Asylum, 2016
HD Video, color, sound, 6.45 Min. (Loop)
Photos
In "Asylum" the house is explored as a metaphor for ourselves and the "houses" we live in – in a psychological sense. The narration oscillates between physical and mental/psychological body/architecture. It´s questioning the boundaries of reality and vision, of sanity and insanity and questions the concept of these terms.
Own footage is alternating with archival found footage whose context the viewer can guess but not know for sure. It charges the artist´s own footage with further meaning, appearing and disappearing like ephemeral visions.
We hear voices, but we don´t see anyone speaking. The lo-fi-sound supports the impression of a dreamlike atmosphere. What´s real, what´s imagination? Who erected these walls?
Walls stand for a non-direct violence, the violence of exclusion.
Visions are windows, hopes are windows. “Asylum” suggests that the act of restoration starts with trusting in our – real or unrealistic – hope(s).
Asylum, 2016/17 – HD Video, sound, 6.45 Min. (Loop)
Photographs “Asylum”
Exercises For Restoring / HOPE
We all live in our own kind of asylums (that we were put in or have built ourselves)... We all know certain kinds of walls and struggles, the desire to connect, the unability, the necessarity to restore something in our "houses". I think this act of restoration starts with restoring hope and learning to trust that we can find beauty within something that is worn down.
All is connected, a circuit. Who is the imprisoned? Who is the patient, who is the doctor, what´s true, what is illusion.... Where are the borders and where do they come from? Where do you draw the line between sanity, insanity, between those who are seen as sane or normal or whatever and crazy...
Who erected these walls...