With:
Yoshie Kris, Sawa Tsukahara, Noriko Yamamoto
Sakiko Koike, Sachi Takasugi, Ling Liu
Kilarla Akiyama, Amelie Harmony, Lumico Harmony
Chika Ohata, Chizuru Masumura, Midori Mitamura
Mariko Sakurai, Fumi, Saiko Morita
Hanae Sato, Yui Nagashima, Anonymous
Akiko Kimura, Niwa, Andy Ayaka Yamamoto
Yokohama, September 2023 / May 2024
Opening reception: Mai 10, 2024, 18.00 h
Exhibition: May 11 – June 09.2024
Venue: Zou-no-hana Terrace
Organizer: Zou-no-hana Terrace
Cooperation: 8th Yokohama Triennale
and Hyper Cultural Passengers, Hamburg
Video animation, black and white, Analog Photography on a M3, f 50 Summicron Capsule Lense, AGFA APX Film, Rodinal Developer
A participatory performance with seven artists within three generations, based on three paintings from the Hamburger Kunsthalle:
Anita Rée, “Self-Portrait”, 1930, Max Liebermann, “Eva”, 1883, and Wilhelm Leibl, “The Three Women in the Church”, 1881
Three generations of women under trees – an artist with a daughter or niece, mother or grandchild conversing about who they will have been, looking back to their lifetime in an unknown but certain future. Who they guess they would have been, with whom they identify themselves, and what they feel to be of importance looking back. What questions do they wish would have been answered
from various perspectives: personal, familial, social, economic, cultural, and global?
What do I want to tell about myself when I look at my own life from a distant future? What made the time in which I could live? How was the world? And with whom was I able to experience my own story?
“I Was” is the third work in a trilogy that I realized in Japan with various artists over the last decade. In “The Innocence of the Artist,” I tried to show similarities in art and culture in which the artist holds a vigil for the sleeping curator. In a collaboration with 36 artists from Yokohama, “Adore – artists are fans and fans are artists” opened up the question of the role of art in society and the special biographical moment of each individual’s initiation, something like an artist* to be in. “I Was” tells how three generations of women retrospectively formulate their role in their own history from a narrative of the future.
“I was” summarizes time in one’s environment, shows a view of seemingly normal and everyday things from a distance, and creates contemporaneity on this planet, the individual moment in which the story of one’s life will be told to the end.
In its own devotion and silence, “I was” creates versions of narratives of the simultaneity of uncertainty and certainty: What will you have said about yourself?
The footage was filmed in Yokohama in September 2023 in public spaces, parks, and under trees. The 21 participants recorded the audio tracks on-site using handy recorders. The song sung is a version of the “Andachts Jodler” that I learned from my mother and grandmother.
Three camera angles were photographed, intended to remind of three works of art from the Hamburger Kunsthalle: the “Self-Portrait” by Anita Rée from 1930, “Eva” by Max Liebermann from 1883, and “The Three Women in the Church” by Wilhelm Leibl from 1881. These three works have accompanied me for many years and give me a constancy of comfort and perspective.
Liebermann’s portrait of Eve is a look at one’s “inner child.” In a quasi-anticipation of today’s selfie, Anita Rée’s “Self-Portrait” shows a perspective on my fragile psyche in my biography. Leibl’s “Three Women” reveals the interweaving of life and death, embedded in a tradition that shows fate’s support and narrowness.
“I was” is an homage to my artistic teachers, Anna and Bernhard Johannes Blume, who taught me inner necessity. It is also a memory of my mother, Ricarda Wieninger (married Kress), who showed me dedication and love.
