GABRIELA LÖFFEL documentation (selection)
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GABRIELA LÖFFEL
documentation
(selection)
g_loeffel@bluemail.ch
http://vimeo.com/gabrielaloeffel
http://loeffelgabriela.com
http://www.sikart.ch
Videostills “Offscreen“
Table of contents p 03 inside Video installation 2019 p 04 performance Video installation 2017 - 2018 p 05 unseen Series of photos, light box 2016 p 06 the case Video installation 2015 p 07 fassung #1 Video installation 2015 p 08 offscreen Video installation 2013 (DE 2014) p 09 embedded language Video installation 2013 p 10 untitled Series of photos 2012 p 11 setting Video installation 2011 p 12 the easy way out Video installation 2010 p 13 fallbeispiel Video installation 2006 p 14 angle vide Video installation 2005 p 15 fokus Video installation 2002-2003 p 16 cv p 18 texts
inside
Installation / 3-channel video / Speakers / 35min. / 2019
In collaboration with
Ti Wang - Interpreter
Annely Steiner, Laurent Aussel - Technicians at Volumetric Studio
term definitions :
Lawyer Guangzhou, China
Lawyer Shanghai, China
Sébastien Guex - Historian at University of Lausanne
Marc-André Renold - Professor at University of Geneva, and lawyer
My research work for “Inside” started in the Free Trade Zone in Shanghai, at the “International Artwork
Exchange Center” then under construction. With this project, I explore issues related to the freeports for art
storage, also using translation processes to raise questions about the structural conditions for the type of global
finance systems at work in these Art Free Ports.
After Shanghai, I continued my exploration at the Geneva Art Free Port. There, in front of the first Free Port
of the kind, I staged and filmed a translation sequence. The Free Port of Geneva serves here as the film setting
where interpreter Ti Wang simultaneously interprets from Mandarin Chinese into English the conversation I
recorded during my visit at the construction site of the “International Artwork Exchange Center” in Shanghai.
Another part of “Inside” approaches the interior of the Art Free Port. The impossibility of filming with my
camera the real Inside has led me into the domain of Virtual Reality and to the places where these realities are Videostills “Inside” 2019
designed, the VR studios. In one of the most innovating European volumetric production studios “4D Views”
in Grenoble, the interpreter, Ti Wang, works again between the Chinese and English language. This time, she
interprets the texts that I have mandated from Chinese and Swiss lawyers and historian specialising on the
question of Free Ports. Each of them gave explanations and comments on terms I had proposed, like “Territory”,
“Offshore”, “Technique”... . As the interpreter translates these recorded audio files at the “4DViews” studio,
she is led with the help of VR glasses inside a fictional 3D Art Free Port, created according to my indications.
All these work phases and interpreting processes were filmed in their entirety and edited together with the
different voices into a 3-channel video installation.
The transfer of these themes pertaining to Art Free Ports into a place of translation, of performative language,
and virtual reality, allows me to create space for interruption, and gives way to possible insights on the overlaps
between the fields of economic policies, financial structures and art markets.
Filmed in front of the Free Port in Geneva, the International Artwork Exchange Center in Shanghai, and in
“4DViews” VR studio in Grenoble.
With support from the Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain Genève (FCAC), the Migros Cultural Percentage,
the Masé Studios and Pro Helvetia.
video-excerpt :
https://vimeo.com/427366913
Exhibition “Inside” Cacy 2020
Photo : Claude Cortinovis 3
performance
Installation / 2-channel video projection / Speakers / 25min. / 2017-2018
In collaboration with
Amy Carroll - Speech Coach
Rudi van der Merwe - Speaker
This video installation is based on an audio recording of a conference speech presented by the CTO of a
homeland security company. I made this recording during an international security industry trade fair.
During the last years since 2001, globally, the security industry has undergone wide-ranging promotion and
expansion, and this development of industries and services in the domain of homeland security could possibly
be read as an economic reflection of politics. In national budgets and likewise the performance on the stock
markets, the security industry constantly generates both keen interest and high revenues. Politicised, the term
„security“ is turned into discourse and increasingly finds its way into everyday public and private events, but
often without allowing any consistent and highly necessary discussion of its definition to take place.
The content of the recorded conference presentation raises several questions concerning economic and political
interests, and at the same time the use of language and rhetoric appears into focus.
In order to examine this speech more closely, to work with what it says and how it says it, I commissioned the
optimisation of the recording of it by a coach for public speaking. Speech coach Amy Carroll, together with the
speaker, Rudi van der Merwe, reprocesses the speech on stage in an empty conference hall in front of my camera.
The perfecting which the recorded speech undergoes at the hands of the coach involves adapting both body Videostills “Performance” 2017-2018
language and spoken language specifically to its function. This process of optimisation and appropriation by a
public-speaking specialist allows me to subject the spoken language and the content of the speech to sustained
scrutiny. The production of efficient language that serves, as in this speech, to convey economic and political
interests, should become visible here.
I filmed this performative moment of speech coach Amy Carroll and speaker Rudi van der Merwe with two
cameras and from different perspectives.
The filming location, the EPFL conference centre, serves as an aesthetically symbolic setting and space for,
likewise, posing the questions concerning language and re-presentation.
The installation comprises two video projections and stereo sound through speakers.
EXCERPT FROM THE AUDIO RECORDING
„The market size last year is about three-hundred-ninety billion Dollars. One example of our findings is that the
dominance of the USA in this market will continue. The second one will be China, which is today the second one. ()
What are the fastest-growing markets - this is very important, because you want to go to a market which grows very
fast, because you can then catch a market share - it is big data, video analytics, cybersecurity and video surveillance.
And then border and perimeter barriers due to, mainly to Europe, is the second-fastest market“
Filmed at the Swiss Tech Convention Center / EPFL Lausanne.
With support from the City of Bern Cultural Department, Canton of Bern Cultural Office, the Masé Studio in
Geneva and the Swiss Tech Convention Center / EPFL Lausanne.
video-excerpt :
https://vimeo.com/270951304
4
unseen
Series of 7 photos / 34,6cm x 52cm x 9cm / Light box / 2016
This series of photographs originated during the Swift International Banking Operations Seminar (Sibos) in
Geneva in 2016. Sibos is the most important global trade fair for the finance sector and takes place in a
different city each year. It is typically attended by as many as 8000 CEOs, decision-makers and experts from
financial institutions worldwide. Specialists from financial market infrastructures and global businesses, as well
as partners from the technology branch, gather together here, in an exclusive setting, in order to negotiate, to
develop business and fiscal strategies, to network and to determine the future issues facing the finance industry.
