Ingo Niermann: "1"

By Janina Bach

Peking oscillates between modernity and tradition, capitalism and communism, Western influence and traditional Chinese thought. The city's image is defined by its economic growth, construction boom and consumption-based orientation. However, the parks show another side of Peking - between small pavilions and covered walkways built in the historic style, retirees practice tai chi or sing verses from the Peking Opera. The modern Chaoyang Park has an entirely different feel where visitors can ride a roller-coaster or play tennis and the toilets are designed as gigantic ladybugs. For Ingo Niermann, the park with its spacious lawns, large manmade lake and its impressive neo-classical building represents an example of the "old dream of the empire".
In Peking, the writer investigates whether China will become an empire in the old-fashioned sense of the word, or whether this is rather a sign of the decadence of a fading dream. For him, both possibilities are valid. Because China is growing and has a different form of government, he sees potentials of development which cannot be measured by Western-European standards. A third possibility is the idea that, following a short phase of transition, China will become an entirely different country which we are unable to envision at the present time. Niermann is interviewing political and public decision makers who have new ideas for the city's development. He is pursuing lines of argumentation which result in widely varied models of development for Peking and China.
One of his interviewees is a physicist who is currently seeking ways of artificially increasing the rainfall in a city threatened by a rapidly dwindling water supply. His other interviewees include the young, successful author Chun Sue and the German architect Ole Scheeren who is working with Rem Koolhaas on the construction of China's highest building - the CCTV tower.
His project does not contain predetermined issues which his interviewees might happen to discuss. Ingo Niermann is looking for ideas; his research goal is to discover new concepts which are initially developed by the people he interviews. For this reason, the first and only issue of the newspaper he'll be writing for the exhibitions in China and Germany will be titled "1". Antje Majewski will supplement the interview transcriptions with photos of the interviewees and their respective subjects.
Niermann questions the practice of classifying China as a one-party dictatorship based on biased judgements. Not only does he pursue his interviewees' lines of argument stating the opposite, but also contrary theories. To him, the belief that a more democratic China would encounter more problems represents a "blind spot". "Nobody in the West would openly agree with this, yet many people hint at it." A country which rapidly tries out new things and is able to change radically has given Ingo Niermann a deep feeling of stagnation in Germany. The interview transcriptions from China could be read as the "opposite of Minusversionen - a book about unfulfilled dreams, the failure of young, audacious entrepreneurs in the atmosphere of change in Berlin during the 1990s.