_1965 born
in Scheibbs, Austria
_Lives in Munich, Germany
Cleaning
You,
2000
Video
/ Beta (color, sound), 24'10''
Courtesy of the artist
view a sequence 1800 KB
Zimmerservice,
1999
Video / Beta (color, sound), 5'20''
Courtesy of the artist
view a sequence 2000 KB
Cleaning
You
In the bathroom the fully dressed man is washed by a woman and then blow-dried
again. A wide white stripe on the upper edge of the picture covers over
the heads most of the time. In this way the action is brought into focus
and formalized – not the identity of the two persons. The man’s
body, along with his cultural identity which is reflected in his style
of clothing, are dealt as one and the same thing. Briefly, they come apart
through the water, the shampoo and the soap.
Everything is clean afterwards, and a cleansing of (and not from) cultural
identity has taken place. The body no longer allows itself to be isolated
from its environment. "Cleaning You" – the woman has been
successful in doing this.
Room
service
Deals with shifts in social relations: You hear a film in which an actor
recites his text. A child sitting on a sofa looks back and forth between
his mother and the TV set. A woman sitting on the sofa with a child and
reciting the text of the actor – addressing the child.
The text of this scene:
do you see the town over there?
that’s where I should be
and not here
between the garbage and the single sheets of old papers that fly about
in the wind
i’m fed up with it
i’m really fed up
i want a club sandwich
i want a decent mexican beer
i want ironed shirts
just as they do it at the imperial hotel in tokyo
i want room service!
etc.
Please also
visit the archive of Basis-Wien at
http://www.basis-wien.at
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