Sunday 18th October 2015, 2:30pm
Getaway #7: Camilla Franz
Camilla Franz chose this Sunday’s getaway destination. *)
– Camilla is into art education. And into activism. When I listen to her I am startled how both seems to be the same to her. In addition both seems to push her more deeply into living. She seems to be able to integrate certain convictions into her everyday existence in a way that makes adapting to the differing demands of different circumstances unnecessary. We used to work in the same office. It’s a big „open plan“ office. You hear people talk that you might not even see but you soon recognize their voices. Every time I heard Camilla’s Bavarian „R“ I was startled by this immediate feeling out of place, instantly beamed home. Bavaria is where I grew up. For Germans it’s unusual to stick to your dialect once you move away from home. Most people migrate to a rather unspecific so called high german. I did. –
[Report]
Dietikon
When we met it was raining cats and dogs. By the time we walked (in newly bought pairs of rainboots) along pastures with horses and hens it had stopped raining almost completely.
The rain had scared everyone away though. That’s why it was the two of us. Camilla, the invited guest, and me, the inviting host. This made the conceptual twist happen. Outside Sundays is a public format designed to work also without public. A format that is truely independent. It was put to test on this very occasion. It worked. But what does that mean – work? You can walk in two, you can talk in two. Of course. Of course it changes things.
So this is what I saw of Dietikon. Through Camilla’s eyes and guided by her words. Getting off at Dietikon station. Crossing a tiny creek on a bridge. A burnt down house. Already from around here you could see the park. Made by this hippie artist. Bruno Weber. Who was just an odd hippie to his hometown Dietikon, building weird things in his garden, for the longest time. He did work with Harald Szeemann. Or is it the other way around: Harald Szeemann worked with him? Eventually, after he got to build sculptures all around Europe, he was acknowleged as artist also in Dietikon. You might know his usable sculptures from the Üetliberg. Benches and lights. Dragons and giraffes disguising as park furniture. His park has overlived him but is seriously troubled by the lack of money.
We passed apple orchards not harvested.
We passed an empty playground with a slide construction that tempted me.
We walked up the hill and entered the woods.
We wandered through myriad wet shining colored trees towards the Franzosenweiher. The lake got its name due to a story: Napoleon and his forces are said to have camped there. Apparently they emptied the whole lake that belonged to a monastery, in order to get to the trouts. To refill their empty stomachs.
Today the lake is full again, if ever it was empty in 1799.
Today the Franzosenweiher instead empties itself slowly into what was our destination: A 100-years-old natural swimming pool. Not quite rectangular. Shady. Hidden. Peaceful. Entirely filled with water plants and water animals. Naturschutzgebiet. No more camping, no more fishing, no matter how carefully.
We made our way back to where Camilla lives and filled our stomachs with pumpkin soup, discussing various models of sharing food in a cooperative, sustainable and fair way. It’s tricky.
*) Mirjam Bayerdörfer invited Camilla Franz for the seventh Outside Sunday.