is our reaction to how profoundly Covid-19 is changing all of our lives, even in the most fundamental domains. Of course, opportunities for developing, discussing and exhibiting art are also massively restricted. In the context of a seminar at the Universität der Künste Berlin, we decided to invert the style of thinking characteristic of the pandemic months: we wanted to break out of the domestic and the private, and to aim instead for conscious contact with a counterpart – to translate our thinking from (Corona-sized) smallnesses into the largeness of a real public space.

The starting point for the project was a location – Bahnhof Friedrichstraße – and a time limit of 10 seconds. Participants developed videos for the 12 large-format video projections in the Friedrichstraße station, the digital advertising spaces on the station’s mezzanine floor, and various other spaces in Berlin's urban areas.

The result is 9 x 10 seconds, in which each artist has sought out and found their own approach to our mission – whether by dealing concretely with a location, providing a commentary on the advertising world, giving a stage to political issues, or opening up a captivating visual maelstrom.

Video works by Nicole Hauck, Maria Martini, Louisa Frauenheim, Sugano Matsusaki, Nilam Ali, Shiwa Ghanbari and Merit Himmelreich, Linda Herrmann, Jeanna Kolesova, Lena Kocutar, and Teresa Hoffmann

Concept by Akiko Bernhöft and Stefan Kunzmann

A joint project of the Instituts für Kunstwissenschaft und Ästhetik and the Medienwerkstatt der Fakultät Bildende Kunst

visible in public space till 2021-05-03 and http://www.udk-berlin.de/10sekunden with support of Wall GmbH

Special thanks to Dirk Fischer, Josephine Pryde and Mateo Contreras Gallego