nonstop

nonstop
dividing lines are drawn, territories are marked out, walls are built, borders are patrolled. The European debt crisis, terrorism, migration, pandemics, political tensions, and wars seem to legitimise the construction of fortifications, and bring about a renaissance of the border.¹

nonstop
presents itself as a visual border which is nonstop presented in the exhibition space. The flood of images deriving from the linearly arranged monitors strains the perception and makes it impossible to decipher the particular moving images that follow a historical narrative. Only by approaching them, it is possible to individually tackle the works on display.

nonstop
the videos run in a loop. They tell stories of visible and invisible borders, weave historically important events with day-to-day politics, and develop possible future scenarios.

nonstop
the tap drips. In its own rhythm.

nonstop
right-wing extremists from the Identitarian movement gather in Vienna's Märzpark on 11th June, 2016, as “heirs of the Revolutions of 1848”, to demonstrate against immigration and migration.

nonstop
recollections appear for a split second. A flock of birds, an aeroplane, a soldier, and a child are only a few of many ghosts of the past. In between, it is black — and somewhere a smartphone rings.

nonstop
the boundaries of time become blurred in the interplay of artefacts from the past and the present. But looking back also means to look at the role of historiography and collective memory from today's perspective and to draw conclusions, for the present and the future, from the past.

nonstop
the tap drips. It follows a different calendar.

nonstop
a young man walks along a brick wall. In the endless repetition of this scene, hopelessness and the futility of any effort are imprinted.

nonstop
rockets are launched heading for space. To the rhythm of Franz Lehár's classic aria “You Are My Heart’s Delight”, the missiles float through the air as if in a dance choreography. Space travel becomes a firework in extreme heights.

nonstop
the construction of a barrier begins, in the early morning hours of 13th August, 1961. It runs right through the middle of Berlin. Within a few days, people are separated from each other, streets, squares, and houses are divided, and rail connections are interrupted. The Berlin Wall becomes a symbol of the Cold War that divides the world into capitalist and communist social systems, and provokes a fierce competition for the conquest of space between the USA and the Soviet Union.

nonstop
the tap drips. Time stands still.

---

¹ In 2020, there were 311 international borders with a total length of 261,500 kilometres. If one adds permanent and variable maritime borders to these, one comes to about 750 interstate borders worldwide. (cf., Delphine Papin and Bruno Tertrais, L’Atlas des frontières: murs, conflits, migrations, Paris, Les Arènes, 2016 (nouvelle édition 2021), p 17-18. Atlas der Unordnung. 60 Karten über sichtbare, unsichtbare und sonderbare Grenzen, Darmstadt 2020, S. 17-18.)

nonstop
quotes from Polish films are repeated. Combined with excerpts from old gay porn, music and home video films, or social media clips — the heteronormative, heterosexist, and chauvinistic images from the cinema during the time of the Polish People's Republic are read in a queer way.

nonstop
the prisoners are surveilled. There is total control. The camera, from which no angle stays hidden, becomes a weapon. The recordings depict how badly people are treated as prisoners.

nonstop
a boat drifts on the high seas. Seconds seem like hours, hours like days, days like an eternity. The sea becomes an almost insurmountable border for refugees on their way to Europe.

nonstop
lives are pervaded by violent border regimes, people are ostracised because of their skin colour, religion, language, sexual orientation, and political outlooks.

nonstop
the tap drips. Time is running out.

nonstop
strange things are happening in Antarctica. Every day new knowledge of the South Pole is revealed on digital platforms, and secret messages are decoded using historical maps, symbols, and signs. Evidence that discloses the great conspiracy against humanity.

nonstop
we will play here, the voice of a child promises. When we return. In the meantime, the underground amusement park, with its ping-pong tables and rowing boats, the merry-go-round, and the Ferris wheel, remains empty — the deserted venues testify to the finiteness of human existence.

nonstop
users make contact with each other. Beyond physical and linguistic barriers, in a territorially devoid dimension, it is possible to convey the presence of a person, purely emotionally, and to engage in intimate relationships without being physically close.

nonstop
elastic figures explore each other. Their bodies move in unison, touch each other tenderly, become fluid, and reassemble. After the end of human civilisation, the technologically determined beings establish a society of empathy, characterised by collaborative relationships, harmony, and stability.

nonstop
different temporalities collide, the dividing lines between truth and fiction become fragile. In a near future, the former dichotomies — between subject and object, body and mind, speaking and acting, material and immaterial — can no longer be maintained. Inside and outside fall into one.

nonstop
the tap drips. Time and space dissolve.

 

 

 

text: Katja Stecher
translation: Stefan Thyri