Hamburg

As a guest of this year's International Short Film Festival I visit friends in Hamburg. They live in an area called Schanzenviertel. That district has a long history of house-squatting like Hafenstrasse or Marktstrasse in St. Pauli. All of these areas are now great places to go out and they have numerous clothing shops, mostly in an alternative style. There is a completely different athmosphere compared to the bourgeois districts which cover a big part of Hamburg.

Hamburg is a city of cool people, lots of trees and lots of water, be it rivers or channels or steady rain fall. The short film festival called IKFF is a great festival to visit. It lasts for a week and shows short films in 5 different cinemas.

Hund in Hong Kong

Around Easter DROPPING FURNITURE (the film version) is shown at the Hong Kong Int. Film Festival, which is said to be the equivalent of the Cannes festival in Asia. I am invited to go.
On my way from Hong Kong airport to Kowloon I get a first view of the city. With its skyscrapers Hong Kong resembles in some ways New York City, only that its parts are spread out further across mainland China and several islands all of which seem to have a green mountain backdrop against which the skyscrapers have been pushed. Kowloon (mainland) and Central (on Hong Kong Island) seem like the very compressed version of a city of high-rise buildings.

Neon

In Kowloon the sky is full of neon signs which are lit by night and shut off during the day. Nevertheless the signs are colourful and still interesting to look at in daylight. I find the signs especially interesting in a part of Kowloon called Jordan. Later I will learn that Jordan is a red-light district which also has a great night market and a street with great seafood restaurants.

A quick visit to the Chungking building

I decide to visit Chungking mansions which i have seen on film in a Wong Kar-Wai movie a long time ago. The Chungking building is on Nathan Road, one of the biggest streets which run through Kowloon. The building is a big block, probably built in the 60ies, it has numerous shops on the first floor.
There is not a trace of daylight on the ground floor. A number of merchants offer their goods, from electric appliances to money exchange.

There are several elevators and stairways which lead up to the other floors. Groups of immigrants wait in front of the elevators, ranging from Indian to black people, some of them in their traditional clothes. All of them are men. They wait to get on the elevator that brings them up to an endless number of guesthouses which cover all of the above floors. The African men look quite positive, there seems to be a future for them in Hong Kong (or at least a present).
I get out through a backdoor to a dark and narrow lane. Three guys squat on the floor. One of them has bad teeth, he flashes a rather dirty grin and offers me marihuana. Better get out of that place, it’s too dark and dirty in the backyard.

Mong Kok

I continue my trip on the MTR to Mong Kok. I pass high-rise buildings and I walk through streets with a great number of neon signs and numerous bridges (for pedestrians and for vehicles) which cross the streets.
On the main street there is heavy traffic and a lot of noise. I go around the corner and as so often in Hong Kong there is a completely different picture: an open air food market. The air is full of smells, roasted chicken are chopped to pieces for take away. Hundreds of Chinese people visit the colourful market.

Young men on Temple Street

The same afternoon I intend to go for late lunch in Jordan. I have a huge appetite for seafood but I must discover that almost all restaurants are closed. The only place which seems to have good food is a food stall on Temple Street. I decide to sit down next to the stall at a tiny table on a low stool made of plastic. I am cautious not to rest my elbows on the greasy table and try to forget the dirt on the stool. The meal is good, though.

Without intent I start watching several young men which are standing at the corner of the street where I am sitting. One of the boys wears jogging trousers, he seems to be on the street occasionally and wait for somebody.

Another guy wears a golden necklace and a shoulderbag which looks a little too female. He crosses the street and runs around busily. A third guy appears, who also wears a shoulderbag. That man is the youngest.

Only then I notice that those boys are hookers. The young one is the most daring, he walks up to passing men and talks to them. Most of the approached men won't listen nor talk back, they just continue their way.
I watch the hookers unnoticed. Whenever I think they look at me, I stare somewhere else. Finally the young boy approaches me and offers me a massage.

