WHERE IS HEIDENHEIM? is a public art project, commissioned and sited in Heidenheim for the town’s renown Sculpture Biennale. Connecting globally many ‘local newspapers’, the project occupies both physical public space and the public space of the media. Hosted by Heidenheim Zietung [HZ] (distribution – 30,000 readers daily), the work is intended as an exploration of the connection between a community and its own printed voice. The project was developed in response to the perceived threat to the ‘local’ newspaper from the internet, and to make a reality of distant voices. The project was my first collaboration with artist Neal White.

Public Installation in Germany.

A large 6 metre sign (pictured) was erected in Heidenheim – first at the Hiedenheim Gallery and then on the facade of newspapers office in the middle of the town.

International Distribution of the work as a story
The project was conceived as a story that could be printed in distant linked local newspapers. This started with ‘The Wendover Times’ , the local paper of a small and very remote town in Utah. A facsimile of the  story, at its original size was then reprinted as a whole page inserd, inside the Heidenheim Zietung (our partner for the project). In addition, a limited number of original copies of the linked local newspapers containing the story were then hipped and could be obtained by the public in Germany from a vending machine next to the sign in Heidenheim.

In the end, 6 stories  appeared in the Heidenheim Zietung paper over 18 months. These link papers that took part in the exchange were; The Wendover Times of Utah – USA, Limerick Leader of Limerick – Ireland, Imphal Free Press of Manipur – India, Hibr, a youth paper based in Beirut, Lebanon, The Countryman in Tasmania, Australia and AZ based in Namibia.