site-specific action, Zug, 2010

A line of people carried a glass of water from the zuger lake to the aquarium with fishes in the gallery.

text by Noah Angell

“You don’t see me if I don’t see you”, the title of this series of photographs by Veronika Spierenburg mimics the names of those childhood games like “hide & go seek” and “peek-a-boo”, which draw upon the binary pleasures/dangers of viewing others, of stealing a private moment, of potentially being caught in the act of seeing or being seen by another. Some of the early pleasures of viewing are premised upon what it means to see another- to observe and take possession of their secrets, to gain power over them by “spying”. In these photographs there is not only the child peering through the bushes but also the pervert, the nosy neighbor, just as formally the familiar distance from the subject recalls the photographic mode of the ethnographer, the photojournalist, and the documentarian. I am also reminded of Vito Acconci’s Following piece (1969) where for thirty days he followed one stranger per day around New York City, on foot until they entered the doors of a private residence – the game ended there. It is an unexpected feature of urbanization that the closer we live to one another – the more densely populated an area we live in – the more people we see each day with whom we will never speak. Simultaneously, there is also the disappearance of private space due to increased surveillance (to photograph this disappearance of private space as Spierenburg does is a notable irony) and the near absence of unrestricted space in the city. Some of these photographs are shot in public parks, which are a kind of officially designated space for rest, leisure, and gathering – presumably because doing so elsewhere is discouraged. The camera is able to register the subject’s attempt at being alone but also to threaten its success in doing so. Indeed the photographer’s task here is also a solitary one that would be spoiled by the subject making eye contact with us. This game is indicative of a larger condition in which we see each other but pretend not to, so that we may each go about our way leaving the other undisturbed, but still sneaking a look at them before they disappear from sight.

Station21, 5th - 26th February 2010, Zurich

The title of the exhibition “Ausverkauf” (Sale) is based on one particular work in the exhibition - a clothes stand - in which the clothes hangers are fixed on to the stand to underline their togetherness.

The works in Room 1 cover the themes of the body (as inner space), clothes (as outer space), and form, distortion and geometric constructions, which are transformed using different medias.– Clothes from the flea market are simply cut (dismantled) and transformed into graphical objects that are then photographed. Detached from the body and its function, the series of photographs “how to do things with cloth” show simple forms created with the use of garments - the artist introducing the question of chaos versus abstraction.

“10 Different Ways Of How to Read The Newspaper” is a work in which ten newspapers from the same issue date are cut into different geometric forms, photographed, and are themselves printed on to news paper. These printed papers are presented as a stacked pile, from which, visitors are invited to take a copy. With this work Veronika Spierenburg questions the everyday rectangular forms of books, newspapers, and magazines.

Another work “How To Simulate Foot Prints” shows two large stainless steel cookie cutters, which the artist has shaped into footprints. “quoting grandfather`s coat” is a large sized photograph showing a dark coat, inside of which are attached old photographs. Is it true, that this coat belonged to the artist`s grandfather? Another photograph “bowl/ bowler” is of a hat, which contains 10 rappen coins, a reference to buskers who use hats to collect money.

In the second room Veronika Spierenburg presents two simple videos which deals strongly with the theme of inside/outside.

41 x 27 cm, Pigment Prints on Hahnemühle with MDF frame

I cut garments bought in the flea market into two dimensional shapes. Cutting the garments like this, I take away their day to day function, focusing instead on their abstract, and surrealistic qualities. I am interested in exploring the contrast between these ‘deformed’ garments, and their usual appearance, and ‘normal’ use.

Performance, message salon downtwon/ Perla-Mode, Zurich, 28 min., 2009

11 performers activate Polaroid cameras to a minimalistic sound composition, from the Swiss composer Marie-Cécile Reber. The sound has been recorded, and will be sold as a vinyl record via ebay from where Spierenburg bought her collection of SX-70 Polaroid cameras, used in the performance.

Performance, message salon downtwon/ Perla-Mode, Zurich, 10 min., 2009

SX-70 Polaroid Cameras are used during a performance with the Swiss contemporary dancer Carmen Pfammatter. The act of taking photographs is emphasized in relation to self-portraiture. The movements are choreographed minimally, with Pfammatter lying on the floor, facing the wall, sitting, and standing on the chair.

site-specific action, Olympic Stadion Tower Helsinki, 2009

On top of the Olympic Stadium Tower in Helsinki, visitors are asked to scream one word that conveys being there - what they can see, how they are feeling.

site-specific action, KIASMA Helsinki, 3 hours, 24th Oktober & 2nd November 2009

The K-stickers are the entrance tickets for the Museum of Contemporary Art, KIASMA, in Helsinki. Visitors leaving the museum can place these stickers on a metal stand outside the museum entrance. From several hours, during the Night Of The Arts, held in Helsinki, Spierenburg stood outside Kiasma, inviting people to place their stickers on her body. There touch was fast, reserved, inadvertent, and they approached her she was a fragile porcelain vase.

site-specific action, National library Helsinki,  Blu-ray Video, 16 min., 2009, 5 Editions +2 AP

The idea of the work `From Right To Left` derives from the film `Colour Of Pomegranates` (Sergei Parajanov) in which there is a scene of numerous books spread on a rooftop with the pages being turned by the wind. Spierenburg created a site-specific work, in the National Library in Helsinki, and invited 28 people to turn pages of old encyclopedias to form a sound performance.

