Presence, a two screens film installation made for the Berlin Biennale 2008.
Space and orientation inside a film image as defined by sound or lack of sound was the impetus. Presence is about two kinds of space, the space of the gallery or museum and the spaces in which we live our lives.
Competing for attention, the two film projections test a new spectator, who has the freedom to choose one screen over the other unlike the spectator in a movie theater with its captive audience.
The film material that was edited for Presence was shot during the 1990s. Reflecting on spaces has been central to my film work and I have examined domestic space, public space as well as institutional space. The content of the installation is both about living and working spaces and how sound defines a film image as space. I added texture of surface and the skin of cactus flowers and plants with images of terrain and land formations.
Space becomes what the spectator with his circulation in the gallery space experiences first hand.
Slideshow | Professional Photos Berlin Biennial Photo © 2008 Uve Walte
Technical requirement:
2 DVDs players, Synchronizer maintaining the DVDs players in sync, 2 video projectors focused on prepared surfaces painted white, directional speakers for one of the screen, sufficient space between the two screens that are at a 90 degrees angle, 8 vintage photographs on 8 by 10 paper framed, painted background dark night blue.