“K.Ground” is an olfactory, time, and site-specific participatory performance. Six weeks before the festival I spent one week on site at the former power-plant for research. I learned that the area, which is now an industrial area, abandoned by people during nights, used to be a residential area before WWII. The building is surrounded by wild plants and plants which have been planted for phytoremediation. Hamburg is one of the leading international trading and transhipment centres for coffee. The performance space was a huge boiler-hall with a small house / hut for the foreman / overseer.

For the installation I took plants from the outside and inserted them in holes on the ground inside. I made water drip from above. I hung a blanket and cloths in the upper gallery. I decided to make coal from electricity where electricity was made from coal before. I decided to make breakfast. Foreman’s hut was my home. The Audience my guests.

I asked the audience to help me get around in a factory wagon.

I asked the audience what to wear.

We had two 60kg bags of coffee to roast, a 25kg bag of sugar to melt, and five packages of toast to toast. The outer of the toasters had to be removed. Newspaper clippings of naked men, women, and oldtimers which I had found in the building were pinned to the wall.

I toasted toast, roasted coffee, and melted sugar until it burned, hustling from one to the other, filled wine in a bulb on the floor, offered sweets, and showed a video. I pinned the burnt toasts to the wall, poured the melted sugar over the toasters, and stirred the charring coffee.

The performance ended when all the audience had left due to the smoke.