ZM/18a – European Neighbours Christine Kriegerowski/Christoph Tempel Redeveloping the GATED COMMUNITY The project GATED COMMUNITY was presented to the public with the artists’ first collection in 2005. Christine Kriegerowski and Christoph Tempel showed 32 different models of fences protecting against different widespread fears in a large-scale exhibition on Alexanderplatz in Berlin. Following the motto: “only a gated community is a truly open space” or “good fences make good neighbors,” the organizers of “open spaces” approached us and asked for a model of a fence for the exhibition. This model was to be developed especially for the exhibition in Bremen. At the same time, the clients from thealit asked for our concept to have a European dimension, and for the fence to be suitable for the internet. We studied the current political situation in Europe conscientiously, paying particular attention to the situation in the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and the G8 summit in Heiligendamm. After long conversations and several complex series of tests, we designed a further development of our model “ZM/18 – Neighbors” in collaboration with our clients. “ZM/18 – Neighbors” and the model it is based on are founded on the grille of the classic wooden lattice fence. By rationalizing the shape, and in spite of doing without the horizontal slats, a highly sturdy fence emerged which consists of X modules. Open spaces is part of the Transeuropean Lab “do not exist: europe, women, digital medium.” We were inspired by the word “exist,” whose letter x refers to crossing out. The x warns of dangers. It is also the classic unknown in mathematics. And what is more terrifying than the unknown? Here, our fence “ZM/18 – Neighbors” promises protection. In line with the corporate philosophy of the gated community, according to which an actual fence is often not even required, and a symbolic fence, the image of a fence, for instance as a medallion, is often enough to allay the clients’ fears, we offer “ZM/18 – Neighbors” in the form of a pattern on paper and as wallpaper for the internet, too. Our first intervention consisted in setting up fences before the walls of Society for Current Art as well as the adjacent protective walls on the side facing the Weser river. Christoph Tempel/Pressesprecher für die Umzäunte Gemeinschaft

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