Katia ROESSEL
"GLEE" SERIES | GLEE IX
VIDEO-installation
©Photos Katia Roessel, tous droits réservés.
The GLEE series focuses on the fundamental technology of artificial
light, and the evolving dominance of screen based light and its
implications. Natural light, screen light, and filmed light
intertwine. Since within the installations different temporalities
emerge and shun into another frame/art scale – the light of
the screen has brought us ever more realistic simulations,
including simulations of intelligence and of life,
and draws us into its reality. This reality and natural
reality are in an escalating competition for our "hearts and minds."
©Photos Katia Roessel, tous droits réservés.
"I want the GLEE project to be an alternative for cultural industries
and to anchor discussions about the importance of social and political
issues elsewhere, starting with adapting to climate change, reviewing the
colonial heritage, and most of all, to anchor the spatial and pioneering
concept of art. Minerals as ressources in general as well as those
particularly exploited for components that illuminate screens, and
cosmologies are potential landmarks of GLEE video installations.
Herein I am questioning art’s relevance to society and its transformation,
with or without technology. While the GLEE installation is being set-up,
the embedded pulsating dots (from the chandeliers) evoke a feeling of an
intelligent creature trying to communicate with the outside through a certain
rhythmic code. As for GLEE IX, its series had been set in an old warehouse
by the riverside close to my hometown in the former East Germany.
This warehouse was used for storing and shipping grains and cereals
and was constructed in 1935 by Carl Wentzel. To me, this building was
part of the European and worldwide expansion of industrialization that
started about one century before - by which time the Industrial Revolution
had already pushed its mechanisms to all corners of the world. While going
into the warehouse it occurred to me that I was going inside the genuine body
of capitalism, right inside its viscera - groping around in limbo of dreams
and desires."
