Markus Draper – Haus in der Nähe eines großen Waldes

Haus in der Nähe eines großen Waldes (“House near a deep forest”) by Markus Draper was released by Spector Books:

A house is the starting point of a modern fairy tale. Located in Dresden, the house has an intriguing history. It was home to an outpost of the Soviet KGB for a time – opposite the Dresden Stasi headquarters. Also the young secret service officer Vladimir Putin went in and out here from 1985 to 1990.

The house is part of the installation as a realistic model, surrounded by trees and animals. The narrator is a fly sitting in front of an open window. Her voice sounds cheekily childlike. She talks about the house, about Dresden, about the comprehensive surveillance of the KGB and the Stasi, about Putin’s rise in the hierarchy of the Soviet Union, about the fall of the GDR and the end of socialism, about political affairs and intrigues.

The narrative is embedded in a stream of media images from news reports, documentaries and films. A “true” story in which historical facts, memories and visions are blended together. Not a history lesson, but a fairytale-like, artistic reconstruction full of conjecture, ambiguities and gaps, which takes in many perspectives – as if observed through the compound eyes of a fly. At the same time, it is a story about storytelling and the construction of history.

The book was designed by Christian Lange, who paired KTF Rublena and Kommuna throughout.