Letter to Goethe Institute and Karachi Biennale KB 19
Berlin, Oct. 2019

Dear people of Karachi, 
dear Muhammad, dear Noor, dear Stefan Winkler,

I was invited to come to Karachi to present my work. First of all I want to say thank you and I am very honored that the work „automanic“, which was produced by the Pinakothek in Munich in collaboration with David Moises, will be part of the Karachi Biennale 2019. The work is called “automanic” and it issues our increasing dependence on motorized
individual transportation. It documents the fight of a car against its infrastructure. The car ends up destroying a structure that, from a purely typological perspective, was designed solely to house them. As the motor car continues to enjoy cult status and dominate private transport, the action questions its place in and impact on our world.

The upcoming KB19 reflects the ecological consequences of dense urbanisation. “Flight Interrupted: Eco-leaks from the Invasion Desk”. The title invokes the thought of species of low flying birds wiped out by vertical structures in Karachi, interrupting their free flight and marginalised life-cycles. For me this sounds like a demand for stopping the current development and clearly demand transformation and tangible actions.

I have never been in Asia and would have loved to visit to Karachi. So I considered to use the land route by public transport. I talked to people and studied maps how to get there. Getting to Pakistan and back on the land route by public transportation in less than two months is not
possible. In the 70’s we were further than now: 50 years ago it was possible to us the land route to go to Pakistan. Nowadays you have to cross countries with war zones. Most of these origins are the struggle for resources.

I believe the image of the silent but constant destruction shown in the work “automanic” can be compared to the ecological crisis of our times. With our need and greed for energy, we are destroying our planet. In the last 30 years the individual traffic has been increasing constantly.
Cities are collapsing due to the traffic. In addition the air traffic has tripled over the last 10 years. Tendency still rising. The CO2 emissions have reached the highest point in the past millions of years, also tendency rising. To get to Karachi one individual emits 1.600 kg of CO2
travelling by taking airplane. This equals the average CO2 output of a Pakistan person in a whole year. The average output of a German person is 11.000 kg a year tendency increasing. Therefore I decided not to fly anymore.

I wish you a all a wonderful biennale and think of you. If you have questions please contact me. I am available on skype.
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Best Folke