Baumgartner NYC 2005
MUMOK - Museum of Modern Aart Vienna 2005
as installed in Vienna, MUMOK, Museum of Modern Art Vienna
BICYCLING DAMASCUS, 2004 - 90 min
Bicycling Damascus is my second video - after Bicycling Tirana - for which I visit a city with a bicycle. I bicycle against the traffic while filming without holding the steering wheel. I drive for 90 minutes around this ancient city filming directly across the steering wheel thus rendering it into cross hairs. This brings me through a variety of different neighborhoods and places that give a cityscape quite surprising to see. This risky and unlawful engagement with the bicycle, the city and my camera creates an anti-gravitational epic of traffic jams, busy people and a colorful middle eastern street live in a country, the US State Department considers to be involved with terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
(Syria indeed does have very bad human right reports and still has to come to terms with the massacre of Hama, a rebellious city where president Assad ordered 1982 the killing of around 40.000 inhabitants.)
The bicycle is not only my unique vehicle of transportation but also my urban eyeglass - some extension of my visual and acoustic organs. As such it is a real social urban interface. I'm a bicycle rider since early childhood. My first birthday present I remember was a bicycle. I have never stayed in a place for long without a bicycle, including in Tokyo where I was harassed daily by the police for riding a bicycle. (I was considered a bicycle thief).
The bicycle I used in Damascus was lent to me. I hired it for half the price of a new Syrian bicycle. The bicycle was lent to me by a tailor. Syria has a beautiful domestic bicycle production. They all look the same but don't even function as new one's in the shop. The more useable bicycles are now imported from China. (I hope I don't offend anybody with my comment but unfortunately, that was my experience: Ii fell in love with the local 'every body the same bicycle' but I came to understand that it was nearly impossible to ride them, nothing functioned properly - that kept me from buying one, from exporting one)
A part from this lousy = expensive = lending practice, the bicycle lent to me was very bad. Not only did it have barely any breaks but also, the bicycle was shaking to the point of ...me falling off. It took me about one hour to get used to it. Riding without holding the steering wheel requires a bicycle that is stable and predictable, in particular if one drives dangerously.
This bicycle was shaking nonstop and performed quite dangerously. I had a couple of quasi-accidents and falloffs.
In the end I survived.. - voila la video (close window to return)
(an extract of 3 min - the total is 90 min - unedited)
differnt neighborhoods.. some can be very wealthy ... (if Bush invades Syria, they would be turned into "green zones")
in retrospect.. I get a bit scared myself
some carpet shops are up to1kilometer or so long and open 24/7.
there is quite some police/military presence on nearly every second corner.. - and they didn't like to be filmed but somehow they didn't get it....
corners were also a bit "particular" (for not saying dangerous)
the light was great.. in particular when the sun rendered the visual field into moving black and white shapes - with reduced "visibility"
traffic james can be substantial.. tothe ponit.. of NO PASSING
the street is beautiful.. sometimes dangerous to drive... llike near those tracks.. they can create special effects
Below, seea typical standart Syrian bicycle that doesn't quite work as well as it looks:- others are leaning by. the one in the forground serves as a advertisment poll.
this below is used as a make up kitchen. quite some people also have
open fire kitchens on the bicycle. 
Baumgartner NYC 2005
MUMOK - Museum of Modern Aart Vienna 2005