To make something visible... if it were only as easy as it sounds! And yet, this project has succeeded in doing exactly that - in the same way advanced medicine creates images using cancer cell markers.
Frederike Tappe-Hornbostel (German Federal Cultural Foundation)

Conspiracy Dwellings is a visual arts project that explores the legacy of state surveillance. Presented are a network of almost 500 secret apartments and institutions in Erfurt from which the former East German Ministry of State Security (Stasi) operated from 1980 to 1989. Initiated by British artist Pam Skelton and German scholar Joachim Heinrich, the project displayed audio/video installations in locations around the city of Erfurt based on the network of Conspiracy dwellings that were used for spying and denunciation and uses the original locations of the conspiracy dwellings to reveal the surveillance practices of that time. Set up to maintain secrecy in an environment of fear, observation and control, the 'home' proved to be an effective tool for spying on friends, colleagues and family. In this project the notion of home is dramatically upset as the domestic becomes yet another vehicle for the invasion of human rights and personal autonomy.

First shown as a multi-site installation in Erfurt Conspiracy Dwellings will be followed by a gallery installation at South Hill Park, Bracknell UK. A catalogue of the project, with commissioned texts by Christoph Tannert and Gijs van Oenen accompanies the exhibition.

Project by Pam Skelton, (GB) with contributions by C.CRED (SE/GB), Tina Clausmeyer, (D) and Verena Kyselka (D).

Conspiracy Dwellings:
Symposium on Surveillance in Contemporary Art

Friday 18 January 2008, 11am - 5pm. Tickets £12. Telephone 01344 484 123.
The symposium explores the ways which contemporary art has addressed the issues associated with state control, surveillance, past and present at a time when global terrorism highlights its controversial status.
Symposium programme