»Ich war hier« links different approaches to the relationship between the body and specific places. For example, the site of a former tank production plant in northern Slovakia, billion-year-old erratic blocks that have traveled for miles, or in the microlevels of our material environments. The documents of these encounters of body and surface were marked, copied, and translated into an abstract map. "I was here" is an invitation and an attempt to explore new perspectives on what we call knowledge or history with the gathered materials, narratives and the artists present.
The exhibition was conceived by the artists as a one-hour guided tour for registered groups of visitors, which also allowed for a light-hearted visit despite the coronavirus. The lecture performances moved between mediation, reportage and poetry.
The first version of the exhibition took place in the Kunsthaus Essen. The former school building was transformed into a studio and exhibition house by Essen artists in the 1970s. A second, more developed version of "Ich war hier" took place three months later at the Hot Dock Project Space in Bratislava.