Videocinemacity or what to do after 7 p.m.?
Exhibition: Gemainschaft – Geselschaft
Location: ACC Galerie, Weimar, Germany
Year: 1999
Curator: Mary Rozell-Hopkins
Courtesy: The artist
Photo: Klaus Bach
Technical Data: Cinema interior: refurbished cinema seats, orange curtain and walls, blue carpet and walls, pop-corn machine, projection of a cinema curtain closing and opening, sound system in a blue corridor with sound material from the Kultur-Stadt Weimar press conference, TV monitor showing the video Ausverkauf, a documentation of the public sale out of the “Haus-Stadt Weimar” local cinema.
Video: Ausverkauf (mini DV, Amsterdam 1999, 9’ 56”). Editing: Apolonija Šušteršič, Lize Kelderman. Camera: Apolonija Šušteršič. Music & Sound: Kees van Zelst. Production: ACC Galerie, Weimar, Germany
Concept: Videocinemacity or what to do after 7 p.m.? was made in a specific time and for a specific context. It took place at the ACC Galerie in Weimar were I designed a so called “cinema-living room” with video, sound and a popcorn machine. This was a comment on just closed Weimar independed cinema which itinerary got soled on auction few days before Weimar became Europan Cultural Capital 2000.
The video Ausverkauf is showing the sale out of the old cinema. It starts in a very ambiguous way when the viewer is not really sure what is going on. It seam as the audience is coming to the cinema to watch a film however something rather unexpected is starting to happen. People don’t really seat down but starts to dismantle seats, curtains, lights etc.
Within an installation setting is the video Ausverkauf shown on a TV monitor at the place where one would expect the film screen. And a film screen is installed on the back side of the cinema seats with a projection of a cinema curtain opening and closing continually and desperately.
At the beginning of the setting I placed a pop-corn machine to introduce the idea of the Cinema however further on the space looked more intimate and slightly mysterious. Passing by the projected curtain the visitor would be directed into a blue corridor where one could hear the repetitive sentences from “Weimar Hauptstadt – Press Conference” with words like: Göthe-Culture-Money.