December 1
Ida opens the door. She is 8 years old, black dry skin, perhaps neurodermatitis. She tells me, that she owns two advent calendars. One with chocolate and one with Lego. She drew the picture of the knight's castle on the door herself. Then we look at each other and say nothing.
December 2
The door of kiosk 2 is open. Two boys buy a beer from the owner. She has dyed blond hair, black eyes and tanned skin. Apart from her in the kiosk: envelopes between packs of pringles and charcoal. Three refrigerators full of drinks, computers that invite you to surf the Internet, a coffee machine, a microwave, snap peas, sauerkraut, chocolate, tobacco. Everything in neon light. Turkish music comes from boxes nest to a screen hanging above the cash register. In front of it, the ice chest.
December 4
Nobody opens the door.
The day before I find out that the odd house numbers of Teichstr. 3 - Teichstr. 13 do not exist. Instead, there is a parking lot.
December 6
Light shines through the blinds. As I ring the doorbell, I hear noises in the stairwell. But the door remains closed.
December 8
The house is dark, a wreath hangs on the door. No one opens the door.
December 10
After the lack of a response to my ringing of the lowest bell button, I ring all the bell buttons. The door buzzes and I push it open. I walk up the stairs. A young woman with blond hair backs away into her apartment. One floor up, a young man with blond short hair stands in his doorway. He has almost pulled the apartment door shut behind him. Next to him, an older lady with white hair peeks her head through the crack in the door. I tell both that they are my Advent calender door today. The lady says that she wears nothing. As I go back down the stairs, I hear the apartment doors close and then open again. Then the elderly lady says to the man indignantly: "I've never seen anything like that before!" The man laughs.
December 14
Jenny pokes her head out the door. Dyed blonde hair, black made-up eyes. She seems to be in a hurry and asks me, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
December 15
A man with gray pants, gray shirt - a kind of work clothes opens the door. He tells me he is still working in the house. I ask if he just moved in. He says that he already lives for a while in the house. Behind him, a dog barks loudly. The dog's name is Mowgli because he has floppy legs like Mowgli from the Jungle Book. The man tells me that he has already heard from neighbors about my Advent calendar.
December 16
When I ring the doorbell, a woman, wearing a hijab looks out of a window and invites me to come in. Her son with short, black hair comes down the stairs and opens the door for me. I follow him up the stairs into the apartment. In the living room, the daughter is baking cookies. They offer me a chair, water and a plate with two of the freshly baked cookies and a börek. The woman tells me, that she is from Jehovah's Witnesses. We talk about religion. That we are all human beings and actually differ only in a few things. As I am leaving she packs me up the leftovers of my plate.
December 17
Before the door opens I hear a woman talking to animals. They should go away. Then Anna, physically strong, with glasses and gray-brown half-long hair opens the door to me. She has two cats.
December 18
Ariane opens the door for me. She has dyed blond hair tied in a braid, tan skin, and a phone in her hand pressed to her chest. She says, that she is happy to be in my doorway. I should wait a moment. She disappears into her apartment and when she comes back to the door she gives a chocolate Santa to me. We both laugh.
I don't open the doors until the 24th because the 18th is the day I travel to my family.
twenty four
My street is my Advent calender.
Today`s date is the 1st of December 2015.
I ring the doorbell at 1 Teichstraße in order to open the first window.
[German:“door“ of an Advent calendar]
Concept
Tina Klopp
Performance
katharinajej