Rest area

The video (fixed shot) shows a place in a large supermarket that offers itself as a rest area, designated by a large sign of the same name, as well as a red steel bench and a water machine. The shot shows this place while people in need of rest repeatedly linger on the bench - in the midst of loaded shelves, customers pushing trolleys and massive advertising (also acoustic).

This image is perhaps the contemporary equivalent of the former relaxation on the bench on the edge of the field, possibly even without a change of location. (All supermarkets around Leipzig are located on former agricultural land on the outskirts of villages). The place of relaxation and tranquillity, previously the counterpart to the haste and toil of life’s struggles or the noisy, over-stimulated world of consumption, is integrated into them here.

The video was shown at the “Styles of the City” exhibition in Hamburg. This video art exhibition, curated by Filomeno Fusco and Dirck Möllmann, took place in a former sales centre on Große Bergstraße. There used to be a supermarket on the premises of the sales centre. In the empty space of this former market, whose floor tiles were the same as in the video, whose sound system was still operational and was used for the sound of the work, you could watch the video (life-size people) and hear the sounds everywhere as you walked through the hall.