THE CHAMBER
List of works to be transferred to my burial chamber after my death. This is to be realized within Pyramid Mountain, conceived by Ingo Niermann—a pyramid at least 200 meters high carved from a natural mountain that will be reburied under the excavated material after my internment, restoring it to its original mountain shape. Pyramid Mountain not just buries a single human being and their treasures, it rather buries an entire epoch — of the white men – shaped by the cruel pursuit of symbolic immortality.
Room 1: Childhood
High display case
Top:
– Four vases from my family’s supply.
– Creamer that belonged to my grandparents.
Bottom:
– Two GDR toy army tanks.
– Seven GDR toy soldiers.
– Two Matchbox cars from the Intershop in Oberhof.
– GDR bottle openers showing marks I made in 1983.
– Wooden cat that stood in my childhood bedroom for as long as I can remember.
– Photograph (b/w), 1979: my parents with me at the parish fair in Bindersleben.
– Wooden pistol, 1979: carved by my father, with my fingerprint where I picked it up before the paint dried.
– White die that has always accompanied me.
– Shell, acquired through a trade in elementary school.
Room 2: Adolescence
- Table display case
– Three certificates: DTSB school judo tournament, first place, 1984; school judo tournament, first place, 1985; Steelworkers’ Trophy, first place, 1986.
– GDR scorebook for judo.
– Photograph (b/w), 1986: judo training camp in Ł d z, Poland.
– Three judo medals: Spartakiad Children’s and Youth Games, bronze, 1987; Erfurt District Championship, silver, 1988; gold, 1988.
– Photograph (b/w), 1981: winning my first judo medal (bronze) in the Erfurt District Championship.
- Table display case
– “Honor Dagger” from the German Wehrmacht.
– Bayonet, German Wehrmacht.
– Bayonet, German Wehrmacht.
– Casting mold for tin soldiers.
– Crocodile leather case, lined with ostrich leather.
– Stopwatch.
– Slice of ivory.
– Watchmaker’s hammer with ebony handle.
– Decorative spoon.
– Watchmaker’s shaping pliers.
– Paintbrush crafted from a bullet casing.
– Butcher knife that belonged to my grandfather.
– Piece of pottery from the Temple of Karnak (Egypt).
– Two Indian arrowheads made of flint.
– Flint arrowhead from the Stone Age.
– Amber pendant that belonged to my grandmother, which I wore for years after her death in 1988.
– Heart-shaped aluminum locket that belonged to my grandmother, contains a photograph (b/w) of my grandfather.
– Travel thermometer made of ivory.
- Table display case
– School essay “Pauseneindrücke,” ca. 1986: describes a hike in the Krkonoše Mountains.
– Two photographs (b/w), 1989: Wehrausbildungslager (weaponstraining camp) in Beichlingen.
– Summons to the Wehrausbildungslager, 1989.
– GDR children’s I.D. card.
– GDR I.D. card.
– GDR passport.
– School notebook started by my parents, contains evaluations of my school conduct, 1985.
- Table display case
– Reproduction (b/w) of a Depeche Mode poster.
– Bravo articles about Depeche Mode.
– Photograph (b/w), 1988: group portrait with Markus Bruszis, Andreas Horvath, and me, taken in a photography studio.
– Reichsbahn card forged by my girlfriend at the time, where I gave my name as Vincent Strauß.
– Gutting knife in a leather sheath.
– Photograph (color), 1989: Christmas in my parents’ modern living room.
– Certificate for my participation in a children’s painting contest held in India, undated (ca. 1987).
– Contract with my father regarding conditions of use of his leather jacket, with an additional clause concerning the length of my hair, 1989.
- Table display case
– Poster design for the Anarchist’s Faction (AF), founded by me in 1990.
– AF foundation charter, 1990.
– Poster for a demonstration against Chancellor Helmut Kohl, 1990.
– AF logo design, 1990.
– Burgonet in packaging.
– Mouth guard shaped to fit my mouth.
– Sticker for an antifascist strike.
– Broken-off Mercedes star.
- Table display case
– Letter from the Yeti mountain bike manufacturers, 1994.
– Yeti team jersey.
– Yeti catalog, 1991.
– Photograph (color, with red filter): me and Christian Zahn after a ride in the countryside.
– Swatch watch with a skewed face.
– Photograph (b/w), 1994: me and my skater friends.
– Key chain.
– Yeti shot glass.
– Two Yeti and Syncros buttons.
Room 3: Mark
Table display case
– Two slide reproductions (color), 1993: my upper arm following a laser tattoo removal.
Room 4: Travel Years
- Table display case
– X-ray photograph, 1992: the broken bone that left me bedridden for several weeks, when I began taking photographs.
– Large-format negative, Type 55, 1994: Marc Holtmann, my photography mentor.
– Sketchbook, 1997–99, with a photograph of my slashed and blooddrenched undershirt from a knife attack in 1997.
