Two-channel video installation at the Staatstheater Oldenburg in cooperation with the Edith-Russ-Haus
Start of the projections and reception in the foyer of the Staatstheater, Theaterwall 19, 26122 Oldenburg:
November 14, 2018, 7 pm
Tausend Augen, Christoph Girardet’s video installation for the Staatstheater Oldenburg, actually consists of a thousand eyes. Detailed shots of pairs of eyes from feature films of the past hundred years, in which the motif has become a cinematographic topos, appear on two opposite projection surfaces. But the gazes do not meet. While one side alternately shows a pair of eyes, the other remains empty. Generated at random, a new choreography continuously emerges.
The expectation of a classical dramaturgy is deliberately undermined. The eyes of women, men and children suddenly emerge from the darkness and disappear again, remaining like ghosts in their own sphere. The abundance of emblematic images condenses into a genealogy of cinema. A kaleidoscope of painterly quality.
The supposed interchangeability of the eye motif is countered by the intensity of the gazes, which reflect deeply felt emotions. Their forcefulness is not exhausted by repetition either. The eyes claim publicity. They are the object of observation and at the same time seem to observe the viewer himself. Desire, control and the surveillance function determine the relationship of the gaze in media society. Last but not least, the visual metaphor recalls the gift of sight as a guarantor of individual knowledge.
Christoph Girardet (*1966) mainly uses found footage from the ever-expanding archives of film history, which he transforms into his own compositions according to various conceptual guidelines. This results in individual and immediate works in which the source material unfolds new levels of meaning beyond analytical observation. His works have been shown in exhibitions and at film festivals worldwide, such as Oberhausen, Berlinale, Semaine de la Critique Cannes, Kunstverein and Sprengel Museum Hannover, Deichtorhallen, Hirshhorn Museum, ZKM, Palais de Tokyo, MoMA PS1, etc . He lives and works in Hanover.
The projections are visible daily from sunset until midnight on the stair tower of the Staatstheater.
The control software for the installation was programmed by Thomas Neveling (art2pano, Hanover).