What are Erwan Tacher and Tim Voss actually doing?

In our ‘What are you actually doing…?’ section, members of the university community talk about their work.

The HfK’s Open Space programme is coordinated by Erwan Tacher for the Department of Music and by Tim Voss for the Department of Art and Design. We spoke to the two curators about this work and the significance of the series of events for the university and the development of the city centre.

Is Open Space currently a full-time job?
Erwan Tacher: It’s very demanding; I spend well over half my weekly working hours on it. 
Tim Voss: A full-time job, yes.

What do you get up to when you’re not curating the Open Space programme?
Erwan Tacher: I’m still studying at the HfK – I’m in my fourth and final Master’s semester in singing and teaching. I’m a singer, a baritone. As a child, I learnt to play the piano, then the guitar, and before the pandemic I earned all my living giving concerts of French chansons and conducting choirs. I’m from Paris and have Breton roots. During the pandemic, I realised that in future I’d like to teach singing, conduct choirs and only perform as a side activity. I currently conduct the German-French Choir in Bremen, a women’s choir in Grolland and a choir in Verden. 
Tim Voss: Although I’m from Bremen, I studied visual communication at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg; I was a filmmaker, then my first child was born, I needed to earn a living and turned to curating professionally. I see this as artistic, that is to say, creative work. So I helped set up the university’s gallery, then became a self-employed entrepreneur funded by the jobcentre, commissioned by the Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof to showcase young art as cost-effectively as possible. I was very successful in securing funding, managed to make ends meet financially somehow, and then, after four years, moved to Artspace W139 in Amsterdam. With my family, lock, stock and barrel. And so the sailor’s life continued. I subsequently ran the Worpswede Artists’ Houses and, from 2017, the Vienna Artists’ House. But the web of interests there became too complex for me to navigate within the committees of the 450 members – all of whom were artists. I resigned and found myself unemployed at the start of the pandemic. That’s when the Open Space opportunity came along at just the right time. What a relief it is now to be organising a festival that pops up and disappears again after three months, as opposed to a 150-year-old institutional behemoth like the Vienna Künstlerhaus. When I’m not working, I’m either with my little son or visiting my son, who’s already grown up – both of whom still live in Amsterdam.

What is it about Open Space that appeals to you personally?
Erwan Tacher: It’s a project that brings people together – namely the Bremen audience, who haven’t experienced live music for so long, and music students who haven’t been allowed to perform in public for so long.& nbsp;
Tim Voss: In Vienna, I was working with artists who were all around 60 or 70 years old and who, at times, seemed to be doing nothing but navel-gazing. That became claustrophobic for me. That’s why I’m really enjoying the fact that students are bringing me new discourses, new forms and content, and new perspectives. Although I do feel older than ever (laughs), I’ve received more input than I have in a long time. Artistically, it’s a fountain of youth. And that’s what I’m trying to convey to the audience too. Because Open Space is a project in public space that offers the chance to spark an interest in young art amongst new groups of visitors.

What motivates students to take part in Open Space?
Erwan Tacher: To perform in a central location in the city centre, to finally be able to entertain the people of Bremen live again, and to receive a small token of appreciation for their efforts. 
Tim Voss: Finally being able to exhibit and showcase our own work again, finally working together again, exchanging ideas and, hopefully, being able to have a bit of a party. After all, many students have only ever known their fellow students online so far.

The HfK’s Open Space programme is intended to showcase its diverse range of activities and represent the university; on what criteria, then, are the contributions selected?
Erwan Tacher: There should be a balance between the offerings from the departments of Jazz, Classical Music, Early and Contemporary Music, Instrumental Music and Voice.
Tim Voss: For me, it was about the connections between the students – from collectivity to collaboration. And that’s how we formulated the open call. I then accepted all but one or two of the projects submitted and subsequently added numerous further projects to the programme.

How many students are taking part in Open Space?
Erwan Tacher: A total of around 70 music students will be organising 15 concerts for the HfK. The supply and demand for performance opportunities are more or less in balance.
Tim Voss: Over 100 students are taking part. We’re showcasing numerous presentations on the exterior surfaces of the scaffolding sculpture and a total of 13 exhibitions, with a different one each week.

Is the HfK’s interdisciplinary nature reflected in the programme; do art, design and music come together?
Erwan Tacher: First of all, you have to let them co-exist and see what comes of it. At the opening, however, there will already be live drawing taking place next to the stage during the concerts.
Tim Voss: Design, art and digital media are already interacting very well with one another. There’s a lot of cross-disciplinary work going on there; people know one another. What’s complicated is the exchange between the departments of music on the one hand and art and design on the other. They know little about one another and live in completely different worlds. Art and design seek to connect with all areas of society and be contemporary, whereas early music, for example, tends to detach its art from the wider world. I view this, however, with the utmost respect – the way they build on discourses of the past and sometimes cultivate an existence in an ivory tower.

What image of the HfK does this series of events convey?
Erwan Tacher: The concert series, at the very least, showcases the breadth of the HfK’s training programme, demonstrating its quality and creativity. 
Tim Voss: The variety of expressions, the diversity of the art students and their energy come across immediately, and we will support this in conveying it to an audience. And, of course, the arrogance of not wanting to please at all. I find it particularly wonderful that opportunism isn’t taught at the HfK – that is, the social application, economic exploitation or aesthetic adaptation of art and design. Open Space demonstrates that at the HfK, you learn to be free. The students thereby engage with social contexts. That, too, is what Open Space aims to show.

What’s missing from the programme?
Erwan Tacher: There’s still plenty of potential for collaboration between the departments.
Tim Voss: I found it difficult to find performative formats within the Department of Art and Design; they’re missing. Yet the discourses of theatre, dance, performance and the visual arts have clearly converged. The way we talk to one another is actually identical. It’s only the production conditions that differ.

