tower 13
2018
2018
Tower 13 was a month-long performance undertaken at Tempelhof Airport in the Berlin summer of 2018.
The now-defunct airport was once a U.S. military base and in 2015 became an emergency shelter for refugees. For thirty nights I snuck onto the Tempelhof grounds and slept in a doorway adjacent to the intake center for asylum seekers. This location, Tower 13, is also under a radar dome erected by the U.S. I took a photograph each morning to mark this daily dispersal of precarious sleep. Below is a selection of the images.
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An excerpt from an interview with Yon Natalie Mik in “Vol. Berlin Issue #1, The Invisible Archive: Lara Salmon”
During this month of sleeping at Tempelhof I was driven by an almost blind determination to see it out. At first I told no one what I was undertaking as I did not want to be stopped. Tentatively, I revealed my actions to the people around me and then to my friends abroad. For those who knew about my past in refugee assistance, this was very different - solitary, private, perhaps accomplishing nothing. Yet my trust in the process was unceasing. I lost gravity within my real life, which became secondary to the ceaseless spinning world of the performance. I was constantly terrified of discovery, and yet believed myself immune to danger.
Tower 13 was followed by the solo gallery exhibition ‘r/evolving’ at SomoS Arts in Berlin, Germany. My thirty photographs were presented on the floor with corresponding journal entries printed upon them. These images and writings recorded the passing days of the performance – documenting how the action unfolded.
All photos by the artist.
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The now-defunct airport was once a U.S. military base and in 2015 became an emergency shelter for refugees. For thirty nights I snuck onto the Tempelhof grounds and slept in a doorway adjacent to the intake center for asylum seekers. This location, Tower 13, is also under a radar dome erected by the U.S. I took a photograph each morning to mark this daily dispersal of precarious sleep. Below is a selection of the images.
An excerpt from an interview with Yon Natalie Mik in “Vol. Berlin Issue #1, The Invisible Archive: Lara Salmon”
During this month of sleeping at Tempelhof I was driven by an almost blind determination to see it out. At first I told no one what I was undertaking as I did not want to be stopped. Tentatively, I revealed my actions to the people around me and then to my friends abroad. For those who knew about my past in refugee assistance, this was very different - solitary, private, perhaps accomplishing nothing. Yet my trust in the process was unceasing. I lost gravity within my real life, which became secondary to the ceaseless spinning world of the performance. I was constantly terrified of discovery, and yet believed myself immune to danger.
Tower 13 was followed by the solo gallery exhibition ‘r/evolving’ at SomoS Arts in Berlin, Germany. My thirty photographs were presented on the floor with corresponding journal entries printed upon them. These images and writings recorded the passing days of the performance – documenting how the action unfolded.
All photos by the artist.
back