Jordan is a district of red light joints and saunas. Usually women offer their services to men. The male hookers are clearly news in a city which hasn't quite come to terms with homosexuality.

Goldfish Market

On our last day in Hong Kong me and a friend make a visit to the bird market. Parrots, canaries and the like are offered in cages.
The bird market is close to Flower Street which only has flower stands. We continue our way to the Goldfish Market which has only aquarium shops.
Well actually it's more plastic bags filled tight with water which are put up in the street by the hundreds. The bags contain one or more fish, they are that taut that they almost seem to explode. Distortion gives a surrealistic look of the fish in the bags.

Hund @ Soundframe

I take part in Soundframe (www.soundframe.at), which is a big exhibition about audiovision at the Künstlerhaus Vienna.
This year's topic is Evolution Remixed. My film ALL PEOPLE IS PLASTIC is chosen for the show (see http://kgp.co.at/index.php?option=com_moviedb&task=viewmovie&id=13&Itemid=84&lang=en for information and trailer of the film).

I also contribute a collage to UKO's Sista Sadie Life Show, which is a remix project of UKO's new album on all levels (music, video and photography).

Kosmoprolet in concert

Dj Kosmoprolet aka Karl Kilian has expanded his live performance into a 3 people outfit called Kosmoprolet. Kosmoprolet speak Rrrrrrussian English, they play Trash Techno. Check out Kosmoprolet's great dance video Coalminestyle on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V68LS_gzOc and their music under: http://www.myspace.com/djkosmoprolet

Station 17 at Szene Wien

German band Station 17 play a great gig in Vienna. The group consists in part of handicapped people and they rock! To keep it tautologic: Their sound sounds like Post-Rock.

Hund & Horn do Budapest

We have a show which is set completely in the dark at Knoll Galéria in Budapest. The exhibit consists of video, photography and paintings. It is on until March 22, 2009.

I went to the moon and back

Dropping Furniture on show

In December 2008 our video installation DROPPING FURNITURE is shown in a group show called "Soot From the Funnel" at Lokaal 01 in Breda (Holland) and at the "Central European Art Festival" in Trnva (Slovakia).

The single-channel film version premiered at 2008's Austrian film festival VIENNALE and has been invited for ex. to this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Hong Kong Int. Film Festival 2009. Yippiäh!

Pictures of an Exhibition

Our show "Paul Horn & Harald Hund - Living Rooms" at Knoll Galerie (www.knollgalerie.at) in Vienna closed recently. It was about living spaces which we inhabit. Part of the show was our new video installation "Dropping Furniture" (picture above). On the other pictures you see two of my works called "Modernism for the Poor 1 and 2".

Street Art in Ljubljana (Slo)

Banksy was in Ljubljana too

and made a statement about the infamous Fritzl guy

MysistercookedZwetschkenkompottandleft

Iforgottoeatit.

Back in Paris

After a 4months residency in 2003 at the Cité des Arts and a one week stay in 2005 i get back to Paris. I visit an exhibition of Eija-Lisa Ahtila, a famous Finnish video artist at Jeu de Paume and the newly arranged collection of the Centre Pompidou. At friday night I go to the opening of Austrian arts collective gelitin.

gelitin at Musée d'Art Moderne Paris

gelitin have mounted a huge show of trashy and caramelized cardbord objects, hundreds of plasticine pictures, many of them funny remakes of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, sculptures of stuffed animals and a big foot.

I make my way through the room of plasticine paintings and get close to the adjacent room. Suddenly there is a pungent stench of smelly feet. I look around me for sb who took his shoes off, only that I cannot find anyone. I look down on my feet: "that can’t be possible!" I think. As I enter the next room I see a huge foot which is about 4 meters long and which is made of ... cheese! It smells unbearable. Its stench comes absolutely close to smelly feet.

Party!

