Hasenbergl

"Hasenbergl? Monte coniglio ... – Ma ...!?" In autumn 2000, many passers-by in front of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice may have been bewildered by a white sign with blue letters, showing the way to a mysterious place called Hasenbergl.
This signpost, installed and photographed in different places all over the world, but preferably in big cities and close to famous monuments, is part of a conceptual work by Vincent Mitzev: "Hasenbergl".
The munich suburb Hasenbergl, built in the 1960s and 70s, was always in ill repute. It is considered a bad neighbourhood, formed by a high percentage of unemployed, of foreigners and low-income households. In spite of many efforts towards urban renewal and economical improvement, the Hasenbergl never got rid of its negative aura.
Vincent Mitzev confronts this ill reputation by "calling attention" to the Hasenbergl. The place resp. its name becomes the object of a world-wide exhibition. Starting from a definite place and context, Mitzev develops a work "ex situ": The sign to the Hasenbergl is decontextualized and sent from its original location on a distant (e)migration. A marginal and marginalized place is bereft of borders and carried into the "centres of the world".
The plain sign loses its denotative function and becomes a "visual tool". Beyond the description of a topographical place, it refers to a specific urban and social reality. On the one hand, it remains an arbitrary sign, understandable only for people who know Munich, on the other hand it becomes a substitute for many similar realities. Different people have installed the signpost in many different places; thus individual situations were created. Confrontations with diverse urban structures and landscapes have emerged, subtle, sometimes fleeting and forever new.
The Hasenbergl is de- and exterretorialized: The Munich suburb obtains a new place in the referential system of the global map. The signs to the Hasenbergl are meddling with foreign townscapes full of historical and cultural traces, inconspicuous and insolent at the same time; they call into question urban, institutional and social hierarchies. The saying "all roads lead to Rome" seems to be paraphrased, the relation of centre versus periphery inverted or suspended. A network is created, virtually sketching a new global socialization. For a short time, the inhabitants of the Hasenbergl conquer the public space all over the world. In this sense, Mitzev´s work is an optimistic endeavour to grant a socially and economically discriminated group (virtual) access to the big family of a world citizenship ...
 
Valérie Bussmann  (Translation: Christine Wunnicke)