The installation project ‘Alternatives for Duland’ by Kasia Fudakowski refers, in a humorous and playful way, to the famous book ‘Either/Or’ by Kierkegaard dealing with the concrete problems of human action. Man has to decide on everything – and every decision will have consequences for our life. Thereby Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) analyses two philosophies: an aesthetic perspective striving for maximum pleasure and an ethical perspective meaning that our actions are in harmony with our conscience. The artist’s installation requests the viewer to take decisions while entering and leaving her artwork. The viewer is free to decide: Which of the 32 doors, inscribed with different instructions or descriptions, does she or he wants to step through? Among others, the doors show short sequences of words (Du musst/You have to – Du darfst/You may – rein/in – raus/out – bleiben/stay – kommen/go etc.) referring to basic vocabulary items of the German language. The artist born in London just dealt with this vocabulary again in connection with her recently acquired German nationality. The center of the installation is designed like a waiting room commonly found in public authorities. By means of catalogs and videos the artist presents further alternatives for living in the so-called ‘Du-Land’ (referring to the personal pronoun ‚du’– you – in German). In an ironic way the artist puts her own individual position in context with a social, national, linguistic as well as a political statement – particularly interesting due to the state election in Saxony taking place on 1 September 2019.
Kasia Fudakowski lives and works in Berlin.
| 1985 | Born in London |
| 2003 until 2006 | Bachelor of Arts, The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University |