Ana Torfs
Album/Tracks A
27 February – 18 July 2010
Ständehausstraße 1
40217 Düsseldorf
Germany
Representation and visualisation, reality and fiction form the cornerstones of Ana Torfs’ installations which consist of projected images (usually b/w slides) and texts. In precisely choreographed audio visual constellations Torfs brings to life literary, historical and political material. In these projects the artist works with actors who embody their roles in a demonstratively matter-of-fact and functional way. A famous one act play by the symbolist poet Maurice Maeterlinck, testimonies from Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht’s murder trial and also dialogues from a film classic by Roberto Rossellini served as starting points for roomfilling installations such as The Intruder, 2004, Anatomy, 2006, or Displacement, 2009. Torfs has been practising and developing her method of subtly dissecting and superimposing places, people, voices and atmospheres for over 15 years. In doing so, she draws from the repertoire of dramatic, photographic and cinematic techniques. Personal experiences and global dimensions merge with one another. In Torfs’ work the spoken words and the static pictures blend in order to create an imaginary realm beyond cinema.
In addition to the exhibition, Ana Torfs’ 35 mm film Zyklus von Kleinigkeiten (Cycle of Trifles) (1998) will be showing at Black Box Kino, Filmmuseum Düsseldorf. The film is based on Beethoven’s so-called conversation books which give an insight into the deaf composer’s day-to-day life (see Begleitprogramm).
This exhibition was organized in cooperation with the Generali Foundation, Vienna. It will be shown there from 3 September to 12 December 2010 with a different selection of works. The shows in Düsseldorf and Vienna complement one another and offer a complete overview of Ana Torfs’ work to the present day including three new works.
Curator: Doris Krystof