At this event I was able to observe the presentation and representation of the world of finance at close quarters
and investigate the codes produced by them. Traces such as those of global financial policy rose to the visible
surface at this event intended exclusively for an embedded professional audience. The possible wider attendance
of the public at large was effectively excluded by the daily admission fee of CHF1000.
I focused my choice of view and image on the architecture of the fair stands. The design of these installations,
which steer the view of every outsider looking in; glazed spaces that control visibility and vision and prevent the
possible identification of the people inside. This fragmenting architecture, organising every look from outside,
was what interested me for this photo series, and it is here, therefore, that non-visibility takes centre stage,
forming the framework of “Unseen”.
The photographs are installed as light boxes, a form that allows me to integrate the content-related perspective
of closed space and to translate and extend it as an object.
Light box Photo from the series “Unseen” 5
the case
Installation / 2-channel video / Headphones / 34min. / 2015
The 2014 “ELSA Moot Court Competition on WTO Law” (court competition in international trade law),
which took place at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, builds the base for “The Case“.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only international organization holding authority over the rules
of international trade. In 1995, it replaced the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), which had
been created in 1947.
WTO’s primary goal is to foster liberalism via the promotion of free trade, the settlement of commercial
disputes and the oversight of national policies.
The Elsa Moot Court Competition on WTO Law for jurists is a simulated hearing of a legal case, which
different parties expose and debate on. It constitutes a moment where language morphs into rhetorics and
thus also into a specific instrument of discourse and politics. These processes, by which lawyers and judges
rhetorically negotiate laws, also constitute political moments that unveil the power of language.
During the semi-final and the final round, I filmed two different teams. One was from the renowned Harvard
Law School in Cambridge, which acted as the complainant during the final round. The other team came from
the National and Kapodistrian University in Athens. It embodied the complainant at the semi-final, and the
respondent at the final round of the hearing on the same legal case.
The legal case at the 2014 ELSA Moot Court Competition is built on a complaint filed with the WTO Court
by the fictive African State “United Kingdom of Commercia” against another fictive African State called the
“Federal Republic of Aquitania”.
The case may be described as follows : Videostills “The Case” 2015
In 2005, Nova Tertia, one of the Federal Republic of Aquitania’s provinces, sells its water supply and water
treatment to a private company, Avanti SA, signing a contract for 20 years.
In 2007, the company rises its service costs by 70%. At the same time, it refuses to carry out the extension and
renovation works the government has been calling for several times. This leads to a protest movement against
the contract signed with Avanti SA among the population.
In 2009, the province of Nova Tertia suspends the contract concluded with Avanti SA by anticipation.
The Headquarters of Avanti SA being in Commercia, the company requests the Ministry of Trade of the United
Kingdom of Commercia to file a complaint against the Federal Republic of Aquitania with the WTO Court.
This fictitious legal case, its description and the utterly realistic issues it brings up, raises questions regarding the
production of rhetorics, of language and of their application within economic and political structures.
I confront these questions with a visual language which produces fictive hypotheses to disturb again the
boundaries between documentary and fictional content.
The installation comprises 2 synchronized screens hanging next to each other, and the sound on headphones.
Filmed at the WTO, Geneva.
With support from the Office of Culture Canton Bern.
video-excerpt :
https://vimeo.com/171408018
Exhibition “The Case” Dazibao Montréal, 2015
Photo : Marilou Crispin 6
fassung #1
Installation / Single channel video / Headphones / Photo 13cm x 17cm / 24min. / 2015
In collaboration with
Benedikt Greiner - Actor
At the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Swiss Air Force “Air 14”, I staged an interview with one of the
employees of Pilatus Aircraft. Upon a common agreement, he exposed some of his personal positions to
me. Pilatus Aircraft is a company that may be qualified as a kind of symbol of Swiss politics with regard
to war material exports and applications - politics that have been regularly criticized, both nationally and
internationally, since the 1970’s.
Shortly after the interview, which was recorded on video, and which quite unsurprisingly didn’t yield any new
information whatsoever on the company’s export strategy, I received a text message from my interview partner
at Pilatus:
“Hello Mrs Loeffel. I kindly ask you to keep any recording you made of me during the interview confidential
and I trust in your discretion. Best regards.”
That text message is the point of departure for the realization of “Fassung #1”.
After having consulted with several business journalists in Switzerland, it could be supposed that such mandate
to remain silent, such censorship, may not merely be a coincidence. Rather, it could be considered as a partially
internalised method in the world of business, especially targeting critical journalists (often based on and
elaborated in conjunction with the Swiss Federal Unfair Competition Law/ UWG, UCA).
I then transposed this filmed interview in a theater, on an empty stage, in the absence of an audience, a stage Videostills “Fassung #1” 2015
also being a space of rhetorics. There is an actor on the stage, he sits in front of a screen and watches the original
interview. He attempts to imitate the interviewee as faithfully as possible. His task is to translate the Pilatus
employee’s words from Swiss German into high German and to reproduce his gestures and body language - he
has to be that person. This process of direct duplication induces various emotions in the actor, stress as well as
disruptive moments where we can see and hear the failure of language and translation.
This imitation technique, one of the most basic methods in drama, allows for the observation of language use
through copying and simulating. Thanks to the translation and transfer of the recorded interview into another
linguistic space, we are able to build up some distance to the actual content, which in turn possibly allows for a
questioning of the circumstances which language and power relations evolve in.
The video is being presented on a screen equipped with headphones. A photograph of the text message hangs
beside the screen.
Filmed at the Stadttheater in Bern, Vidmarhalle.
With the support of Pro Helvetia und Konzert Theater Bern.
video-excerpt :
https://vimeo.com/167124085
7
offscreen
Installation/ 3-channel video projection / 2 framed screens / Wireless headphones
Speakers / 28min. / 2012-2013 (german version 2014)
In collaboration with
Alister Mazzotti - Stunt choreographer
Tolga Degirmen, Sascha Girndt, Ralph Güthler, Anja Sauermann, Vanessa Wieduwilt - Stunt artists
Benedikt Greiner - German-language narrator
Paulo Dos Santos - French-language narrator
Julien Tsongas - English-language narrator
“Offscreen” is based on the account of a young man who went on a package holiday to Afghanistan and Iran in
2011. Holidaying in crisis zones, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea and Somalia is the latest holiday offer
from the tourist industry. Promotional slogans such as “Be there and Gain a real understanding of conflicts”
are used, while “Help rebuild” and “Get your hands dirty” appeal to tourists wishing to participate in on-site
aid efforts. Getting personally involved in “useful work”, for example clearing landmine fields, is just one of the
tours awaiting travellers. This new form of tourism is an extreme and worrying example of how we deal with the
realities of war, and of how tourism now deals with it as a consumer good.
