Ilona Stutz
Euch kriegen wir auch noch, ihr Körnerfresser!

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Not only arguments but also shouted interjections make up a parliamentary debate. Interjections are parliamentary practice and thus part of democratic decision-making.

In her audio-visual work, Ilona Stutz uses the stenographic recordings of the 193rd session of the Bundestag in 2020 to examine a number of interjections made there. She records heckling as well as other interjections such as laughter, applause or unrest. The subject of the topical hour, which was convened at the request of the CDU/CSU and SPD parliamentary groups at the time, was: „Condemn harassment of MPs – Protect parliamentary democracy“. Due to incidents surrounding the vote to amend the Infection Protection Act, MPs from the AfD parliamentary group were accused by MPs from the other parliamentary groups of blocking parliamentary procedures and thus obstructing and endangering democracy in Germany. The session became a reckoning with the AfD: with a small parliamentary group in the Bundestag, which, according to accusations, emphatically and on a large scale disrupts the work processes in everyday parliamentary life and harasses MPs from other parliamentary groups.

With the help of coloured dots, the result of the vote on the infection control measures is represented on the wall in the exhibition room. The green dots stand for yes, red for no and grey for invalid or abstention. In this way, a contrast is created in the work between the orderly and quite standardised visual representation of the vote and the emotionally charged heckling that can be followed through headphones. The title of the work „Euch kriegen wir auch noch, ihr Körnerfresser!“ (We’ll get you too, you grain-eaters!) can be found in the transcript of the meeting, but this statement was not made as a heckle, but was cited by an SPD delegate as an example of verbal interaction on the part of AfD employees. The phrase had been uttered by an AfD staff member to a person who ordered a vegetarian meal in the canteen.

In the artistic audio work, the interjections are wildly jumbled, with a female voice giving structure and order to the audio piece by repeating certain statements in a calm and sustained voice, such as the interjection „That is parliamentarianism!“. Without their mordant tone, the interjections seem like a commentary of themselves. The political shouts of „I won’t be called a Nazi here, Mr. President“ and „These are fascist features“ as well as „right-wing extremists“ show that democracy in Germany is negotiated for clear distinction from the National Socialist dictatorship. Statements such as „I’m about to puke“, “ This is making me cry“ or „Bullshit“ and „This is nonsense“, on the other hand, are non-political and simply the expression of human affects. In his linguistic analysis, Armin Burkhardt defines the interjection as being „between monologue and dialogue“. Interjections are an unofficial parliamentary form of speech. By isolating heckling, Stutz obscures their points of connection to the speech. In this way, the responses, the forms of reaction, stand on their own: the content of the speeches made on the topic of the session is left to the imagination of the listeners. By dissecting the heckling, Stutz directs the focus to the culture of parliamentary debate.

Text: Dr. Silke Förschler

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Ilona Stutz

Ilona Stutz is a Swiss artist living in Bern and Zurich. After studying philosophy and mathematics, she worked for a while in a technology-oriented environment before turning towards the arts. Ilona is interested in the relationship between individuals and the structures in which they are embedded and which are in turn inherent to them. In order to make such relationships visible and tangible in a spatial environment, she works with different media, and in particular linguistically.

Instagram: @ylon_pi