Videostills and installation view: Kunstraum Innsbruck (medien.kunst.tirol), Innsbruck (A)
Escalating perception /
the path
2005, multi-channel videoinstallation, 5:34, DVD player, video beamer, 5.1
Dolby surround speakers, 3 chairs
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Camera: Rudolph Germann
Cast: Katharina Karrenberg, Thomas B. Müller
Recorded at Videographe (artist-run-centre, Montreal - CA)
Edited at Werkleitz Gesellschaft e.V. - Centre for Art and Visual Media Saxony-Anhalt,
Halle/Saale
Supported by the Art fund of the Provincial Government of South Tyrol
Description
Shot on location near Montreal, this video shows – split on two linguistic
layers - two aspects of thread in meeting an unknown on an escalator: a physical
and a visual thread.
The visual thread shows how we perceive each other as a thread for our own
psychological stability, based on a confrontation between “symbols of
luck and happiness”. Symbols, such as beauty, social position and happiness
in relationship and family. This thread is experienced on a very mental and
intimate way, and is represented in the video by excerpts of audio interviews
with two Francophone man and one Anglophone woman from Montreal about their
way to experience visual confrontation.
The physical thread, expressed through a meeting between two people in a desolate
landscape, shows the human necessity to valuate the unknown’s physical
attributes in order to guarantee one’s own safety. Niccoli has decided
to substitute the escalator with a hiking trail, a “Path”, in
order to underline the archaic and human aspect of self-protection.
©2007 christian niccoli. all rights reserved