Sunday 16th August 2015, 2:30am
Getaway #5: Res Thierstein
Res Thierstein chose this Sunday’s getaway destination. *)
– This is a special case: Outside Sundays itself is invited. To Ausstellungsraum KLingental in Basel. Res is from Basel. This is where he got off the train when we met. We met only once, on a late night journey home. Starting in a small Bernese village where we were given a curly branch to take along. The branch joined us on the bus and later on the train ride. It looked very handsome and decorative. We talked about clay. About work. About working with clay. Then at some point we had to split. I don’t remember if we also split the branch when saying goodbye. –
[Report]
Taking an eggplant for a walk
The exhibition this Outside Sunday was part of concerned art and physical activity. (I am still not sure if this invitation was part of a major misunderstanding). When we met for the getaway, I learned that at the opening you could get your beer in exchange for the number of pushups that equals the number of calories contained in one.
There was one video piece in the exhibition I liked a lot. A professional breakdancer learns from a physically disabled amateur breakdancer in a do-as-I-do mirroring way very tricky breakdance moves. In the end they both laugh. Somehow they seem to be making at the same time fun of each other and of themselves through moving. I would love to have Outside Sundays working in a similar way as the dancing, (not the calory-beer-calculation) but I guess it’s a bit far fetched.
Anyhow.
We ended up taking three eggplants for a walk. Which was a bit funny. And really nice because Res wanted to find a Lustgarten, one type of the 18th century idea of a perfect garden. Lust is an old-fashioned german term for passing time in a pleasurable manner. Or just for pleasure. Today it has a strong sexual connotation.
Since there is a street in Basel of the name Lustgartenstrasse we went there. A short ride with the Strassenbahn brought us across the German border. The plan was: Walking down the Lustgartenstrasse from one to end to the other and back, taking eight polaroids along the way.
We passed well fenced customs, a colony of Schrebergärten, one of them quite packed with banana trees, a breeding club for German shepherd dogs, unprotected neat flourishing flower beds, a vegetable farm in glass-houses and a bunch of industrial buildings. The buildings looked rather deserted. The one at the end of the road once was used to sell curtains and jalousies and shades. Each window revealed a different type.
Making our way back we took the three eggplants with us. I had never seen anyone walking with an eggplant in his or her hand, swaying back and forth with each step. Beautiful.
We also discovered a hide-out in the woods, constructed with blue plastic. It looked rather elaborated.
The six classical 18th century categories of the ideal garden as described on Wikipedia are roughly: Orangerie (glass construction, with citrus plants), Menagerie (with animals), Lustgarten (with fountains), vegetable garden, fruit orchard, park.
*) Mirjam Bayerdörfer invited Res Thierstein for the fifth Outside Sunday.