CMS Hasche Sigle, Cologne
“take part in art“© with 120 lawyers and employees of CMS Hasche Sigle, Cologne, international lawyers‘ company
“law“
steel, wood, stones, Acrylics
The aim of the workshop concept was to create a picture archive that can also be used as an unusual communication platform. Themes were what participants come across in their day-to-day work: law; its interpretation in clients‘ best interest; personal conflict resulting from this.
Materials used: stones found on fields; wooden boxes by Casani, acrylic paint, pens and handmade paper.
At a distance of about 2 km to the workshop location, participants left the busses they were travelling with (Videostill – part 1). They then walked along fields and meadows to the factory where the workshop took place. On the way they came across a heap of stones I had put there. Participants were asked to choose one and bring it along. Carrying the stones started the workshop because participants had to deal with what they were doing. At the factory, the boulders were used for a warming-up finger exercise (Videostill – part 2-3).
The second part of the workshop consisted of creative work with the wooden boxes. Participants expressed their individual ideas on above mentioned themes by painting and drawing on the front of the boxes (Videostill – part 4). Notes they had written on pieces of handmade paper were attached to the inside of the box with a wooden peg (Videostill – part 5).
The final work of art is an especially designed shelf presenting all boxes together. It was handed over to the company during an official ceremony two weeks later and is exhi- bited in the entrance hall in Cologne. In the morning employees can take one of the boxes ‚created‘ by a participant from the shelf and have a work of art in their office for a day. By reading, replying or adding to the (anonymous) notes inside the box, they continue to communicate about relevent themes in a most unusual and often inspiring way.
The shelf-installation in the company‘s entrance hall never looks exactly the same as the boxes are exchanged every day (Videostill – part 6).