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Who are BBM ?
The machine-performance group BBM (Observers of Operators
of Machines) exists for 11 years now. Six artists form the group,
people from Germany, France and Netherlands who today live in Lower
Saxony.
They are accompanied by musicians, architects and
software-programmers who work with BBM dependent on what the specific
needs of a project are.
Their work is collective. Nobody from outside the
group will be able to distinguish individual handwritings.
[Para-] Politics ?
Determined by their basic material — the machine
— the work of BBM always has been focussed on technology, scientific
research and the social reality of post-war Germany.
In more than 50 performances during this period they
paraphrased their main topic — the late industrial age and
modern capitalism — many times. But still they don´t feel
like a sixties "Agitprop"-group or do have any
kind of defined ideological background.
They see themselves as "intellectual probes",
emphasising the explosive points in history, as former "documenta"-organizer
Jürgen Schweinebraden wrote about them.
Books and performances
BBMs work always has been multi-dimensional. There
are on the one hand side the extremely exuberant, extravagant shows
where material and artwork is trashed and wasted like it would be
just nothing to do so. Only few of their vehicles survive more than
once.
But at the same time they carefully put into archive
what ever is used in a show. So you can find a brilliant 90 min
VHS cassette with 10 films made by filmmakers which are by now celebrated
as "Oscar" and other short-film festival price
winners.
The latest project has its own documentation, called
"72 artefacts", with english or french subtitles.
Books have been their most precious archive for their
thoughts and projects so far. they produced a whole lot of it in
11 years: you can find them listed at the "books CD video"
page in here.
Museum vs. business
The work of BBM is generated in the inner circle of
modern art. Its first appearance mostly has been in public space.
It is BBMs conviction that artistic substance is only
to be achieved if the artist constantly renews his knowledge of
the functions of the social system he lives in and of its economic
conditions.
Therefore the museum never has been a big goal of
BBM. But again and again they have been engaged in analysing the
social influence of big German concerns.
On from the beginning in the late 80ies they indefatigably
asked: who will win that game? who will braindrain whom? what is
the more impressing factor in Europe: cultural or company´s
activities?
Cars
The core of the prosperity of German economics is
the car. Therefore BBMs machines ever have been vehicles. Very consciously
they never produced anthropomorphical works: no classical "robots",
no mechanical workers or pets, but tools for their kinetical operations.
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