Nature is determined by order and disorder. Disorder is the driving force, the result is order, whose strongest form is a pattern.
P a r t O n e
Patterns are regularly recurring structures, which are generated from modules in predefined order and repetition. As individuals and social creatures we are naturally affected by patterns. The heartbeat has a rhythm, which follows a certain kind of pattern; the regular breath has a pattern. The genetic code resembles a pattern. Metabolism in general is determined by patterns: nutrient uptake, transport, transform and excrete - as well as the course of nature: spring, summer, fall and winter - birth, growth, reproduction and death.
We surround ourselves with patterns: wall papers, patterned textiles, music, dance, customs, behavior. We feel save with patterns, because they are predictable.
P a r t T w o
Patterns also help individuals to fit into society harmonically and to make a contribution to its success. This fact makes us similar to machines. They just work, too, because power units and gear wheels follow certain patterns and in so doing keep moving.
P a r t T h r e e
We are a part of a system or machinery, which consists of individuals, who function according to patterns. If one part is failing, it is replaced with another working element – a principle, which keeps a system in permanent movement.
"After all, rhythm is the repeated pattern itself - the code and the looping. And we all dance to that. We dance to a choreography that is pre-programmed into the interface. This choreography has power: it is the planned moves of control.(...) But really we are just making the same old moves that everyone else on the dance floor is pushing out of their (seemingly) free flowing limbs. We dance, and we are part of the choreography of control."
(Renee Carmichael/ http://www.fleeimmediately.com )
"Memento…Boltanski!" deals in an aestheticising manner with futility of life. An artificial choreography is generated by variation of order and repetition of 25 stills of a dancing Person. In the same way a rhythm is formed by moduls of natural and artificial sounds (water drops and a machinery's chattering). A whispering voice recites “The Burial of the Dead“ out of the poem “The Waste Land“ by T.S. Eliot. In the left part of the screen there is a static picture, which at first sight reminds of a sacral motive, maybe a kind of altar. In fact it is a table with a bird’s nest and small skeletons on the surface, which is lighted by a neon light. Dancer: Dominik Feistmantl
“WHAT REMAINS AT THE END OF LIFE? TWO DATES AND A SMALL BLACK DASH INBETWEEN.” (Christian Boltanski)
Dancer: Silvana Lemm, Therese Madeleine Thonfors, Natalie Farkas
Beside paradise in the bible, there are many “paradises” in our mind, like childhood or home, which are located in time, not in space any more. The only way to return to these paradises is to remember. But the recalling process is exposed to different disruptions - This process is comparable with the searching for the right radio station, which is disturbed by overlying frequencies or static noises. In the same way we don't have access to our memory because of our physical or mental condition. What remains is a vague picture, which requires a high amount of interpretation. Memory isn’t always available; it isn’t always complete and it doesn’t even have to be true. We know that unconsciously.
Today is the future of yesterday! The video "Postludium" reflects the today's situation of idle industrial areas as a representative for the vacuum between yesterday and tomorrow.
Location: former gaswork area in Oberhausen/ Augsburg/ Germany
Dancer: Alessandra La Bella
Sound: "Echoes of Industry" by Gerald Fiebig and Christian Z. Müller, recorded in the gasometer in Oberhausen/ Augsburg/ Germany
Inner landscape of melancholy, inspired by Franz Schubert.
The basis of this work is a quotation by Immanuel Kant: “Only those who are forgotten are truly dead.”