With support from the Fulbright Commission, Ira Schneider has produced a video installation which in one space presents the historic and contemporary German contribution to world culture. A map of Germany with its 16 federal states (Bundeslands) is traced on the exhibition floor. The audience walks about and experiences the music of Bach in Leipzig, Beethoven in Bonn, Hindemith in Frankfurt, the artworks by Dürer, Marc, Kandinsky in Munich, Beuys, Munch, Barlach, Kollwitz, Casper David Friedrich in northern Germany. One, occasionally, hears a poem by Goethe in Weimar, Heine in Düsseldorf. One visits Nietzsche’s last house in Weimar, the Thomas and Heinrich Manns’ house in Lübeck, the Frankfurter Book Fair, the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, the science fair in Hannover, Carnival in Köln,the October Fest in München. Views out of train windows reveal fields of sunflowers and rapes flower. Lake Konstanz in the south, the North Sea / Baltic Canal in the north, the forests of Thüringen, Franken, and the Sächsische Schweiz mountains near the Czech border. One takes a boat ride along the Mosel and witnesses the wine harvest, a boat ride around Berlin passes under bridges (Berlin has more bidges than Venice). We see the work of Gropius, van der Rohe, Schlemmer at the Bauhaus in Dessau. One experiences Christo’s Reichstag wrapping, one of the first Love Parades, a reception at the Presidents Palace in Berlin. Exceptional parks and gardens are explored. Regional dialects, beers & bratwurst are occasionally revealed.
The material for this installation was recorded only a few years after the reunification of Germany. It counts now as an artistically presented historical documentation. All the videos are technically improved and ready for presentation.
The 16 exhibition videoloops run simultaneously. The audience can get a good sense of the exhibition in a five to ten minute walkabout, though the great variety of scenes may keep the audience enthralled for hours. The data are presented in a relaxed manner. Scenes specific to historic or contemporary personages or events are interspersed with landscapes viewed from trains, subways, and boats. There is no narrator.
A triangle of normal, ca. 19” color monitors on a round plate rests on each of the 16, six ft. tall, pedestals which house the video player. This configuration allows the comparison of data from many Bundeslands (federal states) from any place in the data space. Each pedestal, appropriately placed on the floor map indicates that Bundesland’s name, its insignia, and its location on graphic map of Germany. A map of Germany will be traced on the exhibition floor. Variants of pedestal design can be suggested.
With support from the Fulbright Commission, Ira Schneider has produced a video installation which in one space presents the historic and contemporary German contribution to world culture. A map of Germany with its 16 federal states (Bundeslands) is traced on the exhibition floor. The audience walks about and experiences the music of Bach in Leipzig, Beethoven in Bonn, Hindemith in Frankfurt, the artworks by Dürer, Marc, Kandinsky in Munich, Beuys, Munch, Barlach, Kollwitz, Casper David Friedrich in northern Germany. One, occasionally, hears a poem by Goethe in Weimar, Heine in Düsseldorf. One visits Nietzsche’s last house in Weimar, the Thomas and Heinrich Manns’ house in Lübeck, the Frankfurter Book Fair, the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, the science fair in Hannover, Carnival in Köln,the October Fest in München. Views out of train windows reveal fields of sunflowers and rapes flower. Lake Konstanz in the south, the North Sea / Baltic Canal in the north, the forests of Thüringen, Franken, and the Sächsische Schweiz mountains near the Czech border. One takes a boat ride along the Mosel and witnesses the wine harvest, a boat ride around Berlin passes under bridges (Berlin has more bidges than Venice). We see the work of Gropius, van der Rohe, Schlemmer at the Bauhaus in Dessau. One experiences Christo’s Reichstag wrapping, one of the first Love Parades, a reception at the Presidents Palace in Berlin. Exceptional parks and gardens are explored. Regional dialects, beers & bratwurst are occasionally revealed.
The material for this installation was recorded only a few years after the reunification of Germany. It counts now as an artistically presented historical documentation. All the videos are technically improved and ready for presentation.
The 16 exhibition videoloops run simultaneously. The audience can get a good sense of the exhibition in a five to ten minute walkabout, though the great variety of scenes may keep the audience enthralled for hours. The data are presented in a relaxed manner. Scenes specific to historic or contemporary personages or events are interspersed with landscapes viewed from trains, subways, and boats. There is no narrator.
A triangle of normal, ca. 19” color monitors on a round plate rests on each of the 16, six ft. tall, pedestals which house the video player. This configuration allows the comparison of data from many Bundeslands (federal states) from any place in the data space. Each pedestal, appropriately placed on the floor map indicates that Bundesland’s name, its insignia, and its location on graphic map of Germany. A map of Germany will be traced on the exhibition floor. Variants of pedestal design can be suggested.