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Down & Up

One enters the hall upon walking on a map printed on the floor – an abstract from the land register, to be exact. The magnified hand written sheet depicts the layout of a Jewish quarter which once was situated in the center of Frankfurt and constituted the most densely poplulated area in 18th century Europe.
But quickly the attention is raised – literally – by a luminous symbol in dark blue. Surrounded by 12 shining yellow stars the sign of the Euro is erected against the wall. Created by the German artist Otmar Hörl and approximately four meters tall the visible synthesis of Europe and its single currency dominates the exhibition space – at least on the material level, since - yes - size maters. Thus while treading on a map of ancient Frankfurt the visitor beholds a representative image of today´s Frankfurt.
Does he?
Does the colossal sculpture, dyed with Pantone Reflex Blue und Pantone Yellow, really represent a town whose history reaches back at least to 793, when its name was first mentioned? Are both places not in fact worlds apart? What do they have in common, expept for the name? Just this relation which connects public spaces throughout time is the phenomenon Rosler wants to disclose. What constituted a location then and now?

Monosyllabic but True

Asked to commend on the slight repetitiveness of her exhibition´s title Rosler reports that real-estate agents are said to agree on three most important factors when it comes to determine a building site. These are “location location location”.
This unique selling proposition does not only make huge amounts of money come and go but the tripple accentuation denotes what Rosler´s work has been about for decades. Since the 1970ies she deals by means of photography, installation, video and writing with public space, architecture and housing, always asking what makes urban settlements evolve in a certain way.
Since with Frankfurt a trading center is concerned Rosler picks the notion of "branding", as it is common in advertising industry. What is Frankfurt´s “branding”? Or rather, to cut it long: Just what is it that makes today´s Frankfurt so different, so appealing? And where does it come from?
Temporarily lecturing at the Frankfurt art academy “Städelschule”, the American couldn´t help realizing the general interest in this city as a site for all sorts of corporations. The enormous demand to do business there made her wonder to what extent today´s trading companies are aware of the cobblestone beneath the asphalt - that is: of the finance center´s historic roots. Hence the multitude of layers on which human settlements are based is recreated by the architecture of the exhibition space.

Emerging out of Nowhere?

“As a Jewish person who is interested in these issues I can poke a little bit at the wound and say ‘now you have to think about it in terms of history and not just of guilt an reparation but in terms of living history.’”
The fact that past and present are not seperate entities but mere stages of one linear development is as self-evident as ignored.
With the increasingly accelerated development of markets their history vanishes from the screen. To highlight an enterprise´s present and future value previously its tradition was emphasized. Meanwhile the very absence of tradition has become the aim.
The conciousness raising movement of the 1970ies had taught Rosler the necessity to face one´s personal past to be able to face one´s present. In dealing with a European trading center she now transfers this psychological insight to the social plane, looking for the operating forces beneath the here and now.
“History is always below us. I´ts always underground. It comes up. It´s the job of the artist to help bring things up which are behind the narrative of the present. Burried under symbolic and common wisdom and icons there is always something below.”
This way Rosler reveals a city´s seemingly natural shape as a text and thus object of manipulation. Together with her students Rosler investigated Frankfurt´s architectural, financial, military and archeological history. The results are presented in the academy´s exhibition hall as a total installation consisting of objects on the floor and on the walls, four computers and one video set.

Where and When and Why Anyway?

While surrounding the relationship between individual and collective conditions since more than 25 years Rosler´s interest in the hardly visible foundations of present facts has increased. For quite a long time the word globalisation was believed to stand for the augmentation of worldwide equalization. Only recently an insight made itself known to a wider public, which Rosler had already anticipated in the early eighties, when she stated: “There is no universal culture – we must remember time and place.”
So in accordance with her customary approach she now first pays attention to her present position. The exhibition hall is situated on an isle within the Main river, accessible by a much frequented bridge. This former central trading route leads to the part of the city where once the Jewish ghetto was located and continues right into the banking district, which has become a downright symbol of European finance. All three issues – the traffic line, connecting the city with Europe, the Jewish history and the habitats of financial significance – are chosen by Rosler as an answer to the question how the branding of a city develops.

Hats and Rats

“Often I discovered that Germans have difficulty that serious work can be humerous as well” she observes. The only thing within the exhibition which could be called humorous at best is quickly identified as just seemingly so: Oversized hats, formed of shiny plastic adorn the walls, at the frontage a handsome looking ring is pinned above the entrance. This appeal of toys seen from a child´s perspective vanishes as soon as one delves into the texts provided. Being part of a forced dress code these attributes served in 13th century to make Jewish citizens easily identifiable. Plastic rats, followed by their cut off tails remind of a medieval infestation of rats, during which citizens were given money for each rat´s tail they delivered on this very bridge. The measure was financed by the city´s Jewish inhabitants, who later were made responsible for natural catastrophies like that - or anyway whenever liability was to be allocated.
But Rosler doesn´t get entangled in multifaceted correlations like the one just mentioned but consequently follows lines which lead back to the actual location. Whatever is told inside the academic chamber always helds a strong connection to this arterial road of European importance. For this reason the building the exhibition takes place in is brought to mind by fixing its model onto the wall. Opened only 2006 “Portikus” resembles the narrow tenments of a mediaeval Frankfurt, which doesn´t exist anywhere anymore and which was therefore all the more ingeniously reconstructed wherever some part of authentic Old Europe was expected – by inhabitants or visitors. This odd chimera could be sad to almost incorporate the city´s character, which oscillates between the center of finance´s breathless pace on the one hand and on the other hand the omnipresent attempt to make visible what is nowhere to be seen. Anymore.

Form follows Function. Too bad.

Resolutely following her educational intention Rosler avoids any handwriting. Subjectivity appears in the layout of her quest. While the most conspicuous object is the monetary insignia mentioned above – the four meters of Euro - apart from this garish idol the room is equipped with a kind of learning aids. Hats and rats, barrels and bridges, a metall cock and the score board on which stock prices rattle along function as mere mnemonics for the stories Rosler elaborates by means of Wikipedia. Of course the genesis of a city´s reputation encompasses a complicated mixture of social and econnomic processes.
To make the underlying strata evident in a user friendly way she draws on the equipment of histotainement, ingeniously neglecting formal ambitions.

The Ascetic´s Fun-Factor

Umberto Eco describes an American preference of “the more than real”, which leads to Disneyland. According to Eco, history has to be made aesthetical, that is sensually comprehensive. Only if graspable on several levels the past becomes alive. Given the fact that history thus is to be presented spectacularely it is creditable that Rosler avoids the event and prefers a bald way of rendering, which resembles outgrowths of conceptual art. Thus her perspective oscillates between the eager gaze of an historically ambitious tourist who assiduously registers portentous spots and the mere listing of rough data. In so doing her exposition opens a terrain on which the kaleidoscope of a city´s evolution can unfold – or rather: can be unfolded.