An actor reinterpret the narrative text that I have edited, in order to create a shift here as well. This voice-over
takes centre-stage in “Offscreen”, it takes the visitors through the exhibition via headphones.
The text has been complemented and expanded upon with filmed images. In this visual language, I establish
yet another layer which creates space for reflection. To do this, I use the motion picture and its production
infrastructure, the film studio in Babelsberg Potsdam. These production sites, which have previously been Videostills “Offscreen” 2012-2013
used to make blockbuster films about historical and fictive wars, evoking a variety of memories, feelings and
experiences, were where I filmed for this project. With my camera, I observed the different scenes including the
plane set and the “Berliner Strasse” film set, which have become visual references for war films thanks to motion
pictures such as “The Pianist”.
I also filmed stunt artists rehearsing scenes in the special effects studio during their preparation, in a simulate
setting, for the actual shooting (so-called video previews). They used the holiday narrative as the context for the
scenes. Stunt artists represent danger and action – they brave danger and thus lend their bodies to the original
person, the actor. In this way, stunt performers are body doubles, and as bodies that are exclusively in danger
and in action, they symbolise the perfection that can face up to almost (any) danger. I relate these aspects to
the war tourists.
In the installation, the studio recordings are projected onto two framed screens, which in turn are in the form
of a stage scenery in the exhibition room. The recordings of the stunt performers are projected directly onto
the wall.
There are three versions of the installation, in English, in German and in French.
Filmed at the Studio Babelsberg Potsdam.
With the assistance of Studio Babelsberg AG, Potsdam Germany
With support from the City of Bern Cultural Department, Canton of Bern Cultural Office, 2012 grant from the
Société des Arts in Geneva, the City of Geneva Contemporary Art Fund (FMAC), the Canton of Geneva Contemporary
Art Fund (FCAC) and the Masé Studio in Geneva
video-excerpt :
https://vimeo.com/125989014 Exhibition „Geschichte in Geschichten“ Helmhaus Zürich, 2015
Photo : FBM Studio 8
embedded language
Installation / 2-channel video / Flat screen / Headphones / 19min. / 2013
In collaboration with
Jean-Luc Montminy - Dubbing artist
Joey Galimi - Studio director
Caroll Cafardy - Sound engineer
At an International Defence Exhibition 2012 in Poland, I interviewed, in English, an executive from a Polish
arms manufacturing firm. I then transposed this filmed interview in a Dubbing-studio in Montreal, Canada.
Dubbing artist and actor Jean-Luc Montminy (who is the French-Canadian voice for actors including Bruce
Willis and Denzel Washington) dubbed the interview into French in collaboration with a studio director and a
sound engineer, as would be done for a motion picture production.
I captured this moment of language and discourse deconstruction and reconstruction with my camera. The
moment at which an arms manufacturer is given another language and other words by a dubbing artist and
the technical infrastructure at a cinema becomes visible here. This process can lead to questions about language
and power and their (in)visibility, and also brings in the issue of armed politics in relation to film/the world of
cinema. Film and war have had a complex dialectic relationship since the beginning of motion picture history,
and are closely connected in terms of the production, the technology and image reception. Looking at these
relationships is part of this discussion.
This shift of a documentary to the production site of fiction – the film studio, should allow questioning around
the complex issues of political and economic interests on the difficult grounds of arms dealing. Videostills “Embedded Language” 2013
The installation comprises two synchronized screens and the sound on headphones.
Filmed in Cinélume film studio in Montreal.
In co-production with “Vidéographe” Montreal and “La Bande Vidéo” Quebec.
With support from the Canton of Bern Cultural Office.
video-excerpt :
https://vimeo.com/125994663
9
untitled
Series of 8 photos / 23x34.5cm / Text / 2013
This series of photographs is part of a research project that took me 2012 to an international Defence Exhibition
in Poland. There are around 400 companies from 29 countries at this trade fair, presenting their “goods” and
“services”. Politics and business go hand and hand into the spotlight. For a week, contracts, agreements and
deals are negotiated – and no-one worries about possibly being observed by a critical eye. All of this takes place
at a standard trade fair: there is a festive atmosphere, with culinary and musical entertainment provided round
the clock. Predominantly female trade fair hostesses also help create a “inviting” environment for businesspeople
and politicians.
Reality-distorting constructions became directly visible here, and the fair is a way of trivialising armed politics
and military force. The reality of war is completely masked and replaced with a show of technology and
entertainment, and, in my opinion, this perfectly illustrates the very complex issues of how realities are made
(in)visible. To consider this question further, I refer to extracts of texts, including this one by Judith Butler:
“Efforts to control the visual and narrative dimensions of war delimit public discourse by establishing and disposing
the sensuous parameters of reality itself – including what can be seen and what can be heard. As a result, it makes sense
to ask, does regulating the limits of what is visible or audible serve as a precondition of war waging, one facilitated by
cameras and other technologies of communication?“
Judith Butler
In: “Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable?“ Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2009
Photo : Gabriela Löffel
International Defence Industry Exhibition Poland, 2012
10setting
Installation / 2-channel video projection / Speakers / 33min. / 2011
In collaboration with
Daniel Hug - Sound Designer
Miruna Coca-Cozma - French-language narrator
Nadja Schulz-Berlinghoff - German -language narrator
Grafenwöhr is the biggest US army training camp outside the United States. The camp, comprising a total
area of 276km2, was set up under the Kingdom of Bavaria and has been US property since 1945. It lies within
a nature reserve, public access is prohibited. Soldiers stationed at Grafenwöhr usually undergo a three weeks
training before being sent off to Iraq or Afghanistan. At the same time, students, unemployed persons and other
German nationals are employed as extras at the training area. For three weeks, they are supposed to act the part
of Arab civilians to assist the soldiers in their training.
The accounts of two former extras build the backbone of “Setting”. The recordings that I made with the extras
are reinterpreted by an actress. This voice-over creates another shift in which realities, staging and facts, which
have been transferred to different arenas, reappear. Attention is therefore focused on the actual starting point
of this “staged war in Bavaria”.
These shifts are also present at the audio-visual level. I worked with sound designer Daniel Hug on the narratives
of the extras. We created a soundtrack containing references to films and war films, and the different sounds
associated with these. The sound manufacturing process is filmed with static video cameras in the radio play
studio, in order to allow sound, in its visual form, to take centre stage. This provokes questions about staging Videostills “Setting” 2011
and realities.
These video recordings are assembled as a rhythmic image composition and installed in the room as a dual
projection, alongside the audio track. However, for a large part of the narrative, no pictures are visible. The
sound fills the whole room and the video images appear unexpectedly at various dramaturgical points in the
narrative.
