CONSTITUTIONAL OVERHAUL BUREAU

Weimar City Park, 2004

Constitutional Overhaul Bureau was a one-week intervention in public space focused on conversations with passersby. The random audience in the Weimar city park was invited to give their opinions on the US-American politics by suggesting constitutional amendments. 38 video statements and several textual contributions were collected and later compiled in a video installation extended through a publication of an updated version of the USA Constitution.

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In that week in July 2004, I would approach passersby in the Weimar City Park, offering them sweets, and asking them to help “save the world” together by amending and improving the US Constitution. I explained that the US Constitution was quite old and needed refreshing, and that I personally believed that people all around the world should have the right to vote in the US state elections. Most of the passersby reacted by laughing, but some of them decided to take part in the project. Altogether there were over a hundred people who visited my open-air Constitutional Overhaul Bureau located in the park. Some of them wrote their suggestions for amendments in my project-book. In my open-air office they could read and compare printed copies of the constitutions of different countries, which were part of the installation. If someone did not want to spend too much time reading and writing, they could make a short oral statement that would be recorded on video camera, addressing the people of the United States and/or the politicians there. That week we recorded 38 video messages for American politicians. I promised the participants that I would print a new version of the American Constitution and send it to selected politicians, along with the video message, which would be a further stage in the project. What follows was the introduction text to the video:

The people you will see in this video wanted to share their thoughts with the American public. I promised them that I would send their video messages to select US politicians.

While recording the video messages, I found that people were afraid to reveal their identity, and I had to offer them the possibility of editing their video statements in such a way that their identity would remain protected. Approximately 20% of all participants felt that disguising their faces was unnecessary, while 80% wanted to protect their identity.

While documenting the statements people made in their mother tongue, I realized that even though I might not speak that language, I was able to understand what the person was saying, and what political opinion they were representing.

I decided not to translate their statements and to show the video without subtitles, so that you, dear audience, could put in a very worthwhile effort to try to understand a language you do not know.

RELATED
Exhibition in ACC Gallery Weimar

CREDITS
Constitutional Overhaul Bureau was realized within the internation studio program of the ACC Gallery Weimar. Curatorial team ACC Gallery Weimar: Christiane Haase, Frank Motz. Photos: Kristina Leko.

GENRE&FORMATS
Project: intervention in public space; participatory-documentary art project. Artwork/s and artifacts: video work, video installation, texts, objects.