In my Meisterschüler graduation project “The Secret Life of Arabia (Rework)”, I explore how a musical message from 1977—specifically David Bowie’s “The Secret Life of Arabia“ —can be translated into a contemporary artistic and literary context. The project is rooted in Bowie’s “Heroes” LP, recorded in West Berlin, a work deeply intertwined with the history of divided Germany.
Over the course of one week, I filmed in various public spaces across Berlin, capturing everyday movements, atmospheres, and urban rhythms. In parallel, the author Mara Genschel reinterpreted the song’s lyrics by filling them with terms and headlines taken from Berlin’s daily newspapers of the same week. Our collaboration culminated in a multi-channel video and sound installation, where five of her literary texts are set in dialogue with five of my video works.
This creates an open space of association—where image and language meet—offering viewers a wide field of interpretation that spans from political immediacy and urban observation to the role of pop music in shaping cultural memory and identity.
A second part of the project, developed in collaboration with writer Dorothee Elmiger, was presented at the Literaturverein im Mousonturm in Frankfurt in 2017.
Text: Mara Genschel
Photos: Ari Merten
Year: 2015