There are two versions of the installation, in German and in French.
Filmed at the radio play Studio DRS 2, TPC - Technology and Production Center, Basel.
With support from the City of Bern Cultural Department, Canton of Bern Cultural Office and the Migros Cultural
Percentage. TPC - Technology and Production Center Switzerland AG, Basel and the Département Cinéma / Cinéma
du réel at Head, the Geneva University of Art and Design.
video-excerpt :
https://vimeo.com/124518615
11the easy way out
Installation / 3-channel video projection / Headphones / Speakers / Slideshow / 20min. / 2010
In collaboration with
Sophie Hengl, Benoît Kremer, Nathalie Loiseau - Simultaneous interpreters for the French-language version
Carmen Delgado, Markus Mettler, Valeria Tschannen - Simultaneous interpreters for the German-language version
In “The easy way out“ interpreters, who normally work in the shadow of the diplomats and politicians for
whom they interpret, are put in the spotlight, in front of the video camera, and observed. The starting point of
this project was an audio recording that I made on the border of the US military training area in Grafenwöhr,
Bavaria. It centres on a discussion between a US soldier who has just come back from Iraq, a German hotel
owner in Grafenwöhr who provides accommodation for soldiers and the bilingual car saleswoman who lives
next door. The three interpreters experiment with simultaneously interpreting this conversation which moves
from everyday life in Bavaria and in conflict zones right through to political opinions and stances.
I filmed this moment of seeking words and comprehension, of attempting to transfer information and of
simultaneous understanding in a situation that is stressful for the interpreters. The recording is on three separate,
synchronously recorded pieces of footage.
In the exhibition room, the interpretations can be heard through the headphones, and at the same time the
video images of the respective interpreters appear projected on three screens. The original audio conversation,
recorded in Bavaria, can be heard over loudspeakers. The information in the conversation is fragmented and
thus leaves space for verification and attentive listening to the words and meanings, and their origins. The
observer is also struck by the repeated speechlessness of the interpreters faced with the conversation to be
interpreted, as well as their efforts to extract themselves from this void. Photographs of this border area between
was zu sagen hat, trete vor und schweige! »
the US military training area and the Bavarian country landscape are presented on flat screens. Territorial
symbols and cultural traces can be identified.
Photo from the slideshow / “The easy way out” 2010
Karl Kraus, 1914
„Wer etwas zu sagen hat, trete vor und schweige!“
[veːr] [ˈɛtvas] [tsuː] [ˈzaːgən] [hat], [ˈtreːtə] [foːr] [ʊnt] [ˈʃvaɪgə]
Karl Kraus, aus „In dieser grossen Zeit“ Die Fackel Nr. 404, Dezember 1914
There are two versions of this installation, with German interpreters and with French interpreters.
With support from the City of Bern Cultural Department, Canton of Bern Cultural Office and the Migros Cultural
Percentage.
With assistance from the École de traduction et d’interprétation ETI, Geneva.
video-excerpt :
https://loeffelgabriela.com/the-easy-way-out/
Exhibition “The easy way out” Galerie Ex-Machina Genève 2010
Photo : Erika Irmler 12fallbeispiel
Installation / Multi-channel video projection / Speakers / Loop / 2006
In collaboration with
Julie Beauvais, Fabio Bergamaschi, Antonio Buil, Catherine Büchi, Romaine Chapuis, Delphine Lanza,
Ismael Oiartzabal, Paola Pagani, Pauline Wassermann - Actors and dancers
In “Fallbeispiel”, which looks at the “falling body”, professional dancers and actors perform examples of falls.
The falls are repeated relentlessly until their physical effects can be seen, thus allowing the viewer to discern the
passage of time. Only the seconds just before and after the fall – the preparation, the effect and the reaction
of the falling person – are made visible. The traces and signs of the moments just before or after the fall entail
the uneasy question of how much longer each steady position can be held, thereby potentially depriving the
observer from their own protected position.The fall itself is replaced in the picture by a rhythmic “fading-out”
and reappearance of the body. Depending on the available space, life-size pictures of this filmed dancers and
actors are installed as a dual or triple channel projection.
The actual action, the fall not shown in the picture, is resumed on the sound track, which captures the adapted
and abstracted sounds of the bodies and their internal throbbing, vibrating, thudding and scuffing. This stands
in opposition to the image and its silence. These noises are recorded using contact and stethoscope microphones,
and represent an audio composition within the installation, in the form of surround sound.
With support from City of Bern Cultural Department, Canton of Bern Cultural Office and the Migros Cultural Percentage.
video-excerpt : Exhibition “Fallbeispiel” Galerie Stargazer, Genève 2010
https://vimeo.com/83380266 Photo : Erika Irmler
Videostills “Fallbeispiel” 2006
13angle vide
Installation / Video rear projection / Speakers / 6min. / 2005
In collaboration with
Giuditta, Joëlle, Saskia, Sebastien, Sony - Boxers
An important part of boxing training is the “shadow”, known as the “vide” in French. Shadow-boxing is fighting
alone against an invisible adversary. This imaginary, invisible opponent, and the fight against him, are the focus
of “Angle vide” for which I worked with professional boxers.
To what extent, and based on which imaginings and interests, can we create opponents and enemies? How do
we appropriate them? The invisible enemy and opponent, the pervasive danger, could be anyone.
The camera records the progressive, physical transformation and exhaustion, the loss of emotional control and
the concentration of the boxers.
These images are projected onto the screen in the middle of the exhibition room as video rear projections.
The imaginary opponent is also part of the content of the audio recordings. I asked the boxers how they entered
into this “state” of imagining an opponent. How do they transform the situation into an authentic fight with
an invisible opponent? How do they experience this situation of targeted aggression towards an “empty” target?
These audio recordings are installed and played as surround sound, meaning that the voices move throughout
the room. Videostills “Angle Vide” 2005
With support from City of Bern Cultural Department and Canton of Bern Cultural Office.
A version of the video with German subtitles is available.
video-excerpt :
https://vimeo.com/49305399
14fokus
Installation / Single channel video / Headphone / 5min.40’’ / 2002-03
In collaboration wtih
Ariane Blatter, Cora Liechti, Letitia Ramos, Doris Schmid.
Four women, who have never before had any contact with weapons, shoot a pistol for the first time at an
indoor gun range. The women confront their own limits and experiences of the perception and representation
of violence. This brief moment of confrontation has been recorded using a special 16mm high-speed camera
(150 frames/second).
“Fokus” is projected on loop. The original sound track (the breathing of the women and the shot) can be heard
through headphone. As the observer watches the film, they are in the same “isolated” situation as the women in
the film, who are also wearing headphones.