After gelitin's opening there is an party which is held in the huge entrance hall of the museum. Several bands appear on stage, sometimes they mix with other bands and the sound is a big anarchistic mess. The museum gives out red wine for free, people drink from 8 to midnight and get superpissed. Some pass out, quite a few people smoke cigarettes in the hall which is absolutely forbidden in France since the beginning of 2008.

A guard catches me and a friend smoking. We have to leave the building. As we move towards the exit i look back and see that the guard is not following us. We go back and have another cigarette. One of the musicians has to pee urgently and decides to do that on the spot beside the stage. He pulls out his cock and waters the wall-to-wall carpet.

Minimetal

A 2 people rock outfit called Minimetal play a gig at the Swiss Cultural Institute in Paris. A guy in a frock and a hood performs an ancient ritual beside a box on which a video of Minimetal is projected. The video shows the band playing in a tiny room. After a while the hooded guy opens the box from which music emanates. Smoke comes out of the box and slowly gives way to the band which is playing live inside the box.

Smoke in our eyes

During the gelitin opening party a performance takes place in front of the Musée d'Art Moderne. A fire blower works his way through an ice sculpture. As we get out of the museum people throw out peaces of ice from the performance on the street.
We try to find a bar in the 16th district which is still open. We enter a restaurant, but have to leave soon, as the place closes. We find a shitty fancy bar close to the Champs Elysées and go inside. Bernhard, a friend of mine, smokes a cigarette in the back of the bar. That passes unnoticed.

He lights a second cigarette and smokes it half way as the bar manager comes running. That guy snatches the cigarette from Bernhard’s hand, barks at us and runs towards the exit door with the lit cigarette in his hand. Soon after that he comes back to our table and advises us that it’s forbidden to smoke indoors. 5 minutes later Bernhard lights another cigarette. He only manages to suck twice on that cigarette until the bar manager comes running up to us with a big bouncer. We get told to leave the place.
On our way out I notice that the bag which I had on me is gone.

A bike tour across town

Next day, I remember that I had my digital camera in my bag and decide that I really have to go looking for it. I get on my racing bike and go down to boulevard La Chapelle which passes under Montmartre. I get to Barbès-Rochechouart, a quarter of mainly North African and Black African immigrants. There are fruit and vegetable markets in the open as well as flee markets. The place is a great colourful mess. I continue towards Pigalle and Étoile (Arc de Triomphe). As I see La Défense I decide that it’s about time to head south towards the Seine. Soon I get to the Place du Trocadéro which offers the best view on the Eiffel Tower as it is right in front of it.

It’s a beautiful and sunny day and despite the fear that I won’t get my camera back I really enjoy my trip. The Palais de Chaillot at Trocadéro is a great modernist building which was built for the world exhibition in 1937. It looks similar to the Palais de Tokyo which was erected for the same purpose and which I have to pass in order to get to the place where I forgot my bag. I am superoptimistic that I get it back and race my bike downhill towards that restaurant.

And – I really get it back. I have to pass a little exam about what the bag looks like and about its content. I wanna kiss the manager as he returns my bag to me...

Time left

With my bag around my shoulders I head towards the Swiss Cultural Institute in the Marais, the former Jewish quarter of Paris. I am one hour late for a video performance of fashion duo Radic/Morger. As I arrive I am just in time for a second run of the performance which takes place in a small theatrical room with a screen and a motorbike on stage. Performance artist Djana Covich appears on stage dressed in Radic/Morger clothes. She also wears a motorbike helmet which is coated in fabric and has a long tail in the back. As she takes place on the black motorcycle a video starts.

The video is a ride through Paris with that same motorbike filmed by visual artist Stephan Lugbauer. Djana rides the bike on stage in front of that video projection. After a while the bike goes through a tunnel and Djana lies back on the seat to do one of her sleep performances. Then there are scenes of a motorbike performance where audiences which queue up for big fashion shows get „hijacked“. Djana performs in front of the people on that black motorcycle giving really gas.

Beavers attack Vienna!

A horde of beavers have launched their attack on Vienna. They started out by killing a little forest on Danube Island. They felled mostly the big trees and spared only the little ones.

