The Piazzetta Cologne was founded by various initiatives and artist groups under the name “Quantenpool Köln” (“Quantum Pool Cologne”). It was located at Moltkerei Werkstatt in Cologne from June to October 1992 and was one of the most frequently broadcasted piazzettas. On the one hand, various types of performances and media art were presented, on the other hand, political and social topics were discussed.
In addition to ist broadcasts within “Piazza virtuale”, the Piazzetta Cologne also organized performances and discussions at Moltkerei Werkstatt almost every day.

Screen shots of Piazzetta Cologne

The Virtual Diary

While the Cologne Piazzetta was broadcasting from the Moltkerei workshop, another art project was taking place at the same time: Péter Farkas of IL Verlag and the Cologne artist Boris Nieslony, who was also involved in the Piazzetta Cologne, invited about 50 artists and groups from twelve countries to keep a fax diary from August 1 to September 30, 1992. Participants included artists from the Fluxus group and from the mail art, copy art, and performance scenes, such as Larry Miller, Milan Knížák, Endre Tót, Orlan, Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven, Nicole Guiraud, Rolf Sachsse, Katerina Koskina, Esther Ferrer, Jürgen O. Olbrich, Árnyékkötők electrographic art, and Artpool.
These participants were asked to transmit, in the form of texts and images, their mental states or topics they were currently dealing with by fax to the office of Quantum Pool Cologne. Thus, a “virtual diary” was created, a multi-layered and special testimony of this time. The most important contributions were summarized in two folders. In addition, there are numerous programs that reflected the project outside the given time frame. These contents were displayed as a constantly changing “exhibition” on the walls of the Moltkerei workshop. Some of these materials still exist; Péter Farkas has summarized some of them in the PDF linked here.

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