The Distant View
This installation was specially developed for the Hall of Roman Busts in the Glyptothek Munich. It was on view as part of the exhibition "Dialog-Fragmente" from 10 May - 7 June 1992.
Three monitors stand on three wooden pedestals (130 cm high). The three pedestals make up a group in front of the room's central windows. The front sides of the monitors are turned into the room while the center pedestal is place slightly back, closer to the window.
The atmosphere in the Hall of Roman Busts strangely touches me. Stone heads stand in groups, spread out in front of the windows. Their gazes seem to be wandering into the distance with yearning. What do they see or yearn for?
With my video work I wanted to confront these gazes with an object, namely, three televisions; a video triptych. The antique heads were formally forced to watch television, to watch the "boob tube". But what did they see? Heads, again. Two worlds met. The antique and the modern. Yesterday and today face to face. The "video heads", however, constantly changed the direction of their view. Every two minutes they looked at different statues, the interior or the window and the world outside.
The "video men", placed to the left and right of the "video lady", was one and the same person: more precisely, one tape played on two monitors. On one hand, the symmetry of the installation was accentuated. On the other, I wanted to use this doubling in order to play on the question of the copy and the original. The ancient objects exhibited in the Glyptothek are mostly replicas and casts of antique sculptures. The copy becomes quasi the original, just as in video where there is practically no difference between the copy and the original.
The recordings were made directly on site in front of the middle windows’ blinds. The individual sequences last approx. 20 minutes and are repeated infinitely.
Actors: Evelyn Plank and Axel Meinhardt