ABSTRACT
Based upon an actual railway model – on a scale of 1:87 – Rimini Protokoll's Mnemopark stages reality through an installation of mini-cameras manipulated by four modelists, retirees who are passionate model railway buffs. Max Kurrus was seven when he got his first small-scale locomotive and has since bought 12 engines and 35 cars. His railway landscapes are inspired by the Swiss Graubünden canton. Hermann Löhle received his first locomotive 50 years ago and has since acquired 53 locomotives and 290 cars. His landscapes reproduce Baden-Württemberg. René Mühlethaler bought his first locomotive with his first salary. With 40 locomotives and 150 cars, he has reconstructed America. His landscapes recreate the Swiss Berner Oberland and Wallis canton. The fourth railroad hobbyist is Heidy Ludewig. She made her first cars out of chocolate. Her landscapes are inspired by literature, more specifically by Erich Kästner's stories. In addition to the railroad hobbyists, there is an actress, Rahel Hubacher, who studied art and who grew up in the small village of Bannwil. The farmhouse she grew up in has been reconstructed in every detail by Kurrus: the wooden terrace, her room with a view of the chicken coop, the cows, even her family friend Jules who helped out on the farm for 63 years. Besides her personal biography, Hubacher also gives us some statistics about the forests and the grassland in Switzerland, the number of chickens consumed annually, the number of inhabitants, the size of the country, the number of railroad track miles and the important annual subsidies that the farmers have received from the federal government since World War Two so that the country can feed itself. She also introduces an Indian chicken called Import, which will be the guest of the show, and gives information about the total distance that the miniature electric train will have travelled by the end of the show. At the same time, she assumes her position as the 'control centre' of the stage game, controlling the mini-cameras attached to the locomotives in order to enlarge the details of the landscape onto a large screen in the centre of the stage.
