Premiere at the Staatstheater: Christoph Girardet - Tausend Augen

A two-channel video installation at the Staatstheater Oldenburg in cooperation with the Edith-Russ-Haus

Start of the projection and reception in the foyer of the Staatstheater, Theaterwall 19, D-26122 Oldenburg:

14 November 2018, 7 p.m.

Tausend Augen [Thousand Eyes], Christoph Girardet‘s video installation for the Staatstheater Oldenburg, consists in actual fact of one thousand eyes. Close ups of pairs of eyes, taken from films of the past century of cinema in which the motif advanced to become a cinematographic topos, are projected onto two juxtaposed surfaces. However, the glances never meet. The pairs of eyes are shown alternatingly on the two surfaces, never simultaneously – one side always remains empty. Generated according to the random principle, new choreographies continuously result.

The expectation of a classic dramaturgy is consciously circumvented here. The eyes of women, men and children emerge abruptly from out of the darkness and vanish again, remaining in their own sphere like spirits. The abundance of emblematic images condenses into a genealogy of the cinema, creating a kaleidoscope of painterly qualities.

In the process, however, the supposed interchangeability of the eye motif runs counter to the intensity of the glances that reflect profoundly felt emotions and whose immediacy and urgency are not lessened by the repetition. The eyes demand attention. They are objects of observation and seem to observe the viewer at the same time. Eye contact in our media-oriented society is defined by desire, control and surveillance. However, the use of visual metaphors reminds us not least of the gift of sight as a guarantor of individual perception.

Christoph Girardet (born 1966)primarily makes use of found footage from the constantly growing archives of cinematic history, which he translates into his own compositions based on different conceptual specifications. This process results in distinct and immediate pieces in which the source material unfolds into new layers of meaning over and above analytical scrutiny. His works have been shown at exhibitions and film festivals around the world, for example Oberhausen, Berlinale, Semaine de la Critique Cannes, Kunstverein and Sprengel Museum Hannover, Deichtorhallen, Hirshhorn Museum, ZKM, Palais de Tokyo, MoMA PS1, etc. He lives and works in Hannover.

The double projection is visible daily from sundown to 12.30 a.m. at the stair tower of the Staatstheater.

Thomas Neveling (art2pano, Hannover) programmed the software for the installation.