Shower
Shower

Shower

1997 – 6 video projections on 6 shower curtains

People taking a shower are projected onto white shower curtains that either hang freely in a dark space or in the doorways of "changing rooms" built on site. The bodies appear in full size but slightly shadowy. Their contours are diffuse because the scenes were shot with a video camera through a transparent and slightly textured curtain. The viewer is barely able to recognize if the curtain's folds and material are real or projected.

Women and men shower separately. On or behind three curtains seven women shower in turn. Behind the other three curtains there are altogether six men. The rushing and splashing water, as well as the sounds of those in the shower, blend together and amplifying each other, filling the space.

A work that turns the "Shower" viewer into a voyeur watching models who do not have perfect bodies, but are instead completely "normal" people - and the spectator may feel he is being reminded of himself...

The word "show" can be found in the English word for "Shower". This can mean "to show", "to put on view", as well as "to watch", "to see", and "to shine through". Phonically, "Shower" sounds like the German "Schauer", as in "Zu-schauer" (spectator) or "Regenschauer" (rain shower) and "Angstschauer" (shudder of fear). The shower can be understood as a place of comfortable, erotic sensations, but also a fearful atmosphere. I would like to remind you here of the shower scene in Hitchcock's film "Psycho".

The video installation was first on view from 26 - 29 June 1997 at the Women's Fair "top '97" in Düsseldorf. It was later on view in a version with 4 projections in Avesta, Sweden (13 May - 13 August 2000), at "Kunstbaden" in Wiesbaden (23 August - 16 September 2000), and at the Kunstverein Ludwigsburg (1 October - 1 November 2000).

Actors: Christin Bolewski, Cornelia Gerecke, Kirsten Glauner, Lilo Mangelsdorff, Evelyn Mund, Ruth Prangen, Yvonne Spielmann, Klaus Gasteier, Bernd Gieserer, Thorsten Hoven, Jürgen Jansen, Arne Ludwig, Christian Weckerle Active Helpers: Egbert Mittelstädt, Jürgen Jansen, Klaus Gasteier Project Supporters: Marl Video Art Prize, Academy of Media Arts Cologne; Agrippa-Schwimmbad, Cologne; Frauenkulturbüro NRW; Epson GmbH Germany