From Showing to Doing: For Example,
Hospitality
(...)
Arno Auer brings to light other possibilities
of treating foreigners by bringing the concept
of hospitality into play. His project Daïmé
was developed together with the Syrian refugee
Orwa Alkhateeb and the Hanover coffee
roaster “Panama.” It refers to an everyday ritual
of hospitality in Syria, where it is customary
to offer coffee to a guest. The recipient of this
gesture responds with the word of gratitude
Daïmé, which can be translated as “forever” and
expresses the hope that this hospitable house
will always remain so generous. Thus Daïmé
stands for the possibility of a successful ex-
change.The project arose out of Auer’s own con-
versations with Alkhateeb, who also participated
in the development of the coffee, which
is prepared with cardamom and sweetened
water, so that it approximates as closely as
possible the taste of the coffee served in Syria.
During the exhibition at the Kunstverein
Hannover, coffee is available to the visitors
in the exhibition spaces ; in addition, the project
is supposed to be continued in various forms.
As in the aforementioned work to be installed
within reach of a public webcam, Auer involves
himself here as an active participant. The work
of art fulfills a bridge-like function extending
from the action-free exhibition space out into
the sphere of actions, decisions, and responsibilities
— i. e. into the real space of the potentialities
inherent to daily life, where the exercising
of hospitality, the culture of a critical
evaluation of daily occurrences and the questioning
of simple identificatory offerings can
make a genuine difference. Auer uses the
mode of the exhibition in several regards as
a medium of display: conventionally for the
presentation of aesthetically based constella-
tions ; as an instrument for the experimental
conveyance of knowledge ; as a critical-discursive
space of thought ; and finally, also in the
sense that various scenarios, behavior patterns
and possible actions are shown, in fact are
demonstrated by being played out. In that process,
the individual is not conceived of and
addressed as the other-directed particle
of a mass, but as a mature, responsible subject
whose behavior impacts in this or that direction
and thus has real consequences.