Powerpuppen (Powerpuppets) 

2006, Public interactive performance installation

Galerie Olaf Stüber, Berlin

On the occasion of Emergency Room - The Berlin Test by Thierry Geoffroy

October 12, 2006

 

Powerpuppen - Sprechen wir mal drüber (Powerpuppets - Let’s talk about it) has been conceived and presented by Verena Stenke in collaboration with Swiss artist Andreas Liebmann for the project Emergency Room - The Berlin Test at Galerie Olaf Stüber, Berlin. The concept of the Emergency Room project requires the presented artworks to react directly upon the political happenings of the day, responding quickly to global current events. 

 

On Stenke’s and Liebmann's exhibition day – Wednesday, October 12, 2006 – Vladimir Putin met Angela Merkel in Dresden for the German-Russian dialogue forum Sixth Petersburger Dialog 2006 under the umbrella theme "Germany and Russia in European responsibility," to foster dialogue on civic societies and rights, politics and press. The meeting was overshadowed by the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkowskaja four days earlier.

On this day, a passerby on the street in front of the gallery in Berlin-Mitte could enter the roles of these two politicians, and freely raise their voices to shape a democratic dialogue.

A media photograph of Merkel's and Putin's encounter of that same morning served as a life-size frame, of which faces and arms of the politicians had been cut out. Passerby could enter the image giving face and gesture to it, and continue the Russian-German dialogue.