Pilotenkueche at its best: floating rooms, slasher films

This summer Japanese artist Atsuko Mochida will be doing an architectural intervention in Japan. Since the beginning of the year, she has been in Leipzig participating in the PILOTENKUECHE International Art Program. Her time here has been focused on doing studies for her project this summer. The feature photo is of her first installation here, entitled, “Floating Room 1,” in which she created a room out of scaffolding and floated the objects within. This time the object was a piano. Says Atsuko:

After a huge earthquake in Japan 2011, many broken houses were dismantled with public funds. Although, some standing houses of unknown owners were just left there. Houses are floating… like a ghost without legs.

In Japan, ghosts are mostly depicted as having no feet or legs. They float. For her next study, “Floating Room 2,” Atsuko is attempting to make the installation more accessible. This time she wants to make it so you can enter the room. She never shies away from a challenge.

Atsuko is one of the 16 artists who will be showcased at FAST KOTZEN in Leutsch, Leipzig’s newest art quarter. “Kotzen” is German for vomit or purge, or to produce in a quick manner. Artists from Peru, Australia, the States, Japan, Switzerland, Turkey, Colombia, Slovakia, the Netherlands, France, and Canada have been constantly producing in their shared Leipzig studio space since January.

Everyday new objects find their way into Isabelle Kuzio’s studio. What happens to them once there is nothing less than magical. Photo: Maeshelle West-Davies, © PILOTENKUECHE International Art Program

PILOTENKUECHE International Art Program offers three-month residencies to artists from around the world. It is an immersive experience where they get to live their art 24/7, a luxury that most artists don’t have on a steady basis. For some, it’s a time to work on something that life hasn’t allowed them to produce because of time or space constraints. Others relate to their environment, be it the city or their fellow artists.

Each round of artists at Pilotenkueche is quite unique.

FAST KOTZEN will have a focus on making you part of the experience, while also addressing political, historical and personal topics. For instance, Peruvian artist Tomas Orrego Gianella looks at natural desires and how they are pushed to extremes in porn and slasher films. Why do women need to be victims for men to masturbate? It’s reassuring to see a man asking this question through his work. In it, he takes existing footage from porn, slasher films and cartoons and loops them, adding glitches and altering the sound.

PILOTENKUECHE has been publishing “artist spotlight” interviews featuring each of the program’s participants, written by its international interns. They created an album on their Facebook page with links to make it easier to find.

Canadian artist Eliana Jacobs performs at Unfinished Hase, in collaboration with the local Dilara Women’s Choir (Choir Director: Walbuga Walde). Why is beauty measured by how one continues to smile as they contort themselves to please onlookers? Photo: Maria Maceira, © PILOTENKUECHE International Art Program

Last month’s preview show – Unfinished Hase, at the Alte Handelsschule – was a success, with loads of visitors and very strong artworks. FAST KOTZEN is sure to provide the same.

At the vernissage, you’ll have a chance to engage with the works and the artists, and also hear the reactions of Twin Effect. These talented musicians from Georgia will improvise based on their reactions to the art, the space, the crowd, and each other.