For the last 4 weeks, STATIONS has hosted Mieke Ulfig in residence. In this time, Mieke has been reflecting on her practice as an artist situated at the intersection of film, graphic design, and visual art, and on the economic realities of working between independent artistic work and freelance commissions. The residence offered a space in which her creative output can coexist, irrespective of its conditions of production – whether commissioned or self-initiated – while raising questions around the valuation and compensation of creative labour, in collaborative or individual contexts. These topics are particularly pressing today, in a climate in which many cultural workers are financially insecure, constrained, marginalized, censored. Mieke's first work which she produced at the start of the residency was not in our space, but a public intervention on a billboard on Dresdener Str. at Kottbusser Tor. As it often happens with billboards, part of it was torn less than 24 hours later, which gave Mieke the opportunity to add a commentary:
Wo es Stadt gibt, da gibt es Stadttauben. Und wo es Stadttauben gibt, da gibt es Widerstand. Frei nach Fahim Amir, frei formuliert nach Foucault. (Wherever there is a city, there are city pigeons, and wherever there are city pigeons, there is resistance. Paraphrased after Fahim Amir, paraphrasing Foucault.)
The result of these reflections, What's my line? is a five-day exhibition that showcases a selection of Mieke's artistic as well as commissioned work, some of which were created on site.