Once nearly extinct, now a protected species, the beavers are thirsty for revenge. Their hunger is unsatiable. Chop, chop, chop! the people hear them working during night. They must be building a big dam somewhere to flood Vienna! Nobody has discovered it yet. The Danube in the meantime has risen to an alarming degree.

Palast der Republik

The remains of the famous palace on the corner of Karl-Liebknecht- Strasse. Almost demolished, now reduced to a skeleton, the palace appears in 2 parts which look like boxes with an empty space in between. Only the outermost parts on the left and the right side are left.

Berlin beautiful

3-legged Cat

I go up Montjuic, a mountain in Barcelona which is a place of excursion for Barcelonians and tourists alike. There is a big parc, the Museum of Catalonian Art, two stadiums and – a lot of cats. I notice that the cats mostly come in couples and that they are all grey and have black stripes. I observe several times that one of a couple limps. One back leg is stiff or cut off. I have to think of a social system among street cats, where one cat helps the other. Makes me ponder about a cat help system or even a cat welfare state...

Hijo de puta

I go to Barcelona to visit my friend Moritz. I am invited to stay at his new appartment at the Barceloneta which has a direct view of the sea. Every morning the sun wakes us up.
On the fourth day I am on my way to the MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art) and go through Raval. I get to a little square with many people, which seems stange at first sight.
There are young women who stand around alone or who are approached by men.
I pass a Japanese guy who talks to a prostitute. He keeps his head on the side, looks down on the floor and keeps fumbling around in his pocket. It must be the weight of bad consciousness.
As I continue further a Russion prostitute in red high heels stops me. She tries to take my hand, which I refuse.

Fucking? I suck you?
No, thank you.
Are you gay?
No.
Yes, you’re gay!

It’s not the first time that I hear of a woman who calls a guy gay, who does not want to have sex with her. Only, that it never happened to me before...

Semmering

Ende dieser Woche bin ich wild entschlossen, der ewigen Finsternis und dem undurchdringlichen Grau in Wien zu entfliehen und fahre mit einem Freund zum Semmering.

In Wr. Neustadt wird es allmählich heller, in Gloggnitz erkennt man ein Himmelsphänomen, dass sich am Semmering endgültig offenbart. Zuerst sind wir nicht in der Lage das Phänomen zu benennen. Wir haben nur eine undeutliche Erinnerung, was dies sein könnte.
Langsam entringt sich uns das Wort SONNE!!!!

Symphonie des Grauens

Seit gut 2,5 Monaten ist das Wetter in Wien beschissen, seit drei Wochen hat man hier nicht mehr Sonne gesehen. Kommt die Sonne mal kurz raus, wird sie auch schon wieder von Wolken oder Nebel verschluckt. Es ist zum sich Grämen und ganz und gar fürchterlich! Ich beschliesse Maßnahmen zu treffen...

Sun Wonder

On 1 January 2008 for the first time in three weeks there is sunshine over Vienna! That comes like a miracle after a period of about two months during which the sky showed only different shades of grey. In 2007 the weather turned shitty already mid-october to stay like that until the end of the year. Now it’s almost unbelievable that the sunbeams really make it through the fog.

I rush out of my apt to go to the Vienna forest. As soon as I get out on the street I see clouds moving into the city from the west. Slowly - but with pleasure, it seems - the clouds devour the sun again. I am quite frustrated.

My mood gets better as soon as I get to a snowy area in the forest. At least the snow works well against the grey.

Dropping Furniture

On 18 December 2007 me and my friend Paul Horn shoot our new project on film which will be both a video installation and a film in the end. From a height of around 7 meters we let furniture fall down on the floor so that everything breaks apart beautifully. We shoot with two 16mm highspeed film cameras from two different angles in order to get slow motion in the end. Eventually the work will be a 2 channel video projection projected on two walls.

