"FACE TO FACE" (23.10. - 21.12.2002):
In her second solo exhibition, „Face to Face“, the Cologne based media artist Anna Anders (born 1959 in Munich) shows new video and photography works in the Gallery Gabriele Rivet. The works take the special spatial conditions of the gallery into consideration. She transforms the gallery rooms into living areas, where she stages privacy for the observer: Here somebody sleeps, there somebody puts on or takes off his clothes, the visitor is being watched through venetian blinds. At a different place a pane is being cleaned. The lifesize representation of the human being, and the staging of daily actions and processes is in the center of „Face to Face“. The expectations and the voyeuristic view of the observer are being discussed and his interaction with the work of art is being challenged.
In the work group „Stool“ monitors form the seat of the stool. The monitors show people that seem to be huddled up inside the stool. The observer has the option to take a seat and to confront the living thing below him.
The conscious realisation of borders, of barriers is also a topic in other works of the artist. In addition, the monitors, window panes, curtains, and venetian blinds not only function as projection surfaces but also as interfaces between inside and outside, between art work and observer.
„Changing Room“ transforms a door passage into a changing room. Behind its curtain two women are changing clothes. Their outlines and the clothing that is falling to the ground allow the observer to guess at the transformations and changes. The self-critical comments are directed towards the real observer.
Anna Anders’ video installations are sustained by their performative character. They create the impression of an action in realtime in the intermediate area of reality and virtuality. The ambivalence of veiling and revealing, of invisible and visible challenges our imagination.