“Fokus” is also set against the backdrop of the question of how violence and gender roles are depicted in the
media. It is an attempt to questioning these representations of violence and roles constructions.
With support from City of Bern Cultural Department and Canton of Bern Cultural Office.
video-excerpt :
https://vimeo.com/83379312
15*1972 Oberburg/ CH
2005 / 2006 Formation pour l’enseignement artistique HTA, ESBA Genève, Liliane Schneiter
2000 - 2005 ESBA, Ecole supérieure des beaux-arts Genève, Laurent Schmid, Carmen Perrin
2002 / 2003 Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Peter Kogler
EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS (selection) 2011
2020 “Hors Bords” Halle Nord, Genève
“Inside” Centre d’art contemporain Cacy Yverdon-les-Bains “Staging Voices” Progr / Stadtgalerie, Bern
“Storytelling - Erzählende Kunst Heute und Morgen” Grimmwelt, Kassel Swiss Art Awards, Basel
“Inside” Standard/deluxe, Lausanne “Crosnier Extra Muros” Société des arts Genève, BAC Genève
“Performance” Optica Centre d’art contemporain, Montréal “Ex-Hibition” Galerie Ex-machina, Genève
2019 Mediathek “Café de rêves” Helmhaus, Zürich
“Film as idea, film as film, film as art” Galeria Studio, Varsovie “Art film screening” Red House Gallery, New York
Nominees for the Aparté Art Grant Galerie Ruine, Genève 2010
Body&Soul, Genève “The easy way out” Standard/deluxe, Lausanne
2018 “Fokus” Schweizer Videokunst, Landshuter Kunstnacht, Neue Galerie
“Gut gespielt. Der Mensch und sein Avatar” Alte Fabrik Rapperswil-Jona “Fallbeispiel” on Arte “die Nacht/la Nuit”
Art Paris Art Fair, Videoprogram, Paris “50JPG” Galerie Stargazer, Genève
“Stumble and choose” Médiathèque FMAC, Genève “The easy way out” Galerie Ex-Machina, Genève
“Multiple Contexts” Around Space Gallery, Shanghai 2009
“Choreography of the frame” Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Wien “Angle vide” on Arte “die Nacht/la Nuit”
2017 Duplex, Genève
“Work in motion” Mast, Bologna 2008
Espace libre, Biel “Fenstersprung” PROGR, Bern
“Video–∑” Neues Kino, Projektraum M54, Basel “Gleiche Höhe” Kunstprojekt Schweiz/Österreich, Wien
“Extended Cahiers” Ground, Moskau “Tribühne” Passagegalerie Künstlerhaus Wien
2016 “In Progress” PROGR, Bern
“Komplexe Systeme” E-Werk Galerie für Gegenwartskunst, Freiburg iB “700IS Selection 2007” ATA, San Francisco
“TWISTING C(R)ASH” Athen 2007
Swiss Art Awards, Basel “700IS Selection 2007” Alsager Gallery, Manchester. Filmcentre Rodina, St.Pétersbourg
2015 “700IS” Experimental Film and Videofestival, Egilsstadir
“Geschichte in Geschichten” Helmhaus, Zürich “Aeschlimann-Corti Stipendienausstellung” Kunstmuseum, Thun
“TWISTING C(R)ASH” Le Commun, Genève “CWW” O3ONE, Belgrad
“Embedded Language” Dazibao, Montréal 2006
“Fassung #1” Liste Art Fair Basel, Special Guest at Druckwerk Centre Georges Pompidou “Live-Streaming Arte die Nacht/la Nuit” Paris
“Kinematographische Räume” Kaskadenkondensator, Basel “Angle vide” on Arte “die Nacht/la Nuit”
2014 2005
Swiss Art Awards, Basel “Angle vide” Progr Ausstellungszone, Bern
“Bieler Fototage 2014” Biel “Fokus” on Arte “die Nacht/la Nuit”
“Cantonale Berne Jura” Kunsthaus, Langenthal “Success, Friends and career” Attitudes, Genève
2013 “Aeschlimann-Corti Stipendienausstellung” Kunstmuseum, Bern
“The easy way out” La Bande Vidéo, Québec “En mai, fais ce qu’il te plait” Palais de l’Athénée, Genève
Selection for „Fotopreis 2013 des Kantons Bern” Kornhausforum, Bern 2004
“Move Movie” Centre d’Art Contemporain Cacy, Yverdon-les-Bains “Fokus” Kunstsalon Berlin D
“Offscreen” Halle Nord, Genève “Aeschlimann-Corti Stipendienausstellung” Centre PasqueArt, Biel
2012 “Gonna Take You On” Zentralbüro, Berlin
“Setting” Espace d’Art Contemporain (les halles), Porrentruy “Mitte voll ins Schwarze” Videoprogramm VID, Grosshöchstetten
“Electric rendez-vous” Plug.In, Basel
16GRANTS AND AWARDS COLLECTIONS
2019 Swiss Federal Art Collection, Federal Office of Culture
Contribution Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain, Genève (FCAC) Swiss National Library Collection
2018 Collection des Beaux-Arts Jura
Contribution Migros-Kulturprozent Kantonale Kunstsammlung Bern, Amt für Kultur Kanton Bern
Work grant, Pro Helvetia FMAC / Fonds d‘art contemporain de la Ville de Genève
2017
Bourse pour artiste de plus de 35 ans de la Ville de Genève, FMAC RESIDENCIES
2016 2021
Swiss Art Award London, Landis&Gyr Foundation
Research Grant, Pro Helvetia 2020
2015 Beirut, research residency Pro Helvetia 2018
Award Irène Reymond Fondation Shanghai, Pro Helvetia
Grant Bildende Kunst, Amt für Kultur Kanton Bern 2013
2013 “La Bande Vidéo” Québec CA
Award “Anerkennungspreis / Fotopreise 2013” Amt für Kultur Kanton Bern “Vidéographe” Montréal CA
Contribution Amt für Kultur Kanton Bern 2006
2012 “Artdirekt” Berlin D
Grant 2012 Société des Arts, Genève “Gil-society” Akureyri IS
Contribution Fonds d’art contemporain de la Ville de Genève (FMAC) “Skaftfell” Seydisfjördur IS
Contribution Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain, Genève (FCAC)
Contribution Abteilung Kulturelles Stadt Bern PUBLICATIONS
Contribution Amt für Kultur Kanton Bern “Écouter un Film” Art&Fiction 2020 Sigrid Adorf, Karine Tissot https://artfiction.ch/
2011
“Inside› the Market” Kunstbulletin 04.2020 Sønke Gau https://www.artlog.net/
Swiss Art Award
Award “Fondation Gertrude Hirzel” Société des arts Genève “Gabriela Löffel désarme les lieux de pouvoir” Tribune de Genève 05/2020 Florence Millioud-Henriques
Contribution Abteilung Kulturelles Stadt Bern https://www.tdg.ch/
Contribution Amt für Kultur Kanton Bern “Offscreen -Wenn Bilder jenseits ihrer Ränder zurückblicken” Fink Verlag München 2019 Sigrid Adorf
Contribution Migros-Kulturprozent “slightly slipping on a banana skin” Médiathèque 2016-2018 Genève FMAC 2018 B. Le Pimpec, I.Vuille