Jurybericht:

28 Protagonisten, 28 Stühle, 28 sehr dicke Bücher. In sieben symmetrisch angeordneten Stuhlreihen im klassischen säulenumstellten Atrium der Nationalbibliothek in Helsinki wird im Gleichakt umgeblättert. In ihrer Videoarbeit "from right to left" lässt Veronika Spierenburg Menschen äusserst geräuschvoll tun, was in Bibliotheken sonst nur ganz behutsam passiert: umblättern. Ihre von leicht erhöhtem fixen Kamerastandpunkt aufgenommene Videoarbeit widmet sich nichts anderem als der Erzeugung von Ton mit Hilfe von Büchern. Seite für Seite versuchen die Blätternden, die vorgegebene strenge Kadenz des stets gleichen und doch immer verschiedenen synchronen Umblätterns einzuhalten und damit ein hallenfüllendes Geräusch zu erzeugen. – Die völlig unaufgeregte Arbeit "from right to left" ist in ihrer Grundanordnung derart schlüssig, dass die Jury sich von ihrer suggestiven Kraft gerne in den Bann ziehen liess. Bereits nach kurzem Visionieren entwickelt sich eine ebenso starke wie kontemplative Wirkung...

installation, Postcards, Railway station Helsinki, 2009

A postcard stand holding postcards with quotations from the book `Flüchtlings-gespräche` - Conversation in Exile - by Bertolt Brecht is placed in the pub of the railway station in Helsinki. The book `Flüchtlingsgespräche` is about two people who meet frequently in the railway station at Helsinki, in 1942. Veronika Spierenburg chose 13 sentences from the conversations in the book, concerned with writing, traveling, freedom, changes, order and disorder, and opportunities. The postcards are free to take.

Video, Helsinki, 2009

The video `Jukka, Jorma, Jasmin` is shot in three Saunas in Helsinki: Kotiharju Sauna, Naval Academy Sauna, and the Prisoner Sauna in Suomenlinna. A naked woman, a Naval Officer, and a Prisoner Guard sing a traditional Finnish love song with their backs to the camera.

site-specific audio walk, 3min, Cable Factory Helsinki, 2009

The audio walk is an ensemble of sentences about pedestrian road crossings, derived from friends in different countries. People were asked to listen to the audio monologue lasting 3 minutes, whilst crossing the long pedestrian crossing at the Cable Factory, in Helsinki.

Installation, cloths and cord, 2009

Inspired by people sitting on their coats in the park, Spierenburg created a picnic blanket with clothes bought from the Helsinki Hietsu flea market. The clothes are stitched together to create a large blan-ket. Each garment has an individual story, that Spierenburg received from the market sellers.

20 Inkjet Prints on Hahnemühlepaper presented in a box, 2009

Newspaper photographs are used to analyze the photograph in a playful formal manner, disregarding the content of the photograph.

Performance, Lab Gallery, New York City, 20th - 24th October 2008
Message Salon Downtwon/ Perla-Mode, Zurich, 29th October 2009

The performance Audience To Audience is a collaborative work with the British-Israeli artist Sophie Loss. The work has a strong theatrical element, since it engages with viewers, and passerby - an audience - on the street outside the gallery space. Another audience, seated in the windows of gallery, is directed by the two artists to synchronize their actions in response, to the audience outside.

Sound Performance, Shed-and-a-Half Gallery, London, 2008

Photographs of discarded cigarettes and torn posters inspire a vocal performance by the Swiss singer Sabina Leone. The video documents a performance at Shed-and-a-Half Gallery in London, 20 min, 2008.

4 C-Prints with papers, 30x40cm, 2007

The legs of London’s passersby are photographed, the photographs are subsequently displayed on the wall, each one cropped with sheets of paper.

43 C-Prints, 40x45 cm, 2006

Fellow students on Spierenburg’s Master of Arts course are photographed from above, offering an unusual perspective on the bodies of human beings.

Video, 1.44 min., 2005

A narrative is added to images through simple gestures of liquids, fire and a hair dryer: Through opti-cal illusion, the old Dungeon Ghyllí hotel begins to burn, the blossoms of a cherry tree rock in the wind, and fog appears by the bridge. The colored images are from a found picture book ‘The Lake District of Great Britain’ (published 1961)