Thilo Fröbel / with Sebastian Bellmann, Erik Niemz, Stefan Schille, Manuel Siegert, Roald Sorms, Ronny Voß

“SCHMUTZIGE GESCHÄFTE“, 2010
Installation with ca. 2000 cell phones, Videos ca. 30:00 min.

In his exhibition contribution, Schmutzige Geschäfte [Dirty Business], artist Thilo Fröbel translates the collected materials and his own researches for Up and down, a media project he initiated with young people from the satellite town of Prohlis, near Dresden, into a restaged and subjective film archive. Two thousand five hundred used mobile phones, collected from recycling depots and from friends, become a kind of tapestry or stream. Visitors are invited to enter the flow and, by bending down, can get involved with the self-made films being shown on the mobile phone displays. Links between the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the working conditions of mineworkers, some of whom are coevals, and the global marketing channels of coltan are contrasted with what the mobile represents to the youths themselves – a luxury item and their constant connection to the world and their own social networks.