2009
“Gabriela Löffel - Die Schweizerin erkundet in ihren Videos die Codes der Macht” Artline 06.2016 Annette Hoffmann
Contribution Migros-Kulturprozent
http://magazin.artline.org
Contribution Abteilung Kulturelles Stadt Bern
Contribution Amt für Kultur Kanton Bern “Die beunruhigende Abstraktion der Macht” Kunstbulletin 06.2016 Brita Polzer https://www.artlog.net
2007 Collection Cahiers d’Artistes 2015 Pro Helvetia 2015 Andrea Cinel https://loeffelgabriela.com/texts
Award “Aeschlimann-Corti Stipendium” Pro Helvetia Journal / Liste Art Fair Basel 2015 Daniel Morgenthaler
2006 “Gabriela Löffel - Millefeuille” Le Courrier 12. 2013 Samuel Schellenberg
Contribution Migros-Kulturprozent
“Bühnen für den Krieg” Kunstbulletin 11.2013 Brita Polzer https://www.artlog.net
Contribution Abteilung Kulturelles Stadt Bern
Contribution Amt für Kultur Kanton Bern “Setting” Citysharing.ch 2013, Merel van Tilburg http://www.citysharing.ch/
2005 “La fiction comme expérience des réalités” Kunstbulletin 05.2011 Françoise Ninghetto https://www.artlog.net/
Contribution Abteilung Kulturelles Stadt Bern “Le soldat n’est jamais le méchant” Le Courrier 11.2010 et Revue Daté 11/12. 2010 Tilo Steireif
Contribution Amt für Kultur Kanton Bern
17„COLLECTION CAHIERS D’ARTISTES 2015“
PRO HELVETIA, EDIZIONI PERIFERIA
Andrea
Reflections on the work of Gabriela Löffel Andrea Cinel
For more than ten years, Gabriela Löffel has been putting together trigger something in our minds which goes beyond factual reality
a body of work through which she confronts her viewers with issues and is more concerned with filmic memories. Remember for a
Cinel
including the representation of violence, the trivialisation of war moment the opening sequences of Coppola’s Apocalypse Now,
and the manipulation of debates for economic and political ends. where the noise of the helicopter engines and — metaphorically
Löffel is interested in situations where reality rubs shoulders with speaking — the fan plunges us into the frenzied Vietnam War. Simi-
fiction and she manipulates cinema’s codes and techniques to larly, by drawing on the audio vocabulary of war films, the sound
expose our society’s contradictions. Always critical, yet not limited engineer weaves a second story which is integrated into what we
to one single political reading, her work teases out the layers of see and what we hear between the audiovisual experience and
«Avec le cinéma narrative and cites multiple references so as to create space for our memories of film.
on parle de tout, reflection. In this sense, the installations Offscreen (2013) → S. 2—23
and Setting (2011) → S. 24—39 are perfect examples of the complexity In contrast, Offscreen makes use of three projections and two
on arrive à tout». and commitment of her approach. audio tracks: the loudspeakers play an abstract soundtrack in
dialogue with the images while a wireless headset enables the
Quelques réflexions Setting enfolds us in a spatiotemporal environment: its split viewer to concentrate on the narrator’s voice and stroll through
autour du travail de Gabriela Löffel screen alternates the absence of images — darkness — with the installation. Two screens show a series of projected cinema
en page 41 sequences featuring sounds created using a wide range of tech- sets — interior ones using a green screen or a replica aeroplane,
niques and objects by professional sound engineer Daniel Hug. for example, and outdoor sets such as the reconstruction of Ber-
“Through
An array of loudspeakers emits these sounds or soundscapes linerstrasse used by Polanski in The Pianist. Between the two
that he has put together; there is a loudspeaker at the centre of screens, a wall projection follows a team of stuntmen rehearsing
the installation, but more important is the voice recounting an sequences taken from the narrator’s story.
extra’s experience. Löffel listened to a young Swiss man who, in 2011, took part
cinema we can
We are not on a film set here; instead, we are in Bavaria, in an all-inclusive package tour to Afghanistan and Iran: his trip
immersed in the largest American military camp outside the United demonstrates a new sector in the tourism industry, namely holidays
States, where soldiers train prior to leaving for Iraq or Afghanistan. in conflict zones. Again, the narrator’s interpretation fictionalises
discuss every-
Opened in 1910, the Grafenwöhr site was used by the German army the account and shows the power of storytelling. Accompanied by
until the end of the Second World War. After 1945, it became an a guide and a bodyguard, this traveller discovers a curious reality:
American territory, whose location was of strategic importance a notable feature of his trip through countries at war was a visit to
during the Cold War. Today, this camp is particularly known as a landmine museum. He stays in the highest-security hotels, yet
thing, achieve
a place where conflict situations are staged by civilians on the also explores the most incredible landscapes that these countries
battlefield — that is, extras hired to play Arab civilians — to train have to offer. All the same, there is a moment in the narration
soldiers for combat. where reality regains the upper hand over pretence and the story
After interviewing this extra, the artist called on a narrator becomes history: our tourist finds himself at Bagram just as the
everything.” to interpret her testimony. The narrator relates her experience in
the camp: depending on the scenario, the extra might play the role
of an Afghan or Iraqi woman, perhaps in an everyday situation, or
perhaps during a simulated insurrection. However, the moment the
operation to assassinate Bin Laden is launched.
