#TakeOver: Behind the door
Thoughts about the work of Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Eitan Efrat
In einem Hauptseminar der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München haben Master- und Bachelor-Studierende des Bereichs Kunstgeschichte den Entstehungsprozess der Wechselausstellung „Tell me about yesterday tomorrow“ intensiv begleitet. Sie setzten sich mit ausgewählten Kunstwerken auseinander, waren bei der Eröffnung am 27. November 2019 Ansprechpartner*innen für die Besucher*innen und haben mit einzelnen Künstler*innen Interviews geführt. Daraus sind nun Beiträge für den Blog zur Ausstellung entstanden.
In the second basement of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, right next to the stairs in front of an electricity-room door, the work Habits by Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Eitan Efrat is shown. It’s an installation of two short videos: One, an analog 16mm, showing bolts of lightning over the Mediterranean sea, the other showing a spontaneous recording of Rita, the artists’ young daughter.
In the second basement on the long bench leading towards that electricity door, I met the two artists on the day of the exhibition opening. We started talking about the unusual placement of the artwork. They specifically asked for it to be installed in the basement, even though it’s probably the furthest away from the permanent exhibition as possible. Sirah tells about their first impression of the rough content in the permanent exhibition and the encounter of images of children and violence. “We wanted to put our child far away from that.” Eitan explains.
Sirah: “There are many moments throughout the permanent exhibition that are like [ugh].”
Eitan: “Can you verbalize [ugh]?”
Sirah: “No…“
Eitan: “How do you spell it?”
Sirah: “… just like too much pain to endure.” She goes on: “Rita is obviously a very privileged child who has the possibility to decide on how her image can be portrayed and shown and there is something about this that I find very hopeful.” Sirah further explains how important it is, to find places of hope and to protect them.
Down in the basement of the Munich Documentation Centre, next to the auditorium, they found this more intimate and isolated place. There they also found the door. Next to the symbol of electricity, a bolt of lightning, their projection shows the thunderstorm over the sea. Light and lightning are symbols of life and power, something people want to control.
In the second film, the little girl, Rita, takes control over a video her father is taking of light and shadows the sun creates on a door in their apartment. Sirah points out that both doors, the one in the Munich Documentation Centre and the one in the video, are closed, yet they indicate that there is something behind them. “The hallway is a dead end, but it is also not a dead end because there is something behind that door” she elucidates. The work tries to approach how certain (hi)stories are told. Information and the ones who pass it on can be questioned. Who is in the spotlight and who is not? And what is behind that door?
With Habits the artists wanted to bring a new perspective into the exhibition; an idea for the future. Something that is not yet told, not yet completed. Habits the work, at the very end of the exhibition, throws the visitors back to where they are now. It brings us back into the present.
Sirah explains: “It is an opportunity to release a certain heaviness that is existing throughout the exhibition.”
The work suggests receptivity for the possibilities of a future already imaginable.
It’s a door.
Von Katharina Roßmy, Studierende der Kunstgeschichte an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
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#TakeOver: Behind the door
Thoughts about the work of Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Eitan Efrat
In einem Hauptseminar der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München haben Master- und Bachelor-Studierende des Bereichs Kunstgeschichte den Entstehungsprozess der Wechselausstellung „Tell me about yesterday tomorrow“ intensiv begleitet. Sie setzten sich mit ausgewählten Kunstwerken auseinander, waren bei der Eröffnung am 27. November 2019 Ansprechpartner*innen für die Besucher*innen und haben mit einzelnen Künstler*innen Interviews geführt. Daraus sind nun Beiträge für den Blog zur Ausstellung entstanden.
In the second basement of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, right next to the stairs in front of an electricity-room door, the work Habits by Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Eitan Efrat is shown. It’s an installation of two short videos: One, an analog 16mm, showing bolts of lightning over the Mediterranean sea, the other showing a spontaneous recording of Rita, the artists’ young daughter.
In the second basement on the long bench leading towards that electricity door, I met the two artists on the day of the exhibition opening. We started talking about the unusual placement of the artwork. They specifically asked for it to be installed in the basement, even though it’s probably the furthest away from the permanent exhibition as possible. Sirah tells about their first impression of the rough content in the permanent exhibition and the encounter of images of children and violence. “We wanted to put our child far away from that.” Eitan explains.
Sirah: “There are many moments throughout the permanent exhibition that are like [ugh].”
Eitan: “Can you verbalize [ugh]?”
Sirah: “No…“
Eitan: “How do you spell it?”
Sirah: “… just like too much pain to endure.” She goes on: “Rita is obviously a very privileged child who has the possibility to decide on how her image can be portrayed and shown and there is something about this that I find very hopeful.” Sirah further explains how important it is, to find places of hope and to protect them.
Down in the basement of the Munich Documentation Centre, next to the auditorium, they found this more intimate and isolated place. There they also found the door. Next to the symbol of electricity, a bolt of lightning, their projection shows the thunderstorm over the sea. Light and lightning are symbols of life and power, something people want to control.
In the second film, the little girl, Rita, takes control over a video her father is taking of light and shadows the sun creates on a door in their apartment. Sirah points out that both doors, the one in the Munich Documentation Centre and the one in the video, are closed, yet they indicate that there is something behind them. “The hallway is a dead end, but it is also not a dead end because there is something behind that door” she elucidates. The work tries to approach how certain (hi)stories are told. Information and the ones who pass it on can be questioned. Who is in the spotlight and who is not? And what is behind that door?
With Habits the artists wanted to bring a new perspective into the exhibition; an idea for the future. Something that is not yet told, not yet completed. Habits the work, at the very end of the exhibition, throws the visitors back to where they are now. It brings us back into the present.
Sirah explains: “It is an opportunity to release a certain heaviness that is existing throughout the exhibition.”
The work suggests receptivity for the possibilities of a future already imaginable.
It’s a door.
Von Katharina Roßmy, Studierende der Kunstgeschichte an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München