Page 77 - Studio International - November December 1975

GERMANY the problems of the underdog in post-war Germany.
The problems are those that confront the millions
forced to leave their homes, countries, cultures and
sometimes religions in search of something as ordinary
and basic as work or the money with which to live. They
Vlassis Caniaris: are problems of loneliness, alienation, the degradation of
Gastarbeiter living solely to earn money, and they are an accusation to
every affluent society. But they vary from country to
Fremdarbeiter at the country. The difference between the immigrant worker's
position in Germany and England, for instance, comes
Museum Bochum, July across in these cultural manifestations, particularly in the
work of Vlassis Caniaris.
1975, in the context of In Germany the foreign worker rarely comes for good
or to start a new life. He is a money-earning visitor without
other events on the theme roots beyond the factory, without the right to vote. His
passport gives him no claim to German citizenship.
of foreign workers Usually he comes without his family and hopes to return
once or twice each year. And he sends the lion's share of
Reviewed by Caroline Tisdall his Deutschmarks back home, so his life-style is modest
to the point of parsimony. Free time is spent in bars near
the factory with his fellow-countrymen, and he exists in a
Ideally, we are always told, art with its wide and
vacuum outside the culture of the host country.
understanding vision should anticipate events. In fact as The traumatic experiences of an immigrant Turk
the pace of events quickens the artist is more and more
formed the basis of a play commissioned from Renke
likely to drop out, trip over his plimsoll laces, or at best
Korn by the regional theatre of Tubingen, and performed
lag several laps behind. One of those curious ironies that there in July. Korn emerged in 1970 as one ot the highly
are caused by cultural time lags is making itself felt in considered new young writers motivated by social
Germany. As economic crisis creeps closer there too and feelings. In true Brechtian style a style which still seems

unemployment soars beyond the million mark, the to trap all bright young German playwriters of social
investment companies everywhere are proclaiming that feelings—he called his new play The Journey of Engin
'the fat years are over'. Yet at the same time the two Ozkartal from Nevsehir to Herne and Back. It is a journey
million immigrant workers — Gastarbeiter— who were instigated by lack of work and the advice of a fellow-
both symptom of and contributing factor to the receding villager who had come back rich enough to run a lorry :
years of prosperity, are beginning to get sympathetic
'Go to Germany'.
treatment from German intellectuals, film-makers, So Engin goes to the promised land, and even when he
writers and artists. Until recently the foreign workers, has managed to find work he comes face to face with the
with their different ways, have had much the same kind religious problem : his first job in a preserving factory
of press in Germany as Asians in Wolverhampton or entails humping pigs' carcasses. He is the only foreign
blacks in Brixton. But over the past two years they have worker in the factory and quickly becomes an object of
become a cause, and this just as their future is threatened fun. He leaves, and in a second factory he graduates to
by shortage of work. Students have demonstrated over being an object of resentment : he works so hard that his
their lack of rights, their appalling living and working overtime causes resentment. Korn had carefully
conditions, and Berlin has been plastered with posters researched his subject to give Engin's life in Germany an
urging action on their behalf.
authentic ring, right down to his dismissal because of
recession, and his deportation for illegal work. Like
Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul, the result was sincere
and heavy. If socially committed art is often hampered by
deference to historical precedent, then the Brechtian
mode of declamation is certainly a parallel in the theatre,
and in this case it got in the way, particularly when Engin
was obliged to come up front to read the letters he sent to
the folks back home. If the form makes Korn heir to
Brecht, then the sentiment is one that was voiced by
Max Frisch : 'We called for work forces and, to our
astonishment, we must realize that people came'.
The Munich Kunstverein staged an exhibition on the
subject this summer, with documentary sections, art
works and environments. It was a fairly emotional
display, with more attention to feeling than to fact,
though there were sections from the laws concerning
immigrant workers, and letters recording accounts of
reception and treatment. Most of the art was in the form
of photocollage in the manner of John Heartfield, the
artist's Brecht. It was powerfully effective as used by
And now they have become a theme for the socially Jannis Karydakis to contrast the affluent world of
conscious intellectual, a reminder of the suffering that capital with the miserable standards of the immigrants.
exists within a smug and affluent society. Karl As a whole the exhibition demonstrated the danger of
Fassbinder's film, Fear Eats the Soul, which was shown reducing art to an emotional form of social shorthand, but
in London last year at the Gate Cinema, was one of the it was an interesting exercise in cooperation between
first manifestations of this : a heavily involved tale of the German and Greek artists tackling the same problem from
racial prejudice caused by the affair between a middle- different viewpoints.
aged German working woman and a young Arab One of the main stumbling blocks with much socially
Gastarbeiter. When it was made, Fassbinder's film, with or politically involved art is that art and documentation
its emphasis on fear and isolation, was something of an make uneasy bedfellows. If a compromise is made the
exception. Now the theme pops up everywhere. result is often inadequate documentation and poor,
Throughout the summer there were TV plays, a specially ineffective art. The art context castrates direct factual
commissioned play in Tubingen, a group exhibition of information, while the attempt to incorporate such
Greek and German artists in Munich, and a travelling documentation into art can end up as nothing. Vlassis
show on the theme by the Greek artist Vlassis Caniaris, Caniaris avoids this dilemma by suspending fact and
who is participating in the Greek Month at the ICA concentrating on environments powerful enough to
in November. All of them in one way or another dealt with synthesize the art context and the political context into
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