From the design to the production to the creation of these instal-
lations, Löffel uses duplication and fragmentation. She fragments
Reflections helicopters and tanks join the action, the fear becomes tangible, and multiplies viewpoints by interweaving narrative and personal
on the work of Gabriela Löffel almost real, even though this is a fictional war. These helicopters accounts, created and evoked sounds, and direct recordings
47 48 49
18Reflections on the work of Gabriela Löffel Andrea Cinel Reflections on the work of Gabriela Löffel
juxtaposed with images of film sets, so as to muddy the waters interventions by foreign armies. In effect, as Didi-Huberman puts visual editing in Löffel’s work, however, because the role played
and encourage viewers to ask questions. it, people today are simultaneously over-exposed — as a result of by audio arrangements is probably even more important here. In
In this way, Löffel enquires into a documentary and fictional mesmerising spectacularisation and media attention — and under- fact, despite appearances, the sound and original music in these
approach while starting from direct testimony to create an edited exposed thanks to the censorship practiced by the same media. installations are never incidental or used as padding; instead, they
and scripted work that sets the narrator’s interpretation alongside In our opinion, Setting is a precise reminder that “under-exposure are compositions in constant dialogue with the narrators’ voices
images and sounds. The artist uses the constant two-way flow be- deprives us, quite simply, of ways of seeing that which should be and the on-screen images, or even sources that multiply the layers
tween the subjective experience and a universal understanding of at issue”. 1 In Offscreen, on the other hand, the trip reveals the Dis- of narrative and critique.
war to show us how difficult it has become to distinguish between neyfication of the contemporary world, the commodification and
the categories of reality, truth and fiction as we muse on current theatricalisation of every sector of the economy. Like Alice, bored
wars and the ways in which they are represented. In contrast to by her sister reading a book with no pictures or conversations, the
the — televised—Vietnam War and the — imageless — Gulf War, the young Swiss man craves adventure and no longer distinguishes
artist chose not to show the 21st century wars, but to recount them between the real world and the absurd: ultimately, his trip is a
indirectly, using the experiences of the tourist and the extra, via kind of cinematic experience in which the Iranians and Afghans
the narrators’ disembodied voices — voices off. This refusal is an in- he meets are the extras.
depth investigation into the value of mass-media images, and also All the same, Löffel’s relationship with the cinema is
a device that Löffel uses to criticise the ideological and economic further-reaching than this. The two installations reprise such Hol-
aspects inherent in their production. lywood elements as the studio and sets. They also draw on the work
Her oblique and political representation of war is reminis- of film technicians and create something genuinely collective with
cent of the installations Raw Footage (2006) by Aernout Mik and them. In this respect, the sets at Babelsberg Studio take us on a
Serious Games (2009—2010) by Harun Farocki. The first of these journey into times and places that major American productions
revisits images of the war in the former Yugoslavia not broadcast have made familiar to us. Berlinerstrasse reveals quite literally
by the media: Mik shows how extremely serious situations are in- that cinema is all about façades. At the same time, the interior sets
tertwined with the unstressed beats of everyday life and criticises compel us to reflect on the resources and techniques used in film
the spectacularisation of war. In Serious Games, Farocki took an production: the green screen is the quintessential non-place in
interest in the new technologies used to train soldiers for combat: which all worlds are possible and can exist. By contrast, the replica
like video games, they use digital models to shape reality. Löffel’s aeroplane examines the clichés and the homogeneity of scenarios
approach shuns the spectacular and analyses the devices used to in film. Moreover, the sound engineer in Setting plays on the fic-
prepare for war. She reveals the way in which our perception of tional pact that we live out at the cinema when we perceive the
war is born of fiction: somewhere between those who believe in sounds accompanying the images on screen as real. In the same
objective photographs and those who see all images as a fabrica- way, the stuntmen in Offscreen rehearse scenes taken from the
tion, she chose to film abstract sequences which forge links with young man’s story against a minimalist set made up of cardboard
the world of cinema. boxes which could represent all sorts of objects.
In this respect, the civilians on the battlefield on the Offscreen also uses cinematographic techniques:
Grafenwöhr site are literally entertainment workers who evolve long tracking shots alternate with short sequences, overviews
in response to a scenario, which is itself akin to an American with details and fixed shots with reverse-angle shots: the edit-
blockbuster. These fictional people are the perfect symbol of ing defines the rhythm of the whole,
the idea of People Exposed, People as Extras, because they which — as Coppola put it — is the true 1exposés, Georges Didi-Huberman, Peuples
peuples figurants. L’Oeil de l’histoire
are a metonymic representation of Arab populations, victims of essence of cinema. We must go beyond 4, 2012, p. 15.
50 51 52
19Gabriela Löffel — ‹Inside› the Market
Im Centre d’Art Contemporain ist eine Einzelausstellung der
Künstlerin Gabriela Löffel zu sehen, die sich dort auf gekonnte
und zeitaktuelle Weise unter anderem mit der paradoxen,
marktkonformen Unsichtbarkeit von in Freilagern weggesperr-
ter Kunst auseinandersetzt.
Yverdon-les-Bains — Nahe dem Rathausgebäude aus dem 18. Jahrhundert, wo
früher Lebensmittel für die Bevölkerung lagerten, befindet sich heute das Zentrum
für zeitgenössische Kunst (CACY). Seit der Gründung 2013 allen gleichermassen zu-
gänglich, ist der Eintritt frei. Im Gegensatz dazu: die hochgesicherten Zollfreilager,
deren Betreten für nichtautorisierte Personen unmöglich ist. Gabriela Löffel setzt
sich in ihrer neusten, titelgebenden, im CACY zu sehenden 3-Kanal-Videoinstallation
‹Inside›, 2019, mit diesem Phänomen auseinander – konkreter mit den Kunst-Zoll-
freilagern Shanghai (Shanghai International Artwork Bonded Service Center) und
Genf. Zollfreilager sind – mit ihrem Mix aus Sicherheit, Steuerfreiheit und Diskre-
tion – idealer Aufbewahrungsort auch und gerade für Kunstwerke, die nur mehr als
Anlage- oder Spekulationsobjekte fungieren. Im Kunstfreilager Genf lagern Schät-
zungen zufolge mehr als eine Million Werke – es wäre das grösste Museum der Welt,
wäre es öffentlich.
Zu Beginn von Löffels komplexer Auslegeordnung steht der Versuch, Zugang zum
im Bau befindlichen Kunst-Zollfreilager Shanghai zu bekommen: Audioaufnahmen
ihrer Zurückweisung – Nein, es sei nicht möglich einzutreten, nein, auch nicht einen
Blick hineinzuwerfen – entfalten durch die Beharrlichkeit und durch die Abwesenheit
von Argumenten eine kafkaeske Absurdität. Dieses Ausgangsmaterial durchläuft im
Folgenden eine ganze Reihe von Übersetzungsprozessen, die gleichzeitig eine An-
näherung an «das Unsichtbare» sind. Auf einem Bildschirm verfolgt man eine chi-
nesische Dolmetscherin dabei, wie sie das in Shanghai aufgezeichnete «Gespräch»
zwischen Künstlerin und Personal der Zollfreilager-Firma vor der Kulisse des Zoll-
freilagers in Genf simultan ins Englische übersetzt. Im Hintergrund, auf einem an-
deren Bildschirm ist die Aussenfassade des im Bau stehenden Kunst-Zollfreilagers
Shanghai zu sehen. Auf einem mittig platzierten Screen: die verschriftlichten Defi-
nitionen zu Begriffen wie «Transit Zone», «Economy», «Offshore» etc. als Audiomit-
schnitt zu hören und von der Übersetzerin übersetzt, die wiederum selbst als eine
Art Hologramm der Realität neu in einem VR-Studio in Szene gesetzt wird. Erst dieser
Gabriela Löffel · Inside, 2019, Mehrkanal-Videoinstallation, Videostills
aufwendige «Nachbau», also die Programmierung der entsprechenden virtuellen Re-
alität, ermöglicht der Übersetzerin den Zugang in den Innenbereich des Freilagers.
