ICH.!!!-2025 - Installation im öffentlichen Raum von Angie Hiesl + Roland Kaiser in Zusammenarbeit mit Lothar Kittstein

In the organizer's words:

ICH.!!! is coming to Cologne again, with a completely new text. The installation in public space could already be experienced in 2019 on Kurt-Hackenberg-Platz in Cologne, and now an updated version will be shown on Ebertplatz. The large red word objects intervene in Cologne's everyday urban life - sculpturally, linguistically and sonically: a text by Lothar Kittstein, which deals with the ego, is played in a continuous loop from the sculptures.

ICH.!!!-2025 responds to the radically changed reality of the year 2025, because the post-corona age is characterized by conspiracy theories, political polarization and deep fakes on social media. The line between the legitimate pursuit of freedom and an unrestrained ego trip is becoming ever thinner.

ICH.!!!-2025 asks what remains of society when I can virtually make the world the way I like it. What is still real when I can invent new facts? How can I moderate myself when my own opinions are constantly being radicalized by algorithms? What does ME still mean when it no longer perceives others? Is ME destroying itself and therefore everyone?

ICH.!!!-2025 confronts passers-by and interested parties with the dangers of a world that is increasingly shaped and dominated by ruthless egos, which results in a regression to a purely binary world view and increasingly forces the exclusion of those who think differently or are weaker.

ICH.!!!-2025 shows how endangered being a subject is in an age in which every obsession can seemingly be proven as absolute truth with just a few mouse clicks, causing social camps to drift further and further apart.

ICH.!!!-2025 provokes by making each individual responsible.

This current version of ICH.!!! is a lead-in to Hiesl + Kaiser's new production NO GO, which is planned for 2026.

Contributors:
Overall concept: Angie Hiesl + Roland Kaiser
Text: Lothar Kittstein
Speaker: Birte Schrein
Sound recording: Bernd Klanke
Technical direction: Lutz Dunsing
Object construction: Tischlerei Olbertz
Graphic design: Steffen Missmahl
Project organization: Jürgen Dechert
Management: Christa Morgenrath
Press and public relations: neurohr & andrä GbR
Legal advice: Reinhard Bergmann

With the kind support of: Cultural Office of the City of Cologne, Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of NRW