Output details

Off Road. A 22 minute video, and slide show screened at the California International Arts Foundation (July 2013) and exhibited Hotel Bloom in Brussels in association with Ersatz Gallery (Sept 2013), Date 2013. Venue. California International Arts Foundation; Hotel Bloom, Brussels. URL: http://viralnet.net/interviews.html URL: http://viralnet.net/projects.html

This research explores the notion of controlled ‘pockets of freedom’ in America. Focussing on places where individuals go to (momentarily) escape the constraints of everyday existence and live out fantasies of autonomy and freedom, it examines the relationship between such ‘fantasies’ and the American political system.

The project was developed over four years at a State Vehicular Recreation area in California. This expanse of sand dunes, used by thousands of people who arrive each weekend with trailers, SUVs, self-built cars, quads and bikes, conjoins a nature reserve, raising tensions between the communities who use each space and pointing up the paradoxes that arise from the juxtaposition of apparently incompatible activities. ‘Off Road’ combines a central video projection shot during a heavy fog, and a slide show, which examines the community through recorded interviews that address political narratives. These visual juxtapositions parallel the contradictions latent in the way the site is used. The long development of the project allowed Kogelsberger to immerse herself in the communities involved, winning their trust. The research builds on earlier work that explores the portrayal of landscape as metaphor/emblem for aspects of American society, e.g. a photographic series shot at the amateur Rocket Festival in Black Rock desert.

Kogelsberger continues to seek to redefine ways in which video and photography combine in contemporary art: central to this is an interest in the way that time is represented in each media, and ways they can be used to probe the boundaries between documentary and fictional filmic languages.

The work has been reviewed and distributed on viral net, a curatorial project of Tom Leeser (Cal Arts), http://viralnet.net/projects.html, and supported through a residency from the California International Arts Foundation. It will also be exhibited in the UK at a one-person show at Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art in January 2014.