The Project

JEMANDSLAND – Stories that find stories

Sevrina Giard & Theo Steiner

Jemandsland is a project exploring visual cultures and cultural atmospheres in urban space. It is a school of perception and associative thinking – and thus also an exercise in creativity.

On our travels to European cities, we photographed in public and private spaces, and for each city we had given each other impulses, different stories, each with its own thematic focus. These impulses always had to do with some facet of the place: Sometimes they focused on something historical or a moment in everyday culture. They were visual metaphors and narratives such as: In contemporary Athens, what might be something like a Trojan horse – or a siren? And what do situations of quiet lingering look like in Paris – or what are signs of triumph there? Such triggers focused our attention and thus became catalysts for the gaze.

A city is never simply a forest of signs read by locals and visitors. Local people not only read the signs of the city – they also make them themselves – by the way they dress; by the way they name and advertise their businesses; by what they buy and how they behave on the streets; by the way they stage themselves in public space for social media photos; and, of course, by their own artistic output, such as street art …

As a media designer and video artist, as a design theorist and exhibition maker, we have spent twenty years working with communication design and media products, working with existing images, thinking about them and researching them. In this context, we have always taken photographs ourselves to document works, to capture aspects, but also to show content and meaning. And in doing so, we learned that images are never simply objects of observation, investigation or illustration. Images are worlds full of aspects of meaning and cross-references, imbued with social and psychological, economic and political energies. Therefore, it is essential that visual cultures be explored not only with and in texts, but also through visual means. Jemandsland makes photographic practice an integral part of an investigation of visual cultures. We see photography as a medium for generating new knowledge and new reflections. Photographic practice is also an imaginative action that can bring us into contact with the lives of the unknown.

Stories that find stories – this motto is a plea for diversity and associative richness. And in this respect also an alternative to city tourism, which with its images and stories (for example in thematic guided tours) tries to reduce the complexity of a city. Even if we as travelers can of course never completely avoid the situation of the tourist gaze, the Jemandsland method offers us the opportunity to connect with different levels of the urban fabric and to find personal points of connection to it.