play gallery Berlin/Germany

fair play video price

The jury members were: Nathalie Angles, Marc Glöde, Birgit Kohler,
Harm Lux, Ivica Pinjuh, Sven Wörner and Peter Zorn.

The exhibition was running 13.07.- 31.07. www.pushthebuttonplay.com.

European Biennale of Contemporary Art 01.07.- 15.07.

On the occasion of the European Biennale of Contemporary Art in Nimes/France, a new videoinstallation, the work "this is your life". was shown for the first time.




installation view



description:
“this is your life”, 2005. videoinstallation for three screens and soundsystem, DVD, different versions, commissioned by European Biennale of Contemporary Art Nimes

In cooperation with animal-rights activists, who illegally shot the footage for this installation, Andreas Templin developed this video-installation as a reaction and comparison to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. The groundwork/ approach for this videowork can be seen in Giorgio Agamben´s book 'Homo sacer' (1998), which is a survey of the history of the Western democratic state comparing it to an enormous concentration camp in its essence. He sees the modern state as a totalitarian event in the efficient management of naked biological life because contemporary sovereignty is exercised through bio-politics – the control of naked life. According to Agamben, “the power of decree to which concentration camp prisoners are subjected has no legal limitations and constitutes the secret matrix of the modern ad-ministrative state.".



The three screens show three different edits: The left screen concentrates on individual pigs, the center screen focuses on footage shot inside of the stalls and the right screen shows the structure of the pig mast.
Next to the three screens, extremely loud Death Metal is used to underline and intensify the deathmatch-atmosphere of this artwork and the fundamental questions it is raising with the chosen title.

www.lemanif.org, catalogue still available

Machfeld Vienna

01.07.
PARKGEWUSEL, Machfeld International Arts and Culture Society, Vienna/Austria.
A screening event in a park in Vienna comprised of an international selection of videoart including my 2006 piece "sympathy for the devil". www.machfeld.net/studio/parkgewusel