2013
2-channel HD video, 16:9, German, 25 min
installation: wooden frames, 640 x 439 x 290 cm
In the open-air museum Hessenpark the half-timbered houses are exhibits. In addition they function as space for exhibitions about various topics. The individual houses with their own history of conversion, dismantling and reconstruction as well as lived lives, host through the exhibition additional layers of history written in several centuries with different thematic priority up to political charged exhibits. What kind of ideas and feelings are associated with half-timbered houses? Besides the open-air museum the video looks at the DomRömer-Areal in Frankfurt, at the development of the Römerberg with its reconstructions of half-timbered houses, which were destroyed during the Second World War as well as at the current building project of the DomRömer GmBH. The film »Container« puts the Hessenpark in relation to the historic district of Frankfurt and exposes the differing motivations which are linked to the half-timbered houses. Every reshaping of a city shows a specific take on the historical narrative. Which part of the building history will be preserved and which part will be considered unappealing, ugly or even disturbing?
