Output details

Backbench, Video and Sound installation

Backbench (2010) reflects on the conditions of art production and consumption that are established within the globalised system of art biennials. It focuses on the production of cultural discourses and the consequent impact generated by these prevalent modes of exchange, on social, political, professional and likewise on individual levels. Backbench was commissioned and produced by Manifesta 8, the Region of Murcia, Spain in 2010. The work was initiated by the curators Bassam el Barony and Jeremy Beaudry as a large collaborative project that included the participation of four collectives from North America, The Netherlands and Egypt, two moderators, architects, and I as the director, principal producer and author of the final video installation. The work is intended as an analysis of the intra spectrum of the artistic production set under particular circumstances that are arising from within the art system and their convergence into an internal discourse. Moreover it is about conditioning and disjunctions, nonfiction and bringing out the theatricality in not so everyday situations and tangible modes of production.

Within these parameters and framework of contextual discourse I orchestrated complex filming methods with multiple cameras, but however I did not choreograph the event nor did I employ a script as in the case of a number of my recent large-scale video installation works. It was filmed over a four-day period in Murcia, Spain. The only parts that I preplanned were the exterior shots around the town of Murcia and the interior shots of the former post office building Antiguo edificio de Correos, where the work was eventually installed and exhibited during the biennial. The filming and exhibition set was designed by the Berlin based nOffice architects.

The output is presented via portfolio, which should be viewed in order to gain a proper understanding of the research.