EDEK BARTZ / BIRGIT FLOS
"KRAFTWERK" UNPLUGGED?
(A DESCRIPTION OF SURFACES)
Scene: Professor Rodchenko, in the year 1920, at the Vehutemas Art College which
was founded after the revolution and where El Lisitzky also taught for a time:
"On the first day of lectures a man entered the studio who looked light a
combination of pilot and motor cyclist. He wore a beige uniform-like jacket and
gray-green plus-fours. He had a black cap on his head with a huge leather peak.
His face was very pale and the intensive red lips stood out in the white of his
face. Immediately I knew that this was the new type of human being" (By a
former student).
In the 1970's, "Kraftwerk" from Düsseldorf presented themselves
programmatically in constructivist colours and typography-red and black; circle
/ line / plane, in energetic fields as "Man Machine". "Organization" was the
original name of the project. This constructivism "loan" was probably too
internationally interpretable for them; "Kraftwerk" also meant concentration on
the regional idiom: "We make regional music from the Rhine and Rohr areas".
Rodchenko: The MAN who organized his life, his work and himself is the MODERN
MAN. Even "Kraftwerk" have a programme for modern men. It aims for the
precision of a machine. The machine corresponds to their discipline and
creativity. Man loves machines, machines love men / who love it etc.).
"Sometimes we surprise machines, sometimes they surprise us". The symbiotic
relationship "Man Machine" constitutes modern men.
"Kraftwerk"
appeared "live" on their last tour as robots and/or left their live-performance
to robots. The "Kraftwerk" clones look like imitations of "Kraftwerk"
imitations. "Kraftwerk" trigger off endless series: They present dummies of
dummies, imitations of imitations, they produce the mix of mix of mix etc.
They
are the glass men of techno-music. In the window of the body there is nothing,
it remains a smooth surface with an indication of a chest; a standard torso
with no lower abdomen. Pneumatic arms with glove hands are stretched out to
greet? to fight? to dance? ("Dance the "Kraftwerk"). Jim Whiting's
constructions could be sitting in the audience, one would be among oneselves.
