications.


*we would like to thank luis berrios-negron for allowing us to showcase his work and for the very interesting and inspiring chats we had here in Platoon.

soni riot

after the first soni-riot live-act i say hereby
THANKS! THANKS! THANKS!

PLATOON:
heidrun
jette
christine
christoph
tom
jens

FRIENDS:
anne schwiethal
harald keppler
tofa
...

especially ALEX TOLAR and OLLI WRAGE
and here... the evening!



nach dem ersten soni riot liveact
sage ich hiermit DANKE!DANKE!DANKE!
...
und besonders ALEX TOLAR und OLLI WRAGE

und hier der abend

ShareYourEmotions 2006 !

from just about two weeks ago berhard schade came around to visit us and introduced us to his football project in Uganda.

ShareYourEmotions.org is an international photo-help-project within the frame of the World Cup.
Together they will build a football pitch for aids-orphans in kiyunga, uganda .

under www.ShareYourEmotions.org it will be possible for football fans worldwide to upload their World Cup pictures: true emotions, big feelings of the WM. Taken from sideline positions that you wouldn´t see otherwise.

Every uploaded wm-picture will be linked to a spot of lawn on the virtual pitch. No matter if it is an 11 meter spot, at the side or in the middlefield. For 5 euro one can ensure their own personal square meter of the pitch.

Besides the online gallery there will also be an exhibition taking place here in berlin with all uploaded pictures- 24/7, all these emotions will become part of a very close experience materialised between the kulturforum, national gallery and potsdamer platz. After the exhibition A jury will put together the best pictures for an illustrated book.

Somehow it was clear for us from the beginning that we should support this project.

So you great people out there; put in your picture, take part, join in and help a really good cause, if you could even send this message on to others on your email contacts lists, it would be really appreciated.



vor knapp 2 wochen kam berhard schade bei uns vorbei und erzählte uns von seinem fussballprojekt in uganda.

ShareYourEmotions.org ist ein internationales fotohilfsprojekt im rahmen der fußball WM.
gemeinsam wird ein fußballcamp für AIDS-waisen in kiyunga, uganda errichtet.

unter www.ShareYourEmotions.org können fans weltweit ihre WM-fotos einstellen: wahre emotionen, große gefühle der WM. Von randschauplätzen, wie sie so sonst nicht zu sehen sind.

jedes eingestellte WM-foto wird in einem ständig wachsenden virtuellen fußballcamp mit einem
fleck rasen verlinkt. Ob 11-meterpunkt, seitenaus oder lieber im mittelfeld. Für € 5 sichert man
sich seinen persönlichen m² rasen.

neben der online galerie zeigt eine containerausstellung in berlin alle eingereichten fotos – 24
stunden, 7 tage pro woche. zwischen kulturforum, neue national galerie und potsdamer platz
werden alle emotionen zu einem hautnahen erlebnis.
eine jury stellt anschließend die besten fotos für einen fotobildband zusammen.

irgend wie war für uns sofort klar das wir das unterstützen.

also ihr lieben da draussen: stellt eure fotos ein, macht mit und helft für einen wirklich guten zweck. und wenn ihr das dann auch noch über eure verteiler schickt wäre das natürlich super.