2020 Zur Wohnungsfrage: Eine Odyssee

Exhibition view, Walls & Hedges, Basel

The Housing Question: An Odyssey is a documentary video installation about contemporary urban living, the right to housing and the hidden financial entaglements of the urban housing market. The project deals with the privatization of our cities and the resulting gentrification processes, that more and more divide cities along monetary fault lines and class differences.

Viewers go on a journey with the artist, starting from a house in Basel, the tenants of which had to move out to make room for redevelopment, to discover the financial entanglements of the owners of the house which lead to a refugee camp in Burkina Faso where Doctors without Borders is helping internally displaced persons.

The work encourages viewers to think about their own living situation and introduces tools for research and resistance to affected persons. It does not only point to the concrete hardships of our current housing market, gentrification and the microphysics of power that prevail between landlords, tenants and real estate investors. It also reflects on the philosophical question of what dwelling is for us today and how we can think anew our relationship to the spaces we inhabit.

Direction

Jürgen Buchinger

Production

Hochschule Luzern Design und Kunst
Master Film

Stills

Interview with Gaby Messmer
The land register of Basel
Jürgen is trying to get an interview with someone from the pension fund Profond
Interview with Gaby Messmer
The house in Webergasse during the Mayday protests
The hall in Felix-Platter-Spital

Exhibition Views

Exhibitions

2022 Basel, Ausstellungsraum Klingental
2021 Lucerne, School of Art and Design (Screening)
2021 Basel, R.I.P Altes Haus (Screening)
2021 Vienna, Fabrikraum
2020 Basel, Mattenstrasse
2020 Lucerne, School of Art and Design
2020 Basel, Walls & Hedges

Credits

A work by: Jürgen Buchinger
Starring: Gaby Messmer , Melanie Müller , Jürgen Buchinger
Cinematography: Simon de Diesbach , Jürgen Buchinger
Additional footage: Melanie Müller
Sound: Simon de Diesbach , Jürgen Buchinger
Music: Excerpts from “Odysseus” op. 41 by Max Bruch , NDR Radio Choir,  Budapest Radio Choir,  Radio-Philharmonie Hannover, Leon Botstein ; Jeffrey Kneebone , Nancy Maultsby , Stephanie Lange
Soundmix: Thomas Gassmann
Editing: Jürgen Buchinger
Mentoring: Robert Müller , Marine Huggonier
English Language Supervision: Carly Gertler,  Nicholas Kazmierski
With quotes taken from: Theodor Adorno, Asyl für Obdachlose, 1944;  Wilhelm Graff, Odysseus: Scenes from the Odyssey, 1872 ; Martin Heidegger, Bauen Wohnen Denken, 1952 ; Ernst Hubeli, Die neue Krise der Städte, 2020;  Tammy Kim, Moms 4 Housing: Redefining the Right to a Home in Oakland, 2020
Promotion: Chantal Molleur
Monetary Support: Erziehungsdepartement Basel-Stadt,  Amt für Ausbildungsbeiträge, Elvis Musal
Acknowledgements: Inga Federe, Armin Biehler,  Carlos Isabel Garcia, Christina Zimmermann , Stefanie Reisinger, wohnen&mehr: Susanne Kozlowski , Claudia Bauersachs; Recht auf Stadt Basel, Simon de Diesbach, Jochen Ehmann, Antoine Friang, Iris Ganz, Pablo Garrido Arnaiz, Thomas Gassmann, Carly Gertler, Marine Hugonnier, Nicholas Kazmiersky, Gaby Messmer, Chantal Molleur, Melanie Müller, Robert  Müller, Urs & Christel Raussmüller, Ruth Stofer, Fred Truniger, Daniel Tschuppert
Production: HSLU Design & Kunst / MA Film

Technical requirements

The installation must be adapted to the circumstances of the exhibition space but will need at least:

3 × 27“ HD monitors including headphones, cables and mediaplayers
projectors for large-format projection depending on the exhibition space, the installation shown above used 3 synchronized short distance HD projectors

There is also the possibility to realize the projection as a continuous 360°-projection that wraps around the installation.