FRÖNEND

Synchronised Video Triptych: FRÖNEND | Performers: elisabeth m eitelberger and bello benischauer

… our doubts… are like a gate…

that we have to walk through… every single day…

If we breath calmly and connect with space… emotionally,

we can manage to keep our wariness at bay…

dreams are men’s elixir of life…

FRÖNEND (German for the word “indulging”) is a video triptych in the style of the Existence Theatre method that exhibits the human form – in this work again – the artists themselves. Three performing figures are placed next to each other, wrapped up in white curtains, metaphorically in their own worlds and thoughts. They cover and unravel their bodies with the curtains in repeating actions, exposing themselves to the viewer in all their nakedness. With their movement they seem to underline their single trains of existential thought.

The moment of reality: is it possible to capture it? Which situations, which daily thoughts make us feel trapped in a certain lifestyle, a particular living and/or cultural environment? The artists observe such moments of their own reality in these separately filmed parts. They explore anew performative actions in front of the camera. And again apply a concurrent use of language, this time as an aphoristic text, spoken in English and German. Over the years the artists have repeatedly used white body paint to symbolise the white human population at large. They use the colour white as a stain, a mark of Western civilisation that carries a great guilt (a guilt, not based on religious beliefs but concerning this world’s overall exploitation: addressing the great gap between the rich and the poor, the discrimination of other cultures and their individual people).

We are all wrapped up in our lifestyles. It is hard to break that cycle, but it is not impossible! This is again an artistic exploration in which both artists confront themselves with the many facets of the great guilt of our times: materialism and its apparent and hidden effects on the individual.

FRÖNEND wall-objects have been created in relation to the video triptych, shock-freezing two of these momentary situations.

screening sample

• For exhibition: the video triptych has to be played synchronously, on three 50″ (127cm) High Definition Plasma TVs, mounted vertically.

EXISTENCE THEATRE Production Ⓒ ART IN PROCESS

Tags: german, mounted vertically, studio acts, synchronously