Dortmund. In the post-industrial landscape of the disused Dortmund-Hörde blast furnace works, the first thing to claim one’s attention is the exhibition poster of the HartwareMedienKunstVerein. With its radiant white background, it forms a disturbing contrast to the rather grey hue of the rest of the compound. What can be seen on the poster is a shelled-out house and an advancing tank; a war scene in miniature. The miniature ensemble is choreographed by a man in a cowboy hat standing at the edge of the events, who, as an obviously self-appointed arbiter of worlds and history, is looking at his work with satisfaction. The motif is from a photograph by the Berlin artist Heike Gallmeier, whose work is part of this exhibition currently to be seen in the Phoenix-Halle exploring strategies of historical re-enactments in contemporary art. Under the title »War & Peace Show«, the artist’s photographic series documents reconstructions of war by collectors of militaria and re-enactments groups who, in great detail, play through military conflicts, including those from very recent history, every year on a farm in the British town of Beltring. These re-enactments are very much in the tradition of the historically correct reconstruction of original events, as is promised in one subtitle, »Normandy 44«. Colourfully dressed viewers who can be seen scattered here and there on paths and meadows, however, compel the perfect illusion of war back into the virtual realities of the favourite games of retired war veterans. The spectacle surrounding the reconstruction of authentic situations finds not only its passionate actors here, but also its curious audience. The poster itself becomes a strategically good introduction to the visual and thematic frame of reference for this exhibition, which was curated by Inke Arns and Gabriele Horn with the collaboration of Katharina Fichtner. For it is precisely here that the issues of (media) image and history production, their authorship and reception begin that are also explored in a highly complex manner by the other 22 international artists in their works - partly large-scale installations, some with video.
A variety of formats is used to look at, in particular, the media documentation of historical events and the way they are stored in the collective memory and individual memory. Mostly political, sometimes decisive events from the past, but also representations from the history of literature, film, music and art, are reconstructed from new and surprising points of view, or existing re-enactments are critically commented upon. In the films, photographs, computer games, diary entries and archive reconstructions in the exhibition, there is thus always the element of deconstruction and dissociation from the public discourse. Popular images are overlain by the fictive or subjective potential of historiography with its layerings of individual fates. Sometimes private memory merges so strongly with the official version of an event that barely any distinction can or is meant to be made between the event as depicted in media and the real historical happening.
For example, in Omer Fast’s video »Spielberg’s List«, the events during the shoot as recounted by the extras from Steven Spielberg’s film »Schindler’s List« seem to be identical with the authentic experiences from the time in the Plaszow concentration camp. On the one hand, the older interviewees really do confuse their memories of the camp with the period of filming and vice versa. On the other, however, in his double projection the artist juxtaposes the images from the film sets and those of the remains of the actual camp – these are in direct proximity to one another – and his own and Spielberg’s film footage in such a way that the different narrative and visual levels merge into one other in a barely distinguishable fashion.
In the film »The Battle of Orgreave« by the British artist Jeremy Deller, miners give highly emotional accounts of their experiences. As former participants in the violent conflicts that resulted from the miners’ strikes in 1984, they now take part as actors in the re-enactment initiated by the artist. In addition to the obviously cathartic effect that the reconstruction had on the miners, the film serves above all as a corrective to the official version propagated by politicians and the media.
Pierre Huyghe’s video installation »The Third Memory«, on the other hand, is based on a legendary 1972 bank robbery in New York, which was one of the first crimes to be broadcast live on television. Shortly afterwards, the event served as the basis for the classic film »Dog Day Afternoon«, in which Al Pacino plays the bank robber Woytowicz. For his work, Pierre Huyghe asked the aging Woytowicz to replay the bank robbery in a simple set of the main hall of the bank. These images are cross-cut with the original TV footage and scenes from the Hollywood film. In a nice reversal of reality and remake, Woytowiczs’ portrayal increasingly borrows from the role of Al Pacino from »The Godfather«.
These works aim not so much to be a critique of the media representation of historical events as a medium for increasing the awareness of the contradictions, ruptures and subtle differences in the personal work of memory and the processes of the public culture of remembrance. Remembrance as material and medium is seen here as a palimpsest of itself. And these works reveal meaningful, beautiful and surreal details of the grand narratives, using strategies of reversal, duplication and work with different temporal layers and recontextualisation. This is sometimes done in an ironic and humorous manner. In the magnificent stage version of »Unexpected Rules« on 35mm film, the Swiss artists Frédéric Moser & Philippe Schwinger have undertaken a reinterpretation of the »Clinton-Lewinski affair« with its »inappropriate intimate contacts«. The real stage was placed in the exhibition and positioned cleverly at the entrance to the show. In this way, visitors cannot avoid confronting the very typical American and thus »courageous way of truth« right at the start. Hundreds of coloured globes on the walls and ceiling form the frame for what is happening and open it for several more associations ranging from the red lamps of an occupied confessional in Rome and the signs of red-light establishments to the illuminated illusion of film and the discovery of truth.
A detailed account of further striking works would be possible – such as the politically charged work of the British artist Rod Dickinson about the »Milgram Experiment«, one of the most controversial experiments in social psychology of the 20th century, here displayed as an exact spatial reconstruction, or excursions in cultural history such as the remake of a secretly made video documentary of a legendary concert of the Cramps by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. But in conclusion, mention should be made of Kerry Tribe’s video installation »Here & Elsewhere« as a final highlight of this convincingly conceived and realised exhibition. This work is also refreshingly free of didactic intent and any will to enlighten. In this way, the thoughts of a very earnest young girl that is giving answers to the questions of an older man situated outside the picture can develop into an astonishingly authentic and intelligent discourse – about precisely the thematic references that can be found in the exhibition: history, temporality, intersubjectivity and the way it feels to remember.

 

Translated by Timothy Jones

 

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