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Subject: Two Kassel cabrides at about DM 16.- each
From: tomH <tibet@seconds.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 16:18:29 METDST

* * * * *


Date: Wen, 23 Jul 1997 10:29:08 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Two Kassel cabrides at about DM 16.- each
From: Heidi Grundmann, mail: hgrundmann@thing.at, about:
http://www.icf.de/hws-bin/uinfo?user=heidiG
Forwarded by: tomH

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RECYCLING THE FUTURE / A PROJECT IN 4 EPISODES
http://thing.at/orfkunstradio/FUTURE/DX/
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************** Two Kassel cabrides at about DM 16.- each *************


A) From the Wilhelmshoehe-Station (ICE Bahnhof) to the Orangerie:

A cabdriver as artlover or an artlover as cabdriver:
treating us to a lecture about the Documenta X being a flop - a
Swedish expert had explained it to him a few years ago: this type of
art in the public space that really attracted the people - some
examples are still around Kassel and nobody would like to miss them -
this type of art, the Swedish expert had predicted, was on its way
out. And now it has happened.
The result: a real flop. A very deplorable situation for the Kassel
economy. (Is it really true that every Kasseler loved the Oldenburg
and the Borofsky at the time when they appeared - I seem to recall
some trouble with some big American sulpture- but maybe that was a
more abstract one, one that did not last - at any rate in the Drogerie
in Frankfurterstrasse where I bought a bar of soap they also have a
foto-department and all the fotografs displayed as samples for
different possible sizes showed either the Borofsky or the Oldenburg
or one of the Beuys tress - art lovers everywhere ...)


B) From Frankfurter Strasse to the Wilhelmshoehe-Station (on Sunday):

A ride through empty streets with small houses and small gardens.
Rain.
The driver complaining about the weather and telling me that he had
given up hope for a sunshine holiday: He was going in a weeks time
with his three children staying as usual in Germany (inspite of the
unreliable weather). One year they go to a farm in the North, and
every other year to a farm in the South. 'You do not have to wear a
smoking there' he said and that he needed the relaxation as work was
getting harder and harder and more demanding every day.
'They' demand more and more - 'they' being Volkswagen. But - I said-
aren't they known for their very generous policies? 'Oh yes they are
very generous', he said. They just had paid for his teeth, and they
give you all kind of extra pay for overtime - 250 hours of overtime he
had put in in the last 4 months - 'they pay - oh yes, they do'. They
have increased their output incredibly over the last months inspite of
laying off 9000 of the 25.000 employees they used to have in Kassel.
The remaining 16 000 had to really work harder and harder - there are
premium wages if you work on Good Friday e.g. - they tell you exactly
how much you will lose if you do not do overtime. And of course with
three children - he has earned substantial money during the last few
months, before tax of course.
If you earn a lot they take a lot, that is how it is.
They could spend the tax-payers money differently, of course, but
still ...
The work is hard, harder than ever in the many years he has held his
job (thank God - as some always have to go these days - who comes
last, goes first, that is how it is.)
But 'they' pay ... they bribe you into work at Volkswagen not like
some other firms where they only threaten you with the many people who
are unemployed and only too happy to take your job.
'They' pay you.
They bribe you ...
And how come he is still driving a taxi on Sundays exhausted as he is
and wellpaid, I ask.
Well, one of his sons is studying already --- 'computers' ---- and a
father has to pay ...)
'Volkswagen supports Documenta X' it says on some VW buses used as
shuttles etc.
And so does the Deutsche Bundesbahn - the DX logo looks really elegant
on the ICE trains stopping at Wilhelmshoehe ...

Sergio Messina
[http://thing.at/orfkunstradio/FUTURE/DX/PEOPLE/messina.html] talked
to a kebab place owner on his first day in Kassel - who told him, that
Kassel had the highest unemployment rate in Germany and the highest
percentage of drug-addicts ... very unlikely if you drive through this
artloving (now flop-ridden) city ... just paranoid hearsay, maybe.
Maybe VW did not really lay off 9000 workers in Kassel alone ...


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RECYCLING THE FUTURE / A PROJECT IN 4 EPISODES
http://thing.at/orfkunstradio/FUTURE/DX/
----------------------------------------------------------------------