Hello Berlin 2003

In Hello Berlin I was attempting to address my feelings of displacement in my new home city of Berlin. My approach to this was to make myself visible to the two groups that stood out the most to me at the time-the police and the punks whom I constantly saw on the streets. My original idea was to have each group perform a scene of choreography separate from one another. Accomplishing this proved to be very difficult and eventually I resolved myself to approaching the police and punks I saw and taking video portraits of them. Two scenes in the film Beau Travail by Claire Denis inspired the choreography performed in Hello Berlin. These are the scenes I had intended the police and the punks to reenact. Below you see my friends playing the roles intended for the police (hug choreography). The video is linked by footage of myself riding the tram around Berlin, reciting a list of instructions (written by Adrian Heathfield) relating to feelings of displacement. The police and the punks were also asked to try and embody these instructions while their video portraits were taken.

LOOK LIKE YOU ARE LOST BETWEEN TWO WORLDS.

LOOK LIKE YOU HALF UNDERSTAND.

LOOK LIKE YOU ARE WAITING FOR SOMEONE.

LOOK LIKE YOU DONT KNOW

WHERE S/HE ENDS AND WHERE YOU BEGIN