If Ulysses provides a
portrait of a city and certain of its inhabitants on one day,
2-3 Streets aims for a portrait of a year in the
lives of the inhabitants of several cities, a reflection of
their activities and feelings, of the texture of the time and
places.
Aidan Dunne,
Irish Times, 09.11.2010
78 people hit the road
from places such as Munich, Berlin, Moscow and Tokyo. Their
destination: ordinary streets in Dortmund, Duisburg and
Mülheim an der Ruhr. They came to change themselves.
And the streets on which they live.
2-3 Straßen
TEXT, p. 1156-1157
887 authors wrote a book
together over a period of a year. New tenants and old
residents, guests and visitors to the streets – people from
all walks of life added their creativity to the ongoing text.
Over 10,000 contributions tell a story in 16 languages without
a breather. From topics dealing with humanity moving
seamlessly to indiscretion, from intimacy to self-criticism
and truisms, from debating politics to topicalities. Near and
far. The perspective is constantly changing. The text grows
and grows, is rugged like a manifestation and is boundless
like the present.
2-3 Streets,
Public Writing Day, December 2010, photo: Sabitha
Saul
“Writing is overcoming
emptiness and thus is the epitome of change,“ (Ralf Georg
Czapla). Each author immerses himself alone in the bodiless
digital world; the empty page, and no one knowing what the
others are writing. Once the text is sent, it disappears into
a digital archive. “Of course, not every writer turns into
a Marcel Proust right away. Roll over Beethoven. The important
thing is that the whole of society produced this text“
(Ruedi Jörg-Fromm). The result of the work of so many people
is a book which has no precedent – created in a way that no
other book has ever been created. This book wrote
itself.
2-3 Straßen
MAKING OF, p. 198-199
2-3 Straßen
MAKING OF outlines the process from the initial idea and
planning of 2-3 Streets, daily life on the three
streets and also includes reflections on the sustainability of
art and culture. The text alternates between inward- and
outward-looking perspectives. Essays, interviews, analyses,
quotations and a year full of pictures tell and convey an
experience. 2-3 Straßen MAKING OF is a book which
opposes the fixation on product consumption and the pressure
to be unique at all times. Creativity, as understood here, is
not the privilege of artists, but rather a renewable social
energy.
Writing brings change and
social change becomes literature.
2-3 Straßen
TEXT
2-3 Straßen MAKING OF
Size 16 x
24 cm
3,000 + 240 pages
