During a residency at FARMSTUDIO in Vysoká (Czech Republic) and at the House of Culture in Trebostovo (Slovakia), we were able to further think and delve into the material from Kunsthaus Essen for the exhibition at Hot Dock Project Space. As part of the DEGROWTH gallery program and the Petržalka Gallery Weekend, the exhibition “I was here” was brought to Bratislava to the Hot Dock Project Space.

Formerly a store, Hot Dock Project Space is marked by a prominent shop window. This creates a permeable boundary between the brutalist concrete terrace and the gallery's interior, bright spaces. Such terraces are typical of the concrete slab housing of the post-socialist state. During the exhibition "I was here" the terrace also became a play space for us. During the week of the exhibition, the residents of the high-rise building were able to observe from their windows the daily transformation of the flowery artwork on the ground in front of the gallery space.
Because of the specifics of the pandemic, "I was here" was conceived as a one-hour performance exhibition. The three lecture performances "landscaping gestures", "site of rifts and tank drifts" and "Copies" were developed with and in the things we exhibited. Due to the quite small area of the gallery, our thematically related works literally touched each other.

“Three Copies” by Marlene Ruther

What does the statement "I was here" mean for a boulder, a white plastic chair of the Monobloc variety and a body dressed in a muscle suit? It is about the history and habits of use of these materials and the questions of where and how long they will remain here on this planet.

„landscaping gestures“ by Franziska Schneeberger

With pointing hands a person moves in the exhibition "I was here" and marks selected places in the room, on things, on her own body. She tells the visitors about a map on a scale of 1:1 and her attempts at a poetic landscape survey, in which traces become information and the bodies of those present become data carriers.

"site of rifts and tank drifts" by Katarína Marková

A former training and testing site for tanks, the so-called TANKODRÓM, is located near Martin (SK). It no longer represents any former function and has become invisible. This place, today a ruin, is suppressed and forgotten. What structures has a former military infrastructure left behind and how is something described that has become invisible? Through the gaps of language I guide the visitors through the Tankodróm.