Ferm, Maximilian Arnold, Elisaveta Braslavskaja, Hilda Stammarnäs, Immanuel Birkert
June 2020
5th Floor, Frankfurt
Time flies in this pending
space
Echoes from the new opera: the sound of the plays
and claps from the crowd still resonating behind the
bay
windows, present in their absence.
The missing ladder leading
to the roof-top, from which
twelve skyscrapers regulate
the orange light onto the city,
now replaced by a sign
reading ‘Betreten der Dachfläche
verboten’, black on white.
Sofa skeletons, broken
bottles, cracks in the walls, dried
plants and moss in every
corner.
Red-striped sunshades
flapping in the wind, torn under
the weight of those puddles
of water collected from the
rain, pressing on and
dripping through the material.
An ecology of ants and
nails, aphids and cigarette butts,
beer capsules and
caterpillars gathering in dust heaps and
resting in flowerpots.
Spray paint mixing with the
shadow of the baluster,
plastic ornaments of
sparkling water melting in the sun,
boiling surfaces.
Re-dried wet carboard,
rotten rugs.
The silence of a giant vacuum on the roof of the building
opposite, revealing its incessant noise when finally
turning off,
at 9 o’clock sharp.
Text: Isabelle Tondre