Doubtlessly there are problems whose apparent solutions give rise to other problems that are worse than the original problems. The criticism that WochenKlausur's efforts could be merely treating and hiding the symptoms - where the state should have acted to bring about fundamental improvements - is justified.

And yet this criticism misses two important points: Firstly, most of the art institutions that invite WochenKlausur are supported by government subsidies. Public obligations are thus in fact being called in when these funds are then used to bring about improvements. Secondly, there is a still greater danger that neither the symptoms nor their causes get treated. This is always the case when the root of the problem is sought, but nothing is done about it due to our feelings of powerlessness upon finding the huge root bales below, whose dimensions cannot even be evaluated.

All problems can be traced back to more fundamental ones. The conviction that it one day will be possible to change the absolute fundamental basis - if only these small helping measures were not always delaying the coming of this final day - remains an illusion that prevents the small steps. The excuse that the individual is powerless to change anything concretely about exiting circumstances causes many to take the easy route and do nothing. This excuse is similar to that of the apathetic voter, who argues that the individual vote has little effect and could just as well be abandoned. If everyone stayed home from the polls and leaned back with this comforting excuse, then that would be the end of democracy.

This can be illustrated through the problems faced by a wheelchair user. If he cannot make it up the stairs because there is no lift, then he can be helped if two strong arms take up his cause. But this feeds the criticism that a general solution to the problem is being put off. The landlord sees that one can do without a lift after all and avoids an expenditure. Accordingly, it would be better to leave the wheelchair user on the stairs and start a political petition instead of helping him. Or one can help him and at the same time demand that a lift be installed. Agitational art often takes the easy way out and sticks to denunciations. But every successful tangible improvement is really a supporting argument for political demands.

From the comfortable position of prosperity, it is easy to speak out for a general change in the system and reject small steps because they "only support existing circumstances, which must made to boil over so that something happens." This overflooding theory has seldom led to success. If one must first wait for a catastrophe before everything changes for the better, it could well come a little too late in never-never land.