Opening of Ornamenta Transferium 2022 platform
Almost a year ago, the journey towards Ornamenta 2024 was set in motion. After a series of field trips, research meetings, try-out events, and welcoming new members and participants to the wider Ornamenta community the doors to the Transferium were opened wide.
Greeted by the monumental presence of Leman Sevda Daricioğlu’s performance and installation My burden is my soulmate, the first audience crossed the threshold of Pforzheim Stadtmuseum to explore the five topical neighbourhoods – Gemeinden – each stretched across a series of dioramas. In the courtyard, David Bernstein showed us how social spaces and objects could be reshaped from one form and function into another in his work Saunra – a Fiat Multipla converted into a working sauna.
Representing the body as an emotional vessel, Daricioğlu defamiliarizes and explores the boundaries between the physical and emotional self through the lens of limitation. This unfolds within temporal contexts of durational performance, as accompanying sound and visual installations challenge our concept of time and the self, reflecting on the challenges of today’s political discourses.
Like the narrative potential contained in My burden is my soulmate, our context is constantly shifting and moving: From Gemeinde to Gemeinde – Solartal, Schmutzige Ecke, Bad Databrunn, to Zum Eros and Inhalatorium – Transferium visitors can converse and experience some of the crucial topics surrounding contemporary living; from the sacred to the profane, from love to hard-hitting truths, with an eye on the future.
Graphic Design studio Our Polite Society took a moment to demonstrate, conducting and marking our tickets to launch the Ornamenta website donning the ‘arbeitskleidung’ of a Pforzheimer city transport worker to emphasize the spirit of the journey’s value and place in the region.
Just before the opening evening of the Transferium came to a halt, a small collective took a ride in David Bernstein’s Saunra, transported to a blissful state of mind. Sun Ra and his Arkestra played as the steam dissipated around the Fiat Multipla, allowing us to look through the cosmic fog and consider how transformations can lead to the proclamation that there we were, now here we are.
