Bigert & Bergström
23 Feb - 11 Mar 2007
Bigert & Bergström
Last Supper, Studio 2
February 23 – March 11 2007
Opening: Thursday, 22. February 2007, 19 h
The Middle Ages came back long ago. Even executions are now accumulated as shareware in the videoclip databases of Youtube.com, and the media editors are not the guilty parties this time; as can be seen from the download statistics, it is a matter of the users’ greed. The new project by Mats Bigert and Lars Bergström, therefore, not only provides political debate on the death penalty as a political and social ritual. It is also an exemplary demonstration of how art can take a second and even a third look at the media spectacle.
Last Supper is a 16mm film about the ritual of the last meal, the now proverbial final privilege of prisoners about to be led to their execution. The custom is as old as the death penalty itself and to be found in a range of cultures. It was the way that merciful executioners equipped the condemned man for his path into the next world. But Bigert & Bergström are not presenting cultural history here. They make a former cook from death row into their film’s protagonist, showing a ritual that has lost its meaning and been transformed into a mere act of administration; the last stage but one in a punishment that is upheld as a media symbol.
The Middle Ages came back long ago. Even executions are now accumulated as shareware in the videoclip databases of Youtube.com, and the media editors are not the guilty parties this time; as can be seen from the download statistics, it is a matter of the users’ greed. The new project by Mats Bigert and Lars Bergström, therefore, not only provides political debate on the death penalty as a political and social ritual. It is also an exemplary demonstration of how art can take a second and even a third look at the media spectacle.
Last Supper is a 16mm film about the ritual of the last meal, the now proverbial final privilege of prisoners about to be led to their execution. The custom is as old as the death penalty itself and to be found in a range of cultures. It was the way that merciful executioners equipped the condemned man for his path into the next world. But Bigert & Bergström are not presenting cultural history here. They make a former cook from death row into their film’s protagonist, showing a ritual that has lost its meaning and been transformed into a mere act of administration; the last stage but one in a punishment that is upheld as a media symbol.
Last Supper, Studio 2
February 23 – March 11 2007
Opening: Thursday, 22. February 2007, 19 h
The Middle Ages came back long ago. Even executions are now accumulated as shareware in the videoclip databases of Youtube.com, and the media editors are not the guilty parties this time; as can be seen from the download statistics, it is a matter of the users’ greed. The new project by Mats Bigert and Lars Bergström, therefore, not only provides political debate on the death penalty as a political and social ritual. It is also an exemplary demonstration of how art can take a second and even a third look at the media spectacle.
Last Supper is a 16mm film about the ritual of the last meal, the now proverbial final privilege of prisoners about to be led to their execution. The custom is as old as the death penalty itself and to be found in a range of cultures. It was the way that merciful executioners equipped the condemned man for his path into the next world. But Bigert & Bergström are not presenting cultural history here. They make a former cook from death row into their film’s protagonist, showing a ritual that has lost its meaning and been transformed into a mere act of administration; the last stage but one in a punishment that is upheld as a media symbol.
The Middle Ages came back long ago. Even executions are now accumulated as shareware in the videoclip databases of Youtube.com, and the media editors are not the guilty parties this time; as can be seen from the download statistics, it is a matter of the users’ greed. The new project by Mats Bigert and Lars Bergström, therefore, not only provides political debate on the death penalty as a political and social ritual. It is also an exemplary demonstration of how art can take a second and even a third look at the media spectacle.
Last Supper is a 16mm film about the ritual of the last meal, the now proverbial final privilege of prisoners about to be led to their execution. The custom is as old as the death penalty itself and to be found in a range of cultures. It was the way that merciful executioners equipped the condemned man for his path into the next world. But Bigert & Bergström are not presenting cultural history here. They make a former cook from death row into their film’s protagonist, showing a ritual that has lost its meaning and been transformed into a mere act of administration; the last stage but one in a punishment that is upheld as a media symbol.