The HfK programme for Open Space isn’t exactly mainstream city festival entertainment that can be enjoyed without any prior knowledge, so it needs some outreach work, doesn’t it?
Erwan Tacher: The project’s press team is doing a very good job in that regard. Through the website, leaflets, posters and magazine, the Bremen public is well informed about the programme. Besides, the students aren’t just playing – they’re also presenting their music. Really, you just have to be there and show what you’re doing. I don’t believe you need to explain at length what instrument you’re playing or why. Just do it. That’s enough. 
Tim Voss: You can count on that, and the curious reactions whilst we were setting up showed just that. The artists themselves act as guides at our exhibitions; they’re there to engage with people who happen to pop in, make contact with them and explain the art, which isn’t always self-explanatory. Meeting people who wouldn’t normally have anything to do with art will be quite refreshing. For many, it’s always a great experience to be able to speak to the artist behind a piece right there in the room. That’s what Open Space is all about.

The vast, historic Domshofplatz is dominated by imposing architecture, the hustle and bustle of the weekly market, and an atmosphere of couples, passers-by and city-strollers strolling past. How can art hold its own against this?
Erwan Tacher: We don’t play against the conditions, but with them. We adapt and even treat the audience to pop numbers – in other words, a slightly more entertaining programme than if we were playing in a concert hall and had the listeners’ full attention. It’s a signal to the audience: come along. 
Tim Voss: By simply letting young students give free rein to their poetic whims – after all, there’s no need to make any compromises – art takes over the space and perhaps the people too, and in this way Open Space connects with the market square. The students are less interested in the grandeur of the surrounding buildings than, for example, in the ‘Spuckstein’, which commemorates the execution of Gesche Gottfried.

What do you say to people who think, ‘Oh, they’re just students, not professional artists yet, but trainees; they can’t possibly be any good; they’re only presenting work that needs to be judged leniently; that’s not appealing to experienced, discerning culture-goers’? 
Erwan Tacher: The students are so good; there’s no need to doubt that.
Tim Voss: Of course, you can look at art and design in a museum and study the old masters, but it’s brilliant to experience young design students who are coming up with their first ideas. You understand much better what has become part of the canon and established itself when you see the multitude of possibilities.

What do art and live music have to say to us now that they are returning to the public eye after a year and a half of being cooped up in lockdown?
Erwan Tacher: You’ll realise what a huge difference it makes to be physically present at a concert, as opposed to listening to CD recordings or something online. We have a story to tell about this magic of live performance.
Tim Voss: The HfK is joining forces with Bremen’s cultural community and rousing us from the deep slumber that the pandemic has put us in. That is the message.

To what extent can art and music contribute to the development of the Shopping-City, transforming it from a stagnant consumer centre into a vibrant, diverse city centre? 
Erwan Tacher: The Domshof without Open Space is too empty; its purely commercial use is rather dreary. In contrast, we have already organised concerts there with Open Space, attracting up to 400 visitors. We bring the city centre to life, draw people here, encourage them to stop and chat – the city centre offers a much richer experience thanks to us. 
Tim Voss: The city centre does indeed seem deserted in many places. And it’s no coincidence that Open Space is funded not by the cultural authorities but through economic aid; it’s all about revitalising the city centre.

Are art and music, as services provided by local businesses, intended to enhance the quality of the experience for visitors to the city centre and encourage them to stay longer, as well as to liven up the dreary Domshof over the summer? Will it all be over again afterwards? Or is this the start of something sustainable?
Erwan Tacher: The open-air event is sustainable because it’s now taking place for the third time, will also take place in 2022, and has developed well and sustainably, as we’re networking with the Bremen scene – this year with, amongst others, the Shakespeare Company, Breminale, Globale, the Long Night of Music and the Cathedral Choir. We also feature pop cover, rock and Latin bands. In fact, we receive far more enquiries from Bremen-based artists than we currently have slots available. So there’s scope for expansion. We now hope to realise an even richer and more high-profile programme for a wider, supra-regional audience through national and international collaborations. Open Space could be made even more sustainable if we were not only allocated a budget for the summer, but were also allowed to use various venues, such as vacant shops, on an ongoing basis during the autumn and winter. 
Tim Voss: Sustainability in the truest sense would mean realising that retail, housing, hospitality and culture should not be segregated in urban development, but that a balanced mix of uses in the city centre is the way forward. However, the retail sector – which once reigned supreme there – shuns this mix of uses like the devil shuns holy water. After all, the highest rental yields can only be achieved through commerce, not through art. To change this, the city would have to heavily subsidise culture. A sustainable approach to Open Space would therefore be to ask: why do we actually need to build such a huge scaffolding structure for all this art? Why don’t we have a few permanent venues for it in the city centre? 
In Paris, this is currently being implemented very successfully as a form of political planned economy: Semaest. Entire blocks in the 11th arrondissement are being converted back to mixed-use with substantial funding; bookshops, for example, are being established there and their rent subsidised, whilst retail must be diverse, housing affordable, and culture and gastronomy integrated. There is really no alternative to this in Bremen either. Politicians must force landlords to make premises available to cultural organisations, at least for temporary use; otherwise, nothing will happen there. We learnt this the hard way when we tried to book empty shop windows as exhibition spaces and were refused permission anywhere in the city centre. The ‘broken windows’ theory prevails there. This theory states that if a window is broken in a neighbourhood, neglect becomes a threat and rent levels for all properties across the entire district immediately fall. Art is apparently just as frightening to property owners’ prospects of a return on investment as a broken window.