MIMETIC PRACTICE

MIMETIC PRACTICE IN PUBLIC SPACE is a participatory installation at various S-Bahn stations on Munich's main line. Based on questions of 'public corporeality', mimetic movement strategies of public space are examined and made tangible. The installation questions specific behaviours and movements of all people who use the SBahn stations as transit and waiting areas and thus contribute to a constantly changing 'organisation of the place'. Passers-by are invited to try out the 67 movement suggestions on the walls and
pillars of the stations and in this way explore various physical imitation processes in public space as well as their own behavioural patterns. In her project MIMETIC PRACTICE IN PUBLIC SPACE, artist and choreographer Lena Grossmann explores different
dimensions of 'public physicality'. Questions about a collective body language that organises our social, public spaces are central to this. Which behaviours and codes do we use as a matter of course? How do we behave individually and collectively in public space? How do we absorb and imitate the movements in our surroundings? What are our collective and individual distancing needs? What role does the relationship between architecture and body movement or the handling of everyday objects play within a public space?
These questions are made tangible in the form of movement suggestions on the walls and pillars of the S-Bahn stations. They are based both on the movement strategies found in the respective locations and on movements specially developed for the locations. In this way, forms of imitation such as imitation, repetition, simultaneous imitation, symbiotic behaviour and the combination of imagination and movement become present in this specific public environment.