GUERILLA PERFORMANCES WITH THE E-KIT: DRESDEN

Our first stop heading south from the Schloss in Brandenburg was in Dresden, capital of the Free State of Saxony. Crossing the bridge over the River Elbe we both let out an audible sigh at the sight of the grand Baroque and Rococo buildings lining the waterfront. Later on in the hotel reading ‘Germany’ by J.F Dickie (TRNS 141) we found that this  is a routine response for new visitors entering the city, in fact it is expected. The ‘Germany’ travel guide also told us that Dresden was the home of ‘gemütlichkeit’, an untranslatable german phrase meaning a kind of cosy warm feeling of belonging and social acceptance. We spent our time there in search of this phenomenon.

The next day we took a walk to The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts nearby. As a student was leaving we walked in through the gate. Later on Aga would deny that she was aware we had effectively broken in. We set the camera up facing a lion-headed fountain in the centre of the courtyard (first picture above) and read from ‘Germany’ and the E-Kit to the architecture and the random students who passed by.

Unfortunately that evening when we were leaving Dresden for the Czech Republic (on a whim..it was so near) the campervan aquaplaned in the rain at a junction, rear-ending the car in front and damaging the vans front coolers. Thankfully no-one was hurt but it proved a bit of an ordeal. This delayed us a few days and we eventually left in a hire car (a brand new Ford Mondeo which drove like a space ship!).

On the way out of town we celebrated with a visit to the Dresden Museum of Technology and Industry where there was an exhibition devoted to the phenomenon of light and its importance for science, technology and culture called ‘Hi-Lights‘ honouring 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies.  A physiologically optimised geodesic light and sound dome (third pic from top) provided the perfect environment for our last impromptu performance in Dresden before heading south to Rothenburg ODT.