Exhibition
It was with her video work FF/Rew, 1998, that Ene-Liis Semper first gained international attention. In this impressive b/w video-loop the artist shows various views of a suicide, played forwards and backwards, repeated over and over. The very absurdity of this, simple video trick bestows a surreal character upon the tragicsituation, shifting it onto a level of distinction between reality and fiction. Apart from FF/Rew, two further video projections are shown. In Oasis, 1999, flowers are planted in the artist’s opened mouth. Stairs, 2000, depicts the artist, lying on her back, as she slowly crawls up a set of steps.
The foundation and theme of Ene-Liis Semper’s works are mental and physical experiences, which are transferred to a generalised plane, yet inside of which reality always takes place within a precisely determined aesthetical setting. Her works thus generate unexpected visual effects, refusing to take part in a documentary access to reality that would present unmediated images of the sort found in video and film productions.
Curated by Martin Janda
