Installation view, 162 von 172 Häusern stehen an der Hauptstraße…,
Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, 2001

The Plaiv is the name of the union of four small villages in Engadin, located in the Swiss canton of Graubünden, a region with extensive tourism in the winter and summer seasons. The piece was originally produced as a permanent outdoor installation and is installed on a bench located on a hiking path above one of the villages, with a panoramic view over the valley and the river. In an exhibition situation, the panorama is exchanged with a wall drawing of an unspecified alpine landscape.
When the visitor sits down on the bench, a female voice with a hint of a Swiss accent automatically begins to speak. She tells short stories staged in the villages and the landscape and describes the infrastructure of the communities in the valley below, as well as how they are organised. The anecdotes and stories are played in random order.

Bench
Audio: approx. 25 min. (German)
Wall drawing
Voice: Sascha Reichstein
Sound editing: Christoph Amann
Translation: Nina Stuhldreher