Nina Höchtl

b. 1978, Austria

Utopia esquina con Calle de Magdalena is a threefold project consisting of mail Art, blog and temporary installations (if possible) in disused shops. While rambling through the Lavapiés neighbourhood, where I lived in Madrid, I found this empty, disused space called Utopia. Utopia is described in the dictionary as a ‘country of nowhere’. Nevertheless, endless concepts of this ‘nowhere’ country exist, ones that seem possible and different ones that are plainly impossible, as argued by Robert Musil, the Austrian modernist writer (1880-1942). One can change the contemporary into such a possible, prevent complications, and in this way grant it its own simplified development into yet another country

At the beginning of 2006, 500 postcards were distributed in the Lavapiés neighbourhood, attempting to trigger people’s thoughts about Utopia. http://utopia-esquina.org/blog was created at the end of 2007, and all the answers I received are presented there, and interested people can react to them and blog their own ideas.

For e v+ a 2008, Utopia was installed at the former motor tax office. It is not a shop as such; more an office. It is not on the street, but inside one of the former offices. 1,000 postcards were printed to make it possible for people to participate outside of the blog.

(Text: too early for vacation catalogue, 2008)