Solo show. The film and an assemblage of advertorials, computer print-outs, photocopies and colour photographs, take an artistic look at individual approaches to a global problem and its representation in the media.
Solo show
One spin-off of climate change is the advent of numerous "ski resorts"
across Europe, where artificial slopes are created and marketed to
tourists. The Finnish artist Laura Horelli presents her recent video
film in Galerie Barbara Weiss. This film and an assemblage of
advertorials, computer print-outs, photocopies and colour photographs,
take an artistic look at individual approaches to a global problem and
its representation in the media.
Researched material, quotations, and the projection of her own
subjective experience onto the fictional person of a young artist are
the means employed by Laura Horelli to investigate conventional patterns
of reception. The film's main protagonist has taken an interest in
artificial ski slopes and snow canons and wishes to make a video on the
subject, and now finds herself confronted with the news and messages of
the mass media and advertising. Even marginal events soon begin to
influence her perception and therefore also her artistic project.
The viewer follows the artist in the film in her conceptual and
experimental investigation of the subject. She gathers information about
ski projects in northern Finland, China and Germany, information on
project planning and on projects failing. The emphasis is on the
research, but in contrast to a report, the method is associative. The
protagonist takes a look at historical, economic and social aspects, but
repeatedly finds herself talking about herself, letting the viewer gain
insight into very personal experience from her private life -- details
on the idea behind the project, doubts about its implementation or
questions as to how to deal with her own viewpoint, which is in fact
immanent to the system.
Two further perspectives are provided from specific locations as voices
off, using various languages (English, German, Finnish) and serving as
sources of information for both the viewer of the film and the actress
seen by the viewer. This quickly leads to questions as to identity and
the nature of the first-person focus of the film. The investigations
undertaken by all the figures in the film remain open-ended, as does the
work itself.
The method Laura Horelli uses is situated between the semi-documentary
and the genre of the "author's film". Horelli is not interested in
representing, creating or suggesting objectivity. She operates in the
realm of the private and personal and at the same time lays bare the
effects of the influence of the media. To do this, she incorporates
everyday experience in her video by means of theatrical scenes, while
also assembling the pictorial collage of found text and image fragments
that assert themselves as the relics of perception.
Laura Horelli's installation goes far beyond the level of media
criticism. With its frequent use of profound humour, the work plays with
the different perspectives of artist and viewer, and with what the two
perceive differently and what unites them in collective perception.
Opening: Saturday, March 17, 2007, 7-9 pm
Galerie Barbara Weiss
Zimmerstrasse - Berlin