Lovers Into Things/Things Into Lovers I-IV
Performances 2011 - 2012/2019
Concept 2011 - 2012
Commercials from German-speaking countries, each advertising a different product, but all linking the emotion 'love' to the product, are verbalized by me in sequence analyses. It is important to me not to explicitly name the brand/company and not to point out directly that it is a commercial. The language is deliberately kept neutral.The focus is on the exact descriptions of the images or settings.I learn the written text thoroughly.
For the performance, I reproduce the text sitting on a small television. My eyes are closed, I only open them at the word 'cut' and look into the eyes of a person in the audience.By verbalizing the images and describing them as precisely as possible, a 30-second commercial suddenly stretches to over 5 minutes during the performance.In my work, the images are created within the viewer and are thus also disconnected from their intrinsic quality of repetition and recognizability.
Lovers Into Things/Things Into Lovers V
2019
This is about the economic instrumentalization of love itself. Whether coupled to products or as a product in its own right, the emotion and the desire for it is fed by a wide variety of media sources.Nevertheless, there is a different price to pay. In order to achieve intimacy, one's own intimate sphere must first be sold.Who or what is the product here and who pays for it? Have romantic encounters and expectations of romantic partners IRL already changed due to the commercialization of love?
Against the backdrop of YouTube's "Most Romantic Scenes in Hollywood Movies Compilation", a sterile female body flirts shirtlessly with the audience. The images are also projected onto this body, while the face reflects the audience.At the same time, a text collage from the terms and conditions of various dating apps informs the audience about the dating gig that is being run. Meanwhile, the body makes physical contact with the visitors, touching, hugging and flirting.Eventually, the body begins to expose itself and slowly move, telling a bizarre story about its relationship with a doctoral student who is writing his thesis on the dubiousness of Facebook's terms and conditions in terms of human rights. This affair actually happened independently of dating apps.The private sphere thus becomes public and uncontrollable.