Ethnographien der Landwirtschaft? Kulturanthropologische Perspektiven auf ein Kunstprojekt

This paper deals with an art project of the German artists Antje Schiffers and Thomas Sprenger which took place in the years from 2000 to 2009. Antje Schiffers offered to peasants in various European countries to paint their farms within a week. In exchange for the paintings she asked the farmers to film and comment on their farm and their work also within one week. Her husband Thomas Sprenger edited the videos, some of them were shown in a village context. The results of this project are on the one hand paintings of various European farms, on the other hand videos which show peasant life and farm work in different European contexts. It were the peasants themselves , however, to make the decision which parts of their daily life and work should be painted and filmed. For this reason the films also create images of farming and farmers. The artists call the results of their ‘ field research’ and especially the films something like an ‘autoethnography’. Especially these images of farming and farmers are the topic of research in this essay.