Frey, Peter
Teorema / 2007
Multi-channel video
4 sequences in various places in space (with Angela Köntje)
The video piece is a restaging of a scene from Pasolini’s film of the same title, “Teorema”, where the single part of a character of an ‘emerging’ artist is performed in turn by two different actors. The props are consciously kept at a minimum and consist mainly of a dress that is worn in turns and refers roughly to the time of the original’s production and furthermore some sheets of glass which are painted with water. The setting of a bourgeois children’s room of the 1960s and a painter’s studio is replaced by the chill of a bare workspace, the proper function of which remains indeterminable. The English audio track is taken from the original version and is reinterpreted as a ‘playback’.
With regards to content, the piece mainly revolves around issues of the genesis of the artist subject and the circumstances of production, as well as the definition of an ideal work of art or concept of art, which includes a latent discussion of the social context in which the actors are inevitably embedded.
(© Peter Frey 2007)
Das Duett (The Duet) 2008/09
Cooperation with Angela Köntje
Wood / veneered chipboard
Video, 30 min / Colour / Sound
The work consists of three parts belonging together: a spatially intervening installation, a circa 30 minutes long video work and a catalogue. The thematic background is the assumption – for an artistic subject – #constitutive contexts between artistic production and its distribution within various formats such as exhibition, catalogue, interview or documentary artistic portrait.
Installation: »Richard W.’s universeller Repräsentationsapparat« (Richard W.’s universal apparatus of representation)
The material basis of the installation is mainly a veneered cupboard and shelving unit, which already forms the setting in the video work and is at the same time the working material and the art works which the character Pucki Kraft presents. As a relief-like structure and accessible floor plan of the Festival Theatre in Bayreuth, which is newly put together, the chipboard serves the purpose of being the display and venue of the video, catalogue and the visitors.
Video: »Mein Geheimnis ist, dass ich keine Herkunft habe« (My secret is that i have no origin)
The video work adapts the basic structure of a documentary film and presents the established artist of upper middle class origin, and the fictive character Pucki Kraft from a lower-class milieu featured in the film. Interviews, and also explanatory commentary on the original are theatrically restaged, whereas the attributions of the character Pucki Kraft – his work, life and mostly his differing social position – are customised.
Catalogue: »Pucki Kraft. Selected by Angela Köntje & Peter Frey«
In the catalogue both authors of the video and the installation take on a further role, this time curatorial, and attempt to position and legitimise the character Pucki Kraft in the context of an established field of art.
Grünau / 2005
Video, 7:30 min / colour / sound
The video shows in the five divided sequences the interpretation of the traditional song „Drunt’ in der grünen Au’“, that is performed as a polyphonic monologue in Swabian dialect.
The individual sequences refer to stations on which a stop is made while crossing Leipzig’s district of Grünau, a considered trouble hotspot. Each station is allocated a verse of the song, which is initiated with the overlay of the relevant station’s name (Am Schwalbennest, Weissdornstraße, Am Kirschberg, Ulmer Straße, Heilbronner Straße).
in come out / 2007
Wood / door leaves / alkyd resin lacquer
Video / 12 min / colour, sound
Installation / architectural intervention:
The installation is based on the much discussed urban planning of the old cotton mill in Leipzig. The timing is consciously chosen and based upon the renovation phase of the Kremer and Filipp Gallery. Analogue to the video, associations of failure and expectation should be focused upon, which are based on a certain urban space. An exhibition display consisting of 16 door leaves and a video monitor, at first inconspicuous, is integrated in a room under construction. The doors are treated on one side with a opaque appearing alkyd resin which reflects the gallery in a distorted fashion. The video is largely dependent on the display, it covers and guides the movements of the visitors by means of sound throughout the whole, seemingly empty exhibition space.
Video performance:
Within the setting of a newly created office and housing complex, that already is characterised by vacancy, the unrelated lines of action thematise the intervention of possibilities of an individual physical handling of urban structures, and their social conditions, accessibility and exclusions.
The door leaves are a repeating element, they are taken out of their original context and replaced in a new surrounding fittingly according to the composition.
The supposed spatial harmony is constantly broken by the common fall of the actor and door into the room.
Vita
*1975 in Ulm
Education
1998 – 2002 Communication Design, Folkwangschule Essen
2001/2002 Sokrates-Stipendium, Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, Zürich (CH)
2002 – 2006 HGB Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, Class of Prof. Joachim Brohm
2004 – 2006 HGB Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, Intermedia Class of Prof. Alba D’Urbano
2005 Peterhans-Stipendium, Medienstiftung der Sparkasse Leipzig
2006 Diploma, HGB Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig
2006-2008 postgraduate “Meisterschüler” programme at Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, mentored by Alba D’Urbano
Exhibitions
2001
„Klara H.“ Gästehaus der Kokerei Zollverein, Essen
2002
„Gendered Geographies, HGK Zürich
„White Cube*“ Interventionen der Forschungsgruppe_F in der Ausstellung Iconoclash; ZKM Karlsruhe
„Psychoscape“ Kunstraum B2 Leipzig; Welti-Furrer Areal Zürich
2003
„Baukörper/Westend Unfinished“ Josephstraße Leipzig