Krautrock

The Viennese electronic Krautrock outfit VILLALOG play a concert at FLUC (Vienna). It’s the release party of their second album „ZWEI“ which has just been put out on „Angelika Köhlermann“, a record label run by Electro musician Gerhard Potuznik (GD Luxxe).
Villalog consist of Marc Muncke (electronics, synths) and Michi Duscher (guitar). Bernhard Fleischmann appears on drums and Japanese musician Teppei Ozawa as singer. Villalog play a mesmerizing mantric sound which derives from 70ies Krautrock. B. Fleischmann hits the drums hard, Teppei Ozawa sings and shouts great. The music goes partly in loops, it’s live version comes quite hard and from time to time reaches the peak of ecstacy...... We happy......

Pigs

I go to a party of Austrian artists Konstantin Luser and Christian Eisenberger which takes place in their Viennese studio. Christian has built an installation of cardboard pipes which covers an entire room. The pipes are held together with adhesive tape. There is another room with a dj and a buffet, a small kitchen and a yard. I guess around 100 people are there.

Around 2 in the morning I see a couple standing in the corridor of the house waiting for sth. From their appearance I can see that nothing good is on their minds. They are completely alien to the party. I guess they are waiting for the police which they have called – and I am right. Usually people who report a party to the police never show up, they always hide in their appartments, the lights probably turned off. But this couple is clearly different.

The police are out in the yard closing one room of the party . The couple is with them and I see the man getting aggressive. He gets close to both artists and the police, screaming. „These people are not artists, they are pigs! They piss in the stairway! Don’t you see that they make fools out of you (policemen)?“ One of the policemen tries to calm down the angry neighbour.

The music has to be turned low first and then off alltogether. The police are around for a while. Soon afterwards they leave. Somebody turns on the music again and people start to get into the room of the installation and start to jump against it. The cardboard pipes break one after the other. Christian, the artist, likes that and jumps against the installation, too. He encourages other people to do the same.

The music gets louder and people get back on the dancefloor. Christian and some other guy start to wrap adhesive tape around people. Groups of dancers get taped together as the guys circle around them.
It's extremely funny to watch the dancers stumble on the dancefloor tied together in groups.

Temperature plunge

The evening before temperatures plunge by 15° celsius we get a striking sunset which looks like this...

Amanda

On saturday May 25 the Life Ball (an Aids charity event) takes place in Vienna. Several stars are invited to the ball like Sharon Stone, Bill Clinton, the porn actress Jennna Jameson and transsexual Amanda Lepore from NYC. Newspapers have reports on the stars as well as pictures.

I discover a photograph of Amanda Lepore in the papers and recognize her from that Dj Hell inner sleeve i have written about in my weblog (At the MoMa). I guess I was totally wrong charging that woman 60 years old. There was something very odd about her looks what made me guess her age that wrong. She is a transsexual instead.

On a mountain

We go to the Ötscher, a mountain in the province of Lower Austria, where i wanted to go for years but never made it there. Approaching the mountain area in a bus we pass beautiful, partly wooden houses, from the beginning of the 20th century. Charging from those houses I think that the area must have been very rich in the past and maybe still is...
The Ötscher itself stands alone and is situated in an extremely beautiful area of limestone mountains and rivers. It offers a spectacular view of the Alps in the West which seem to be endless.

On the second day of our stay we go down through the Ötschergräben, a steep river valley close to the Ötscher. The hike through the valley takes several hours, it almost seems endless.

We arrive at a cottage which serves as a restaurant. It is situated right over the river valley.
From there we leave the valley and walk to the Erlauf reservoir. The Erlauf is a river in that area. Even that reservoir is beautiful.

After that we get to a train station of the Mariazeller Bahn, which is a narrow gauge railway running from the famous place of pilgrimage called Mariazell. Even the pope comes there sometimes. The train ride is superscenic but takes 2,5 hrs for 85 km. The first 1,5 hrs the trip is beautiful. The train goes down from around 900 m altitude to around 250m.