AUTOMATIE

installative performance, 2017
3-channel video and sound installation, kinetic chair and performance

«AUTOMATIE produces a feeling of transience, which presents itself as a central motif of the work. In a melancholic yearning, it evokes the impression of a memory that can no longer be brought back into a present state. [...] AUTOMATIE allows viewers to develop their own dreamlike dynamics. They can leave the place at any time, yet it never seems to disappear or freeze – it forms a place of engagement.“ (Träumereien vor dem großen und kleinen Feuer – Eine Untersuchung von Bachelards Imaginations- und Bildtheorie in der Bildenden Kunst, Rana Karan 2017)

The video shows an apparatus rotating around a double-wicked candle, lighting one side at a time while extinguishing the other. In the room itself is a chair that tilts back and forth on its back legs and finally comes to a standstill on all four legs. Both apparatuses are alternately initiated by the performer. They pursue neither a goal nor a recognizable function. Instead, they each describe a process within themselves, ending in their own accord. The apparatuses and the performer are constantly in motion, but no one moves on: they perform a perpetual procedure that seems to lead nowhere.

AUTOMATIE is inspired by the emotional structure of nostalgia: a state that makes one's thoughts permanently circle between melancholic longing and the acceptance of irretrievability. Accordingly, the viewers decide for themselves when to leave the room and withdraw from the situation. A reentry is not possible.

conzept, Apparate: Leonie Ohlow
performance: Mona Altmann
sound: Valle Döring
technical operator: Anja Ruschival

video:
performance: Rana Karan
Kerzenflüsterin: Leia Walz
camera: Klemens Czurda
camera assistance: Lisa Bergmann, Philip Lawall
sound: Valle Döring
data wrangler: Till Gombert
dolly grip: Carlo Siegfried

thanks to:
Zaur Ahlimanov, Leo Bartels, Lukas Biergans, Jana Hofmann, Gerrit Kuge, Matthias Mai, Johanna Ruge, Christina Scheib, Max Schweiger