1. Peripheral. In conversation with
Marike Schreiber

→ german version


Card 2: Sleep barrel (Strasen), 2020

Marike, you studied in Leipzig at the Academy of Visual Arts. From 2008 to 2018 you ran, among others, with me the art space Praline, which I currently continue as a project. About two years ago you moved to a small village in the „Mecklenburger Seenplatte“. Your series "peripherisch" deals with this rural environment. A lake, a field, agricultural vehicles, forest, birds. Objects and architectures that awaken nostalgic feelings in me are juxtaposed with newly built properties with questionable design concepts. To what extent does the change of location shape or change your artistic work, your themes and interests? What does the rural space do to you as an artist?

For now, the cards are just observations in the style of a scientific drawing. The idea was not to make classic postcards and put a touristic view on it, but to ask: How does history show itself in architecture or landscape? From moving to the countryside, I expected to be able to work well. So nothing has changed fundamentally so far - except that I have peace and quietness to work in. But that has nothing to do with the countryside, but mainly with Corona. Apart from the cards, my other topics have not changed. That's the way it is with any move - you first get familiar with the new surroundings. And that's when I notice things that I encounter in the city as well, only that they are a bit more clearly here to me, e.g. food production: the glyphosate field begins where our garden ends, yet it actually looks quite nice. The forest, for tourists a place for forest bathing, also serves the production of a raw material. There is no idyll here either.
I consider the cards as a series, perhaps also as a diary? There is also a chronology. The first was the beach sign. People recognize that. Some of them brought village chronicles, regional newspapers, because they thought I was dealing with the history of the place itself. I'm interested in that, too, but not in such detail.


card 1: Sign (Strasen), 2020

How do you choose your subjects? When does it become relevant for a card like this?

They are rather special things that only exist here. The beach sign is unique, it makes the place, it's typical local architecture that refers to GDR history, for example. It is also important that it is contemporary, that it shows something typical for the present. I don't want to look arrogantly ironic at the prefabricated lion sculptures in front of the hotel, for example, but rather understand why someone designed it that way. My neighbor's garden decoration, for example, is designed not only for herself, but for everyone who comes by and looks at it. Or the welded GDR fences - these are also artistic expressions. I ask myself: What do the designers, operators, residents and buyers think of the lion portal, the bath sign or the sleep barrel?

The drawings are available on the website→ www.peripherisch.deand are available as risographs. I like the concept of having a stand in front of your house where random people walking and driving by can purchase these prints. There is a money box of trust and a bell installed at the table. So if you are at home, conversations will arise from time to time. In this way, you certainly have some influence on images and memories that will be inscribed in the minds of residents and visitors through the postcard motifs you have chosen. How important to you is the exchange with others outside the (urban) art bubble about the design of the landscape that surrounds you?

I have added to the stand: If you have any questions or need change, please ring the bell. That was very important to me. Inspired by this rural culture of selling self-produced things by the roadside - eggs, honey, jam or even used books - I came up with the idea of putting the graphics there. You don't earn anything from it, it's more like pocket money. The Berlin-Copenhagen cycle path runs along here, there is a waterway.
While talking to interested people, I noticed that the majority of them come from the city and are about the same age as me or a bit younger. Maybe because the design of the stand and the way the cards are drawn appeal to people who are similar to me. Nevertheless, it is exciting to then talk about the motifs and why they chose which one. Many also associate their own stories with the motifs. Others are looking for the classic postcards: lake, sign, something that serves certain longings. Some put together outsider motifs, such as the picture of the bridge with the Fuck-AfD graffiti. It tends to catch the eye of people from my bubble. The locals in the village maybe not so much. The postwoman, for example, didn't notice at first that the motifs were from here. But then she bought some, because she is also from here.


stand with cards and money box, Strasen, 2021

In your drawings, you focus on details that don't necessarily end up on classic postcards, but tell a lot about the history and present of the region, for example, the FCK AFD on a bridge, a discarded Lenin bust, or emerging housing estates. Does your perspective on social debates that you already encountered in the city change in the countryside?

Of course, I play with the expectations of the viewer, because with a classic picture postcard, one tends to expect a landscape or picturesque village and city views. And furthermore, with the expectations of a rural, albeit touristy region: trucks in the forest, barrels in the water, remnants of socialist monuments, an industrial-looking bridge with Fuck AFD graffiti, which again contradicts the cliché of the right-wing conservative rural population. Interestingly, the graffiti has been around for a long time and is not painted over. Here, I have much more to do with people you might not otherwise know. In the city, there are similar social cross-sections. There you can stay in your bubble with people on the same opinion line. In the countryside, that dissolves more.

Details like the sleep barrel, the beach sign, or even individual railing designs remind me of vacations and trips during my childhood in the GDR. The highlighting of these architectural pearls awakens in me the desire to put all of this under monument protection. You grew up in the area. What role do these elements play for you?

Yes, I would also like to put these artifacts of contemporary history under protection! Certainly, the drawings are also an attempt to document these architectural features of the region before they eventually disappear, because for many they are not necessarily worth preserving. It may be that someday the sleep barrel will no longer exist and the fences will be replaced by new-fashioned hardware store fences.


card 9: Bridge (Strasen), 2021

You have done what everyone is talking about. Should we follow you and populate the villages around you? Is urban escape a solution? How many of "you" are there actually? How is the interaction with each other, how do the art networks function?

My move to the village was not an espcape in that sense, but had various personal reasons. When I came to Leipzig in 2006, it was a so-called "shrinking city". There was a lot of space to do things. Where I lived in the Lindenau district of Leipzig was also rather village-like or small-town. Today there are 100,000 more inhabitants inside and the infrastructure is at capacity, etc.
Maybe you should give it a try, I would be happy if my bubble here expands again, but unfortunately there is not much space left in the villages around us either. The gentrification is even more extreme than in the city. Berlin is moving out here, and vacation and owner-occupied housing developments are rising up. At the same time, there is a lack of affordable house renting possibilities.
A lot of information, contacts, exhibition participations I got through the professional association Künstlerbund. The density of artists here is not yet quite as high as in Berlin. But I believe there are clear migration tendencies there, as I have learned from a reliable source, and this is reflected in rising membership numbers in the professional association.


card 5: Fence (Strasen), 2020

All pictures: © Marike Schreiber

A series of talks by Ex_Praline and Verlag Trottoir Noir, 2021
Yvonne Anders in conversation with Marike Schreiber,
Editors: Yvonne Anders and Marcel Raabe