The situation which we expose ourselves in this work, reproduces an eternal dispute between me and the perfomer Josefine Mühle. She dances and I hate dancing. Two energy sources.

Josefine Mühle dances in front of the camera while I express my dislikes about dancing by screaming through the microphone. I see power relations in this work. As a serious ciritc my shouting is completely inadequate. What matters is the energy that emanates from the language. Josefine takes this energy and converts it to her dancing. But of course she can not completely ignore what I say. Again and again there are little situations where she responds to the content of my words. The power that an aggressor can use in interpersonal relationships, is based on the fact that people are intimidated by aggressive behavior, because they mix up the energy of words and their intrinsic value. The aggression must be considered as an energy source that must be answered adequately.

In this lecture performance I mime a winner type who uses every opportunity to present himself in the best light. This speech has been written within six months and I wanted to recreate a very specific situation through this performance. Within a circle of friends I have come to a very dominant position lately, which was a new experience for me. On the one hand this is a role that I can enjoy very much, however, I noted quickly that this can also be a dangerous position. I realized that the man who has the last word, can also set the moral standards.

For finding new interview situations I have experimented with interviews in the Audio Lab in my university (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig). I was interested in the distance that this highly professional and clean setting would generate between me as the interviewer and the person in the cabin during an interview situation. The interviewed person was sitting in the isolated room and I ask the question through the microphone that is normally used to keep contact during the recordings.

After some tests with friends I had the idea for an extra layer for this constructed situation and an extremly intimate subject. I wrote an interview with my somehow-ex-girlfriend. Questions that I nevered deared asking her. The difference to a common interview was not only the setting in the Audiocabin but also that I had also written down the answers for her.

The idea for this work originated from the study of the interior design, which was very dominant for me during my last movie. The light that I built in the rooms should get the sleeper back in the world and also provide video evidence for the existence of this world. The most obvious protagonists for this work I found in my roommates.

I quickly realized that it is not easy to wake up a person in this constellation at the right time. First I left the camera and the lights in the room and then tried to sneak into the room at night to make the recording. But as soon as I stepped upon a squeaking wood plank the sleeper was awake. I had to rethink technically for the next experiments, so I controlled the camera and the lights through an extension cable from the hallway. Now the shots worked.

*1987 Wertheim, Germany

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Eine Arbeit Shelter Rundgang 2012