Dominique Noah : Vous m’avez invité en qualité de théoricien de la culture pour discuter du champ
de la culture, de ses représentations et des croyances qui la sous-tendent. Qu’est-ce qui préside à votre intérêt pour toutes ces questions ?

Hinrich Sachs : Voilà une question bien difficile pour commencer. Voyons… depuis des années, mon travail a été guidé par un intérêt pour les codes culturels – le second degré des objets, des images, des formes et des valeurs.

The exhibition comprised a representative selection of photographs by renowned German photo-journalist and traveller Leonore Mau. Presented next to a 16 minute audio interview with her, conducted by the artist, a reprint of selected magazine contributions by Mau from 1962–92 was featured.

Display of a particular, thematically meandering selection of printed matter, alluding to topics like “mask”, “speech” and “cultures”. Compiled from existing publications and ephemera by the artist, or by other artists and writers, it was layed out towards the gallery window.

Conceived, written, and prepared for being published in a German art magazine, to coincide with a gallery exhibition. Next to an interview conducted with the director of the Stuttgart Ethnographic Museum, seven illustrations were painted, based on activities in the very museum.

Puppet characters from different national versions of the children’s TV program Sesame Street have been materialised as human size costumes. The hybrid group appears in a theatre-like setting, against a background of a painted city panorama, activating the space of the exhibition, which constitutes the work.

An auction of the copyrights of 14 digitised Basque „Euskara“ typefaces is announced using a press conference. It is mentioned that these rights are with a private owner, who has digitised the recognised, widely employed, traditional typefaces during the mid-90s. A media debate begins.
The related symposium „On City development and Typography“ fuels the debate, which circles around folklore, Basque identity and the changing situation in the realm of copyright.