with Young Valley Soil

U Birkenstraße Berlin

Peepshow took place in the Vitrine 01 project space at the Birkenstraße underground station in Berlin. It can be understood as field research on the topic of public space as a place of encounter. In this project, too, the collective worked with a sociological approach, with the aim of investigating how people behave towards each other in public space, how they cooperate and interact. The task of the collective members was initially to work undercover and switch from the role of recognisable performers to that of ordinary passengers. This was achieved by first reenacting the act of waiting in the glass display case, which functioned as an exhibition space, and by the performers engaging in social interactions with passers-by as appropriate. After waiting for the next train, they left the vacuum of the display case to sit down with the train passengers. Thus, a rotation system was used to pass through four different spaces: the Birkenstraße platform, the quiet, bright but exposed space of the display case, the space of the underground carriage and the next stop. Sometimes Turmstraße underground station, sometimes Westhafen. The collective was in constant communication via voice messages, which documented their impressions and encounters as immediate reports. In addition, each performer wore high-heeled shoes, whose loud clicking gave an indication of whether a collective member was nearby.