Momentum 2006 - Domestic Affairs

The group exhibition Domestic Affairs presents artists that are focusing on cultural or political matters while exploring the distinction between themselves and “the other.”

The term Domestic Affairs is referring to large-scale domestic political issues, but it is also used to describe personal issues regarding family matters. The artists presented in this exhibition interfere with or respond to their familiar environment using photo and/or video as descriptive tools without claims of objectivity. They are acting as subjective quasi-anthropologists, observing either with the gaze of a self-imposed outsider-position, or of an insider looking at the familiar from a distance, rendering it unfamiliar. The artists are investigating themes like the meaning of name-giving in Japanese culture, the bethels on the west coast of Norway or the proliferation of surveillance cameras in post-9/11 New York. The starting point for Domestic Affairs was the experience of a certain artistic approach among younger artists often working with video and photography; they avoid the use of dominant TV close-ups and appropriate instead the documentary’s illusion of authenticity and realism. Showing personal environments and experiences in a distanced, impersonal way, the artists construct a paradoxical intimacy with a private, but seldom confessional view. The works presented in this exhibition can be divided into two main strategies: The look of the insider and the look of the outsider. The artists themselves are deliberately playing with these artificial distinctions, making themselves as much a part of the artwork as the explored topic.

Lene Ask’s photo series “Bethels” conveys a personal distance to a literally domestic environment. Depicting the strong religious and pietistic milieu where Ask was raised, these photos are taken from small chapels in the area of south-western Norway known as “the Bible Belt”. Ask is investigating this environment’s impact on her personal development, while at the same time documenting a community and architecture that is gradually vanishing.

Another kind of personal distance is present in Francisca Benitez’ work “Preemptive Disappearance”. The video tells the story of the sudden disappearance of Benitez’ husband in New York. The images portray the husband through his non-presence in the domestic space; through that space the viewer perceives him and understands Benitez’ fear and anxiety.

Zachary Fabri is working with performance based videos and is occupied with themes such as ethnicity, distinction and belonging. In his video work “The Loading Dock Series,“ Fabri stages himself in front of surveillance cameras while filming the monitors. The spectator is watching the guard, while he is watching the performing artist. By seeing the guard’s shadow and hearing his voice, the presence of the guard is melting together with Fabri’s gestures. This is creating a situation with layers of surveillance, questioning who is watching who.

While living in Japan, Mai Hofstad Gunnes became interested in the meaning of name-giving in Japanese culture. In the work “What do you mean? Part I” she asks several young people why they were given their actual name, and which consequences this might have for their lives. In simple interviews we are introduced to individual stories about the different names. In “What do you mean? Part II,” adult women explains how their names have had an impact on their self-perception and shaped them as individuals. The stories told in the work reveal hidden structures that influence the formation of identities.

Jesper Nordahl is working with video closely related to the broader term of documentary, and he is occupied with the effects of global developments on various socio-political fields. In the work “Jinnah Cricket Club”, Nordahl interviews the players of the cricket club in a suburb of Stockholm. Regarded as exotic elements in Sweden, the players, who mainly come from Asia, talk about their background, their player’s positions in the team and their hopes for a national cricket team in Sweden.

Julika Rudelius is challenging the western view on foreigners, placing herself in the role of an ignorant investigator. In the video “Your blood is as red as mine” she asks black men in her neighborhood in Amsterdam how it feels to be black. Using strategies from television production, her movies first seem documentary and descriptive. But Rudelius stages her interviews in an ambiguous way that forces her audience to interpret the dialogue and look for eventual truths themselves.

Lene Ask, born 1974 in Stavanger, Norway. Lives and works in Oslo.

Francisca Benitez, born 1974 in Santiago, Chile. Lives and works in New York.

Zachary Fabri, born 1977 in Florida, US. Lives and works in Berlin and New York.

Mai Hofstad Gunnes, born 1977 in Oslo, Norway. Lives and works in Berlin.

Jesper Nordahl, born 1969 in Stockholm, Sweden. Lives and works in Berlin.

Julika Rudelius, born 1968 in Cologne, Germany. Lives and works in Amsterdam.