Reference over Time
Andrea Geyer
Reference over Time, 2004
Video installation Video, black and white, sound, 16 min Table, chair, label 5 black and white photographs, digital prints 10.2 x 13.6 cm each, dry mounted on cardboard signed and dated, framed, 41 x 51.1 cm
GF0030849.00.0-2007
Artwork text
In Reference over Time an actress is rehearsing an interpretation of Bertold Brecht's 1940s text "Conversation Among Refugees". The text that Brecht wrote in exile features two man sitting in a restaurant in the station in Helsingfor (Norway) talking about politics. They both have lost their status as citizens. As refugees, conversation has become their main occupation. Made in 2004 in the political climate of the United States where the proposed Patriot 2 legislation proposes to give the state the right to take away citizenship, the actress struggles to find the right tone for the words exchanged in a 1940s Europe. Readdressing Brecht's thoughts expressed in his original text challenges and complicates the recognition of reoccurring patterns in history. (Andrea Geyer)