Unlearn the Apparatus - Interfacing with Hildesheim local businesses
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
@artintelligencemod
A main objective of our project was to reach out to Hildesheim citizens, learn about their lives and to have conversations and interactions that are based on collaboration, solidarity and mutual respect. This could take many forms, including business interactions and literally paying back to the Hildesheim community via purchasing services and goods but also friendly invitations to participate in our “Unlearn the Apparatus” project.
Examples:
Two creative team members got a wonderful haircut by a wonderful hairdresser named Gülseren in the neighbouring turkish-german hair salon “AtmosfHAIR” (playing with the word for atmosphere and hair, as Emre Cenit, a collaborating student from Hildesheim university pointed out). She was a lively and active neighbor of our pop-up store and also participated in our performance and exhibition. Gülseren also lenl us her umbrella stand from the shop so that we could put red air balloons in there to attract more passers-by to take an interest in our project. https://www.instagram.com/atmosfhair/
The hotel Bürgermeisterkapelle (mayor’s chapel) provided excellent accommodation for special rates and allowed us to advertise our project in their lobby and showcase our poster in a large street-facing window. The hotel is run by Katja Strohmeyer and her lovely team. The hotel uses the historical building of the Bürgermeisterkapelle, the oldest parts were built in 1562 as a spiritual private chapel for the then Hildesheim mayor Joachim Brandis the Younger (October 27, 1553 – January 13, 1615). This oldest part of the building is used as a popular wine restaurant and guests seem to be in good spirits there. This building is the only historical building that survived the allied bombing of Hildesheim on March 22, 1945 only weeks before the German capitulation in WWII. https://hotelbuergermeisterkapelle.de/
The creative team became very fond of three places for repeated visits during lunch, dinner or for daily coffee. The bread manufacturer Herr von Myra brought much delight not only because of their freshly baked goods and great service but also because we met a Canadian young woman who was working there. And we met a young, enthusiastic baker, who later participated in our performance and exhibition along with his girlfriend.
The Moonlight (Mondschein am Markt) Restaurant is named after the owner’s first name, she told us. We had our first creative team dinner there and have been back in smaller configurations several times. She allowed us to leave some of our flyers for her customers. https://www.mondscheinammarkt.de/
Neighbouring cafès at Angoulême Square were frequently sought venues for coffee or yummy ice cream while we were working in our pop-up store space at 2 Bernward street, facing the square. These included cafè Venezia Da Leart (not run by Italians, as we thought, but Albanians) at 1 Bernward street and cafè Hilde at 4 Bernward street.
Our posters and flyers were printed by Copyland 24 GmbH, Hildesheim. https://copyland24.de/
The Banner was printed by Paulitz Werbetechnik, Hildesheim. Torsten Paulitz is a very competent and friendly craftsman, who gave us good advice and made a wonderful banner. https://www.paulitz.de/
The bicycle store and workshop HD Bikes helped several times to repair the project bike – Antje’s main means of transportation. The store is owned and managed by Hikmet Duygu. https://hdbikes.de/
