22.01.08

Audio Installation, 2008

In the middle of a darkened room stands a black pillar with a white switch, which is lit by a lamp. Contrary to the expectation of the viewer, the switch does not control the light, but in fact activates an audio track. Pushing the switch again stops the track and a further activation resumes the track from whence it was stopped. This leads to the next participant commencing their listening at a completely random point in the looping 12 minute long track and not being able to understand at first, what it is about or where it is going.

The audio track recounts a conversation which takes place between two strangers during a shared car journey from Berlin to Bremen. The driver a Palestinian - the coincidental passenger a Jew, who is intent on talking about anything but the Middle East conflict. To begin with the story seems harmless, however with the increasing length of the journey, an abstruse situation develops in the cramped confines of the car.

22.01.08 gives an eclectic account of a vexing everyday situation and comments at the same time on diverse political coherences of recent history