Presentation/Lecture: STIGMATA
resonance005, network meeting, Cabaret Renz, 10.12.2005

Thank you all for being here and giving us the oportunity to present our work to an interested audience.

Coming to the work titled „stigmata“, awarded by the resonance005 poll, I will give a short review on how ist was created and what it actually was all about because the material screened here is nothing else but the documentation of what took place in Paris this September 2005.
I was invited to do an exhibition in Paris and had the possibility to stay there for a while before the opening. I usually have no idea what to exhibit or install without knowing the place and getting some impressions. I have also never been to Paris before. So I took the chance and went on a hardcore sightseeing tour visiting many churches and castles and of course spending lots of time having coffee ;-).
I really like myths, tales and stories that go with ancient buildings of a city. So it actually was no big surprize that my eyes fell upon those water fountains attached to most of the old buildings, looking like creatures from a fairytale. The Gargoyles.
(I think there is also a Disney cartoon featuring them...)

Excourse:
„The word "Gargoyle" shares a common root with the word "Gargle"; which comes from "gargouille", an French word for "Throat". A true gargoyle is a waterspout. The word “gargoyle” is also a derivative from the Latin word, “gurgulio”, which had a double meaning, “throat”, and the “gurgling” sound water makes as it passes through a gargoyle. A carved creature that does not serve the purpose of a drain pipe is frequently referred to as a "Grotesque". legend has it, that a fierce dragon named La Gargouille described as having a long, reptilian neck, a slender snout and membranous wings lived in a cave near the river Seine. The dragon caused much fear and destruction with its fiery breath, spouting water and the devouring of ships and men. Each year, the residents of Rouen would placate Gargouille with an offering of a victim, usually a criminal, though it was said the dragon preferred maidens. Around 600, the village was saved by St. Romanis, who promised to deal with the dragon if the townspeople agreed to be baptized and to build a church. Romanus subdued the dragon by making the sign of the cross and then led the now docile beast back to town on a leash made from his priest's robe. La Gargouille was then burned at the stake, it is said that his head and neck were so well tempered by the heat of his fiery breath, that they would not burn. These remnants were then mounted on the town wall and became the model for gargoyles for centuries to come.“

In Paris I got hooked on those gargoyles because they are a historian part of the city with a story you cannot tell wether it is true or made up. This aspect of uncertainty was very interesting for me.

We actually cannot know if there are/were creature like those really existing. Neither do we know about aliens, paranormal activities and conspiracies whch are the myths of our time. But nevertheless we promote them, question them and are definitely curious about.
So I thought about using the peoples fondness of strange abnormal and impossible stuff. More than that I had in mind sensation seeking masses visiting a (trans-)human freakshow.
Transformations or deformations of the human body have always been and are still a big issue not only in new media art. There are different kinds of bodymodifications like expansions, alternations, technical or biological, symbiotic or parasitic systems, ... (as we have already seen today, mentioning the works of Niki Passath and Ella Esque)

We are all very familiar with „the human body“ because it is a thing we have in common. But - throughout the history - once it differs from mass-standards, huge interest is generated. So it is quite understandable that especially those who differ from the „healthy norm“ would want more than aything else to appear exactly the same as everybody else. No matter by what means.
And up to the year 2005 we have not only made technical progress in transforming the body but also in hiding differences – as well as in producing technology for detecting.

Returning to the exhibition – I was almost clueless about what to do in Paris but I was nevertheless travelling highly equipped. I had several computers, cameras and a thermographic imaging system with me – which I decided to use on this topic.

The exhibited work consisted of two parts.

The first part were huge fotographies of thermographic scale images showing obviously deformated bodies. Due to the scale at the bottom of the picture the material looks authentic and tempts the viewer to not only look at the picture but compair scientificly certain areas of the bodies on the pictures to the thermographic scales – to learn that those deformating elements are exactely body temperature.
Soon questions were arising about how these pictures were done and wether it was real or not.
Curiosity and the wish to believe a sensation versus a „healthy mind“. The fact that those pictures were proved to be done by an unbetrayable measuring instrument made it difficult to decide which opinion to have.

The second part was a performance – or you could even call it a game. The thermographic imaging system has been set up and hidden inside the gallery room to film the visitors and projecting the horizontally flipped picture onto a wall.
A performer was wearing hot and cold emitters invisibly under his clothes. The puzzeled audience started to look for the person that differed thermographically from them obviously. But the actor kept hiding and moving cleverly – even transferring the revealing signs to another person. The gallery stayed crowded and the people excited until we had to throw them out at 12pm – the police departement was right opposite.

To summon it up a little bit:
The main thing about those works are not the pictures and is also not the video, not even the performance of the actor – but the impression the audience had when entering and participating in the scene. I constructed an environment that played with the natural and socially educated behaviours. I served them by stimulating the phantasy of the viewer. They were characters in an adventure for the time of the performance. They participated freely and without the need of persuation. They approached the setting like playing a game in their childhood.
I indeed was very surprized and happy about the result of the show. Everytime I develop something it also is an experiment for me. I construct the scene and wait what happens.

And maybe a final sentence concering the ongoing discussions about the future and perspective of media and new media art: I from my point of view think that it is perhaps not all about screens, projections, software, hardware, applications and „intelligent“ responding objects, etc ... but about the most powerful tool available and familiar to everybody – our imagination.

thank you.

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