Helene Sommer
29 Apr - 22 May 2010
Chino Space: Solo Project
Helene Sommer
Variations of Max
2010
22 min. DVD Video.
“In 1978, the year I was born,
an emancipation battle of the people of Africa was taking place,
a Pole became Pope,
there was a socialist revolution in Afghanistan,
Octavio Cortázar’s film El brigadista was released,
the first test-tube baby was born"
History and imagination run together into a narration in which the borders between the two dissolve until they become the same.
For her presentation in the Chino space, Helene Sommer (Norway 1978, lives and works in Berlin) focuses on her personal ancestors’ history, mixing the narration with images from different sources. Her research crosses the book Syncronoptische Weltgeschichte (Syncronoptical world history) by Arno Peters and his wife, as well as intertwining Arno Peters’ biography with her own.
Composed as an open research documentary, the images show facts that often differ from the narrating voice and the appearing texts, in a structure which seems to follow a hyperlink method of research; starting from something specific to end up discovering things wholly different.
The images represent historical events and epochs, whether documentary or fictional.
The narrating voice that follows the artist’s ancestors’ history, parallel to Arno Peters’ biography and various historical facts, creates a fascinating collage of free citations and references.
Helene Sommer
Variations of Max
2010
22 min. DVD Video.
“In 1978, the year I was born,
an emancipation battle of the people of Africa was taking place,
a Pole became Pope,
there was a socialist revolution in Afghanistan,
Octavio Cortázar’s film El brigadista was released,
the first test-tube baby was born"
History and imagination run together into a narration in which the borders between the two dissolve until they become the same.
For her presentation in the Chino space, Helene Sommer (Norway 1978, lives and works in Berlin) focuses on her personal ancestors’ history, mixing the narration with images from different sources. Her research crosses the book Syncronoptische Weltgeschichte (Syncronoptical world history) by Arno Peters and his wife, as well as intertwining Arno Peters’ biography with her own.
Composed as an open research documentary, the images show facts that often differ from the narrating voice and the appearing texts, in a structure which seems to follow a hyperlink method of research; starting from something specific to end up discovering things wholly different.
The images represent historical events and epochs, whether documentary or fictional.
The narrating voice that follows the artist’s ancestors’ history, parallel to Arno Peters’ biography and various historical facts, creates a fascinating collage of free citations and references.