For decades now, shopping centres and wholesale chains have been inexorably displacing small businesses on the periphery, and it was against this background that Olafur Gislason set out to show the situation in Hamburg's Wandsbeker Chaussee from the perspective of the local shopkeepers. Seven business owners agreed to work with Gislason and to help prepare texts presenting their own situations. The possible prospects for Wandsbeker Chaussee were also addressed. The participants read the texts aloud in their shops for recording on video. In two cases, Gislason replaced the actual shopkeepers with actors. The presentation of the video took place in the 'Einstellungsraum', a former shop now used as an exhibition space. Gislason remodelled the front part of the shop to serve as a stage, while the audience space was in the back, so that the shop window looking out on the busy, six-lane Wandsbeker Chaussee became part of the stage. The upper half of the shop window was covered with a projection screen for the film. This created a 'stage set' in which the street and the film worked in tandem.

Participants:

Hannelore Zieme, MZ Janitorial Services, Wandsbeker Chaussee 7
Elke Suhr, Einstellungsraum e.V., Wandsbeker Chaussee 11
Gunther Gutschmidt, Gutschmidt Opticians, Wandsbeker Chaussee 11
Henry Meyer, Löwe Bicycles, Wandsbeker Chaussee 13
Deniz Usta, Istanbul Hairdressers, Wandsbeker Chaussee 17
Ellen Nissen, Bücherkiste (bookshop), Wandsbeker Chaussee 17
Timo Fintzen, tobacconist, Wandsbeker Chaussee 19