Crossing, Tshwane, South Africa, 2003, © Abrie Fourie
"Crossing Conversation" is an artistic intervention that shows photographs of an accident in Pretoria, South Africa, on billboards in Bayreuth, Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Kassel. The pictures are the interface to the collection of modern & contemporary art and popular culture from Africa, Asia and the Pacific at Iwalewahaus, University of Bayreuth—via a QR code. The remains of Monobloc chairs lay scattered at an intersection—the appearance of an archaeological dig site where layers of new aspects and stories are uncovered. Scanning the QR code also provides layer-by-layer digital access to a selection of linked artefacts from the collection. Chosen associatively and intuitively by the artist and the team at Iwalewahaus, guided by questions such as: What is an archive? Who owns the artefacts? Who has a voice, and who does not? How do you democratise a collection? What stories are being shared?—from the over 7000 multimedia artefacts, such as paintings, sound recordings, sculptures, graphics, interviews, posters, textiles, and many more.
