Uneven Development 2015 (Films: Lieu de Memoire 2015; New Ruins 2015; Past imperfect 2015; Shadow Empire 2015)
The installation presents four moving image works including two large text banners. Inspired by Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism the individual films in the installation highlight historical events and iconic locations that symbolize past ideologies and national identity. Creating a durational shift between then and now the works explore the circulatory nature of historical narratives and their reinterpretation in contemporary contexts. Each film focuses on one historically important location.
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Be it ruin or memorial, each singular site is also inscribed by notions of place in the contemporary context. Everyday public interactions, such as leisure activities as well as special events taking place at these sites embed the past into the living memory of the present thus follow a desire for continuum yet also point towards the ruptures of the past.
Curated by Naomi Siderfin and commissioned by Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall London for the exhibition: Harnessing the Wind. |
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Lieu de Memoire 2015
HD, colour, sound Duration: 4.27” Lieu de Memoire was filmed at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. In recognition of its dark Nazi past the building has become a place of memory and hosts a museum and archive dedicated to the student resistance group the White Rose. In a final act of defiance Sophie Scholl, a prominent member of the group, threw anti-Nazi leaflets from the upper balcony of the atrium. The film reenacts this last gesture which led to the execution of several members of the group. |
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New Ruins 2015
HD, colour, sound Duration: 2.10” New Ruins was filmed at the former Nazi party rally ground, the Zeppelin field in Nuremberg, Germany. Apart from being a tourist site the Zeppelin grounds also serve as a place for the leisure activities of the local community including a yearly car-racing event called the Norisring. Speer’s intention to create neo-classical buildings that would in time become beautiful ruins here is thwarted by the use of cheap constructions materials. Yet the notion of ‘ruin value’, is given a new context by the everyday use of the grounds and the ‘tribune ruin’ providing a visually interesting backdrop to contemporary life. |
Past Imperfect 2015
16mm film & digital transfer HD, colour, silent Duration: 4" Past Imperfect was filmed on 16mm film stock in the period between the change over from one contemporary artwork to the installation of the next. The plinth was intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV which was never realized due to lack of funds. Seeing the empty plinth has become a rare sight and leaves room for imagining the chequered history of Trafalgar Square, from symbol of national identity and victory to protest actions and more recently mass entertainment. The film revisits the Victorian fascination with pyramids in particular a drawing by Col. Trench who proposed at the time that a pyramid should be built on Trafalgar Square in memory of the Napoleonic wars |
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Shadow Empire 2015
HD, colour, silent Duration: 4.03" Shadow Empire presents a slow-motion transition from the heroic column that holds a rather small statue of Nelson, situated on Trafalgar Square, to the equally monumental towering ‘Gestalt’ of the Shard. Here, the gradual evolution of the national monument into the global icon creates a temporal yet seamless visual intertwining of past and present. Considering that the shard was financed by the state of Qatar this ‘new modern-day monument’ seems to signal a territorial shift from national to global economic power. A renewed trend for high density, high-rise architecture might also inaugurate a new kind of icon, one that is free from any national allegiances. |