Donghee NamDE

DINGE – La fiesta de los abandonados

2018–2020

DINGE – la fiesta de los abandonados (The Feast of Abandoned Things) is a follow-up project that grew out of 100 Tage – Was möglich ist.

When I find things, I often feel a kind of symbiosis with things that are no longer needed. I think about sustainability, about valuing materiality, and about what cannot be restored.

I try to give abandoned things a new home. I examine them, try to understand and feel them, to find out what they want and what new quality they can fulfil. We get to know each other, and after a while I know what their function is. They are given a new place, a new value and a new function — one that suits what they are now, as hurt and discarded objects, more than what they once were.

Thing No. 1: Megaphone

Found on 24 June 2018 in the cellar of my friend Hanna's parents' house in Neu-Anspach, Germany.

Years ago, after the village fair, the megaphone was abandoned by its pastor. He simply didn't want it any more; it was too heavy for him. For a while it found shelter in Hanna's parents' cellar. But it soon had to leave there, too. And so it came to me.

GrünHausProjekt, washroom, 25 January 2019

Video: Donghee Nam

Thing No. 2: Clock

Found on a day in Advent, in December, outside St. Bernhard's Church, Frankfurt.

It ticks differently.

A clock with a rounded, square case on a light wall; a blue cable runs down from its centre and ends in a metal loop.

Photo: Donghee Nam

The same clock with the blue cable on a wall covered with torn paper strips of black print; on the left a strip of blue tape with writing.

Photo: Dohun Lee

Thing No. 3: Suitcase

Found on 10 July 2019 on Rothschildallee, Frankfurt.

It has found a family.

In the evening on the pavement in front of an apartment building: a dark brown suitcase next to other discarded things, among them a white cabinet and an open box with poles.

Photo: Donghee Nam

A brown suitcase leans against a wall in the dark, a bright patch above it.

Photo: Donghee Nam

Thing No. 4: Harmonium

Found on 11 December 2020 at Osthafen, Frankfurt.

A harmonium with dysfunctions.

I played it on the spot.

Video: Donghee Nam

A brown harmonium by the harbour, a green crane and a cloudy sky behind it.

Photo: Donghee Nam

The same harmonium in evening light in front of the grey wall of a warehouse, cardboard boxes beside it.

Photo: Donghee Nam

With the harmonium, in 2020, the series ends. The finding did not stop afterwards — only the numbers did. The feast of abandoned things has become a principle: collecting what was abandoned — the ramyeon bags of Trost and Trust, the packaging paper of Janus Jammerlinus, the living things of Eigene Welten. None of them carries a number. DINGE was the beginning.