Marksmen Shooting
On each end of an exhibition space that is about 10 m wide, four monitors on black pedestals face each other at eye level. On the right, the visitor sees four crossbow marksmen who come into the picture from the left, draw the bow and prepare to shoot. They are aiming at the four targets visible on the monitors across the room. The arrows hit the bulls-eye with a loud thud. The marksmen disappear from the right monitor to take the bolt out of the target and exchange the target for a new one. The game starts again from the beginning.
Since the video marksmen do not shoot their arrows at exactly the same time the space is dominated by an acoustic chaos. Whizzing arrows, their loud target hits and the echo of footsteps whirl through the air. The visitor entering the space walks precisely into the installation's line of fire. It seems as though the video marksmen are taking the viewer exactly in his sites and following him wherever he moves.
The essence of this video installation is what happens here between these monitors, namely the arrow's flight and the marksmen's movement back and forth (what can only be perceived acoustically, the invisible, the space between the monitors). An area of tension is created between the monitors.
Project supporters: The city of Munich, which supported the project with a scholarship
Produced at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne
The installation was first on view at the Kunstbunker Tumulka in Munich. Afterwards, it was shown in 1994 at the Handwerkskammer Köln and at the "Multiple Arts Maastricht", and 1996 in the exhibition "Ich & Du" (Me & You) in the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich.
Actors: Reiner Lützenkirchen, Norbert Ebelshäuser, Rolf Hagen and Stefan Fuhrmann (marksmen of the "Schützenbruderschaft St. Sebastianus" in Köln-Stammheim) Active helper: Thomas Helmut Bock