– Article in the Thüringer Allgemeine on the founding of my project
space foto.raum in Erfurt and my search for like-minded people in the area, 1999.
– foto.raum stamp, 1999.
– Key chain in the form of a violet billiard ball.
– Polaroid, 1996: my friends Daniel Homes and Markus Bruszis.
– Old broken Pepsi bottle.
– Asphalt from the old Route 66.
– Barbour wax.
– Flier for Puck, a techno club in Erfurt.
– Admission ticket for a Bodycount concert at the Weimarhalle, 1993.
- Table display case
– Erfurt city magazine t.akt 11 (1995) with a cover photograph (b/w) taken by me.
– Erfurt city magazine Boulevard 8 (1998) with an ad I designed for the Erfurt skate shop Orange Jungle: four photographs (b/w) and an excerpt from the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
– Promotional postcard for E & N Photography, Erfurt.
– Promotional postcard for Optiker Bettzüge, Erfurt.
– Two promotional postcards for the Orange Jungle skate shop, Erfurt.
– Invitation card for my exhibition “Mein Kampf. Dein Kampf” (My Struggle. Your Struggle) at foto.raum, a Leipzig project space opened for this project, 1999.
- Table display case
– Polaroid camera.
– Passport, Federal Republic of Germany.
– Erik Niedling, Monochrome, portfolio (Bleicherode, 1999).
– “Kawumm” cannabis pipe, 1993: built by me in southern France.
– Zippo lighter that I shot several times with an air pistol.
– Passport photo, 1999: me with my mouth and shirt smeared with fake blood.
– Photograph of an installation in the “Mein Kampf. Dein Kampf” exhibition, foto.raum, Leipzig, 1999.
– Rock that Susann Lochthofen (n e Luthardt) used as an ashtray.
Room 5: Day
High display case
Top:
– Teapot my friends and I used to pass around LSD and Hawaiian Baby Woodrose on Christmas Eve 1998, at my shared flat at Theaterstra e 6, Erfurt.
– Headless, matte-black plaster sculpture I bought when I was in elementary school and later partially gilded and plated with silver.
– Poinsettia made of white paper.
– Cinzano bottle, like the one Christoph L schau had smashed over his head.
– Blank pistol, like the one fired to end the first part of the nocturnal disputes.
Bottom:
– Firewood from my father’s log pile, like the ones we used to heat the Theaterstraße 6 flat.
Room 6: Art
- Table display case
– Six vinyl records with covers I designed for 1st Decade Records: Northern Lite, Treat Me Better, 2001; Northern Lite, My Pain, 2003; Monosurround versus Raccoon Brothers, Greepy Guys / Fingerlicking Good, 2003; Junghan , Zu lieb, 2005; Warren Suicide, Listen to National Radio Stations, 2003; Northern Lite, Treat Me Better, picture disc, 2003.
– Booklet 3Y1ST for the third anniversary of 1st Decade Records, 2003.
– Photograph (color), 2004: Helmut Geier (DJ Hell) in Tokyo.
– Stamp, 1st Decade Records.
– Pick from Northern Lite.
– Flier I designed for a party for the Neo.Pop compilation series, 2001.
– Notice of receipt for my “1st Decade Records” wordmark registration at the German Patent and Trademark Office, 2002.
- Table display case
– Albert Renger-Patzsch and Ernst Jünger, Bäume, catalog (Ingelheim am Rhein, 1962).
– Albert Renger-Patzsch and Ernst Jünger, Gestein, catalog (Ingelheim am Rhein, 1966).
– Erik Niedling, Formation, catalog (Ostfildern, 2008).
– Erik Niedling, Fotografien/Photographs, catalog (Cologne, 2006).
– Erik Niedling, Status: EIKON Sonderdruck #11, catalog (Vienna, 2007).
– Erik Niedling, Blick, catalog (Erfurt, 2003).
– Erik Niedling, Produkt verschiedener Faktoren (Product of Various Factors), catalog (Erfurt, 2001).
– Erik Niedling, Blackbox #03, wood, glue, lacquer, concealed contents, 2003.
– Ham, given to me by my parents as a Christmas gift in 2006.
– Old tin box from the Niedling stationer’s shop in Erfurt.
– Sketchbook, 2003–9.
- Table display case
– Ingo Niermann, U.S. Rifle, composite wood, unlimited edition, 2008.
– Polaroid: my dog Butch who died in 2008.
– Butch’s collar.
– Erik Niedling and Jens Thiel, Nationalholz (National Wood), wood, unlimited edition, 2003.
– Erik Niedling and Jens Thiel, National Three A, newspaper with a text by Ingo Niermann (Erfurt, 2003).
– Pregnancy test (positive) belonging to my girlfriend Kitty Heckert, 2005.
– Forged nail that I found in 2005 while working on my Status photo series at the Angermuseum.
– Erik Niedling, Feuerzeug (Lighter), plastic lighter, gold leaf, unlimited edition, 2004.
– Ingo Niermann, Minusvisionen: Unternehmer ohne Geld, protocols (Frankfurt am Main, 2003), in which Jens Thiel says, “Meanwhile [Erik] has been hanging at all the German art fairs, but I think
it’s going to go international this year and with a little luck, our thing will be pulled along with the undertow.”
– Ingo Niermann, Umbauland: Zehn deutsche Visionen, essay (Frankfurt am Main, 2006), with one of the first descriptions of the idea of the Great Pyramid, a collective tomb for potentially every human being in the world.
– Ingo Niermann and Jens Thiel, eds., Solution 9: The Great Pyramid, essays (Berlin, 2008): Ingo Niermann describes how I (through Jens Thiel) started him on the idea of the Great Pyramid.
Room 7: The Future of Art
Table display case
– Ingo Niermann with Erik Niedling, The Future of Art: A Manual (Berlin, 2011).
– Horn purchased from Genesis and Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge.
– A4 sketch of Pyramid Mountain by Ingo Niermann, 2010.
– Pen from Tobias Rehberger.
– Broken ax from Thomas Bayrle.
– Target I shot at Coney Island, 2010.
Room 8: My Last Year
- Table display case
– Luna magazine (Cologne, 2005): Ingo Niermann first describes his idea for the Last Year.
– Ingo Niermann, Choose Drill / Drill dich (Ostfildern, 2011).
– Wooden pyramids from Visoko, Bosnia, where, according to Semir Osmanagic, the largest pyramid in the world is concealed under a mountain.
– Hotel key from Visoko.
– BahnCard 100, the validity dates of which correspond with those of my Last Year (3/1/2011 to 2/29/2012).
– Three lottery tickets, filled in by me, 2011.
- Table display case
– Purchase contract for the works in the Chamber cycle, 2011.
– Six lists created in the course of my Last Year, 2011/12.
- Table display case
– AEG Traveller de Luxe typewriter, like the one used by Ernst Jünger.
– My Last Year, three diaries, 2011/12.
– Bread baked on a hot rock during a hike through the woods with Ingo Niermann, 2011.
– Rock from the steps of the Reichsparteitagsgelände (Nazi PartyRally Grounds) in Nuremberg.
– Walnuts from Niedling.
– Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel (Hamburg, 1926).
– Iron from the battlefield in Verdun.
Room 9 (East Hall): Preparations
Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann
Day, 2012
Inkjet on paper in a wooden frame, 230 x 180 cm.
*Area plan mapping events on the night of December 24, 1998.
Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann
Interview I, 2012
Laser print on paper, 194 pages, each 29.7 x 21 cm.
*Transcription of interviews Ingo Niermann conducted with individuals
who participated in the events on the night of December 24, 1998.
Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann
Tribunal of Reconciliation, 2012
Active speaker with built-in MP3 player, 3:46 min. sound loop, punching
bag, 103.3 x 50 x 300 cm.
*A speaker aimed at a punching bag plays a group EEG converted to
sound, recorded during a reunion of all those who were friends on
the night of December 24, 1998, and participated in the transpiring
events. The speaker and punching bag were located at the place the
events took place.
Erik Niedling
ST37, 2012
Steel, goat’s milk, laser, 197.3 x 2.5 cm.
*A steel rod I compressed at both ends and rubbed with goat’s milk,
the upper end of which is struck by a green laser beam. The first
impetus towards an escalation of the events on the night of December
24, 1998, came from a laser aimed at my eyes.
Erik Niedling
Cycle, 2012
C-print in a wooden frame, 167 x 125.5 cm.
*Reproduction of a print from a photograph of a photograph lifted
from a newspaper. The picture shows a Harley Davidson motorcycle
that I won as a prize at a carnival in 1986. The print has accompanied
me ever since and continues to fade more and more with each passing day.
Room 10 (West Hall): Tomb
Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann
Chamber, 2012
Inkjet on paper in a wooden frame, 230 x 180 cm.
*Construction plan for the Pyramid Mountain concept, which I
acquired from Ingo Niermann, along with my burial chamber.
Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann
Interview II, 2012
Laser print on paper, 780 pages, each 29.7 x 21 cm.
*Transcription of Ingo Niermann’s interview with me about my life.
Erik Niedling
Empire of the Sun, 2012
C-print in a wooden frame, 162.5 x 125.5 cm.
*My last large-format photograph, taken on a supposedly ancient
vegetation-covered pyramid in Visoko, Bosnia.
Erik Niedling
Particles, 2012
Soot behind glass in a wooden frame, seven parts, each 89 x 69 cm.
*Glass panes coated with soot from burning assorted parts of my
artistic archive.
Erik Niedling
Coffin, 2012
Zinc, wood, peat, 190 x 45 x 50 cm.
*Receptacle for preserving my corpse in Pyramid Mountain.