In Kumasi, I wanted to visit a private house and made contact with a man, who invited me in. His young child was sitting on the floor, eating his lunch out of a bowl. It did not recognise me and was completely absorbed by its action, but started to look to the camera, which I placed in its direction. I lifted some hanging sheets to be able to properly say hello to the child. But when I did that, it immediately started to scream but quickly went back to eat, calmly and focused on taking food out of its bowl. Maybe this child hadn’t seen a white man before or simply wasn’t used to white-skinned people around the family home. My trip to Ghana brought back many of my travel-memories and reminded me again of the shocking reality that so many people on this planet do not live under Western World conditions. This time around, I found it hard to witness. I.e. no running water or a continuous power supply are so basic things for us. We just take them for granted.
This installation-piece should remind us that there are so many people in this world, who suffer in need of the basics. Whereas we have already forgotten about them, under a mountain of consumed goods that we collect, cumulate and waste. But WE are simply not the centre of this world!
Blu-ray DISC distributed and available through BLOOMSBURY VIDEO LIBRARY, is home to a rich, growing range of streaming collections for students, teachers and researchers across the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Single video & sound installations are part of the Blu-ray Disc that accompanies the ARTIST BOOK INTERVENTION
INTERVENTION – project series 2009 in HD experimentations with performance and new media art
- the project series results in an ARTIST BOOK of photographs, text and a Blu-Ray Disc with audio-visual installations
- KUMASI PART THREE developed at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Ghana August 2009
- live performance CAN YOU SEE THE SOUND? at the Kumasi Museum of Art August 2009
- artistic documentation of Kumasi Symposium CURIO KIOSKS PROJECT August 2009
- audio-visual installation GHANA CHILD adresses cultural differences and barriers
- ÉVORA PART TWO developed during Media and Performing Arts Festival Portugal July 2009
- SALZBURG PART ONE developed during residency at subnet media art platform Austria May 2009
- AIR format and use of experimental technologies discussion in a SUBNET-INTERVIEW May 2009