Ralf Rosowski 2007, extending relations

Emne:   Extending relations
Fra:   "Ralf Rosowski" <ralf.rosowski@due-erre.de>
Dato:   man, mars 19, 2007, 13:47
Til:   Bjørg Taranger <bjorg.taranger@gmail.com>

Extending relations

Bjørg Tarangers video cycle "City Angel" presented in Düsseldorf at Schirmerstrasse 22

A hospital bed is the place of medical care.
The place of water and soap, creams, isopropanol, blood, sweat and body liquids.

The screen of Bjørg Taranger is binocular in a meta sense.
Half splitted into a left and a right scene and a small gap in between.

"Preparing a Private Space" is using extended materials like the 
sexy legs of a nurse, wearing WHITE high-heels, both signed with a 
Red Cross on the heel side, running straight along an endless hospital 
corridor followed by the camera view. There seems to be no coming 
further.
A Red Cross on white background is recognized as a protection symbol 
in conflict. (1)
It’s a dramatic case of emergency or it is a case of escape?
The two nurses collaborative preparing a hospital bed on the screen 
right beneath are not really impressed about the running angle 
left side. They are completely absorbed by careful making up the 
hospital bed, highly concentrated on details, very accurate by 
smoothing the linen, contemplation by working. Love, devotion and 
human warmness is the spiritual substances which fills the space.

"Happening with nurses", celebrating a dance by preparing a hospital 
bed, wearing German birkenstocks and a white nurse coat, displaced 
bra straps shining trough. Suddenly the left half of the splitted 
screen gets BLACK for  a second, an interruption followed by a right 
away change of the splitted screen relations.

How fragile Angels are.

City Angel. A love dance or a dance macabre? Lay down and smile. (2)

Bjørg Taranger overcomes the restrictions of a dualistic 
understanding (3) by the expressive use of dance. Intelligent and 
skilled cutting is a lonely job.  But getting teached about dance by 
the nurses Arja-Leena and Paula is a spiritual interaction.
"Our body should go with our soul, with our spirit, shall get moved 
like rush from the divine breath of the inside. Amen" (4)

First time I saw this video works in Ålesund, in the late summer of 
2004. I got deeply moved.
"Angels are with us.", I noticed and continued travelling.
I called Bjørg Taranger more than a year later. After some intensive 
talks we decided to present City Angle during oct. 2006 to the public 
in Düsseldorf at SchirmerStraße 22, an apartment, temporary used as 
Gallery, near by the city.

The installation in Düsseldorf was quite simple. "Preparing a Private 
Space" (5'29'', 2000) and "Happening with nurses" (5'44'', 2004), got 
directly and simultaneously projected on different white walls in 
same heights, both in a black-&-white-mode, relatively small sized 
and looped. The room