Und genau diese weitere Übersetzung des unsichtbar Realen ins sichtbar Virtuel-
le erst verabschiedet die Idee eines «Originals» und ermöglicht dafür den Blick auf
reale gesellschaftliche Machtmechanismen und Ordnungssysteme. Sønke Gau
→ ‹Inside, Gabriela Löffel›, CACY, Yverdon-les-Bains, bis 26.4. ↗ www.centre-art-yverdon.ch
108 Kunstbulletin 4/2020 BESPRECHUNGEN // YVERDON-LES-BAINS 109
2024 heures, mai 2020
21Pro Helvetia Journal, 2015 be translated out of language?
EVOLUTION WITHOUT HEAVY METAL Löffel’s work frequently relies on strategies of translating.
GABRIELA LÖFFEL “Collection Cahiers d’Artistes” For instance, for Embedded Language, she had the unabashed
BY DANIEL MORGENTHALER remarks made by a Polish businessman at a weapons trade fair
translated into French by the voice actor Jean-Luc Montminy.
And in The Easy Way Out, she had a conversation among three
people at an American military camp in Grafenwöhr, Bavaria
War is in: Syria, Switzerland, the Ukraine, inside us, in Yemen. translated by interpreters, who usually work in the background
In Switzerland? Yes. And inside us? Above all. In an article at United Nations conferences. There is hardly anything that
on Polish artist Krzysztof Wodiczko, art historian Rosalyn exposes the way someone uses language, including the
Deutsche writes about the psychoanalyst Franco Fornari: conscious as well as unconscious use of metaphor, more
“…the most important part of Fornari s theory is his idea that mercilessly than translation into another language. And is
the individual subject gets rid of its violence, which is prohibited translating possibly even a prelude to exorcising? To exorcising
by law, by investing or alienating it in the state, the social war metaphors out of language and at some point even
institution that monopolizes violence. Fornari returns war to exorcising the phenomenon of war out of our unconscious –
the subject precisely in order to… motivate [individuals] to take by way of Claude Lévi-Strauss and Jacques Lacan with their
responsibility for war.” (1) The Italian was of the opinion that notion of the unconscious as structured like a language? If so,
war originates in the subconscious of every individual human Löffel’s practice of fostering legibility through linguistic transfer
being: “…in tracing the war phenomenon to the unconscious of is at least a tiny step on the path to an unconscious liberated
each man we arrive at considering each man responsible for from war, to a society of “un-war”, as Krzysztof Wodiczko calls it.
war.” (2) For Krzysztof Wodiczko this assumption is manifest, Rosalyn Deutsche concludes her essay with the realism of
for example, in the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Rosalyn Deutsche (1) Rosalyn Deutsche, “Un-War: An Aesthetic Sketch”, a Freudian who sees violence as an ineluctable constituent
writes, “Wodiczko approaches the Arc de Triomphe not only as in: October Magazine 147, Winter 2014, Cambridge, of the human psyche: “...in reality, there is no such thing as
a symbol but also as a symptom of our culture of war.” (3) MA: MIT Press p. 13. eradicating psychic violence.” (5) But the symptoms of war
In the course of her work Gabriela Löffel has also acquired (2) Deutsche, p. 13. can be localized. In our unconscious, in the Arc de Triomphe,
a sensitivity to the symptoms of war. And she, too, discovers (3) Deutsche, p. 6. in Afghanistan, at AIR14. “Heavy Metal and Evolution” (6) was
them in our immediate environs, in other words, in a Switzerland (4) Deutsche, p. 10. the title of the program on the fourth day of AIR14. Evolution
in a state of peace. The symptom that led to her video and (5) Deutsche, p. 14. without heavy metal would be better.
audio work, Offscreen, was a Swiss travel agency that was (6) http://www.air14.ch/internet/air14/de/home/
advertising tours to war zones. Through the travel agency, the Programme.html (last accessed 12.5.2015).
artist found a person who had acquired an image of the war in
Afghanistan. Offscreen takes its cue from her conversation
with him. When Osama Bin Laden was shot and the protagonist
of Löffel’s work was able to associate that with an increase
in air traffic, he felt as if he had been “part of world history”.
Does world history only consist of war? When are we not part of
world history? And when do we not carry war inside ourselves?
Alongside the travel agency that takes tourists to war zones,
Löffel discovered another symptom: a major event that
transported the war to French-speaking Switzerland. While the
rest of Europe was commemorating the start of the First World
War, Switzerland commemorated the 100 year anniversary of
its Air Force. AIR14, the most frequently googled Swiss event
in 2014, took place in Payerne in August and September. When
Löffel went there, she found: wooden structures to make it
easier to access the tanks, leading, as it were, straight into the
war; a large-format reproduction of the iconic picture taken
in 1972 during the Vietnam War by Nick Ut of the naked girl
running for her life from a napalm attack, hanging above a
fighter plane; and a “makeup tent” where visitors could have
the contours of their faces undone. Were ultimately all those
wearing camouflage makeup the most honest in carrying
the war within us on their skin? “We are ourselves inner war
memorials,” says Krzysztof Wodiczko. (4) The AIR14 visitors,
with camouflage makeup on their faces, have themselves
become memorials to the war.
Gabriela Löffel is currently generating a work of art out of all
the material she has accumulated – photographs and recorded
conversations with, for instance, an employee of Pilatus Aircraft
Ltd., a company that has come under fire because of the
weapons capacity of its products. However, on the basis of
Offscreen and earlier works, one can well imagine how Löffel
deals with these dialogues and pictures, namely, in another,
omnipresent arena of war: language. This last sentence is, in
fact, a rewarding point of departure: our language is riddled
with war metaphors – just take the artistic avant-garde, not to
mention “coming under fire”. Can these war metaphors perhaps
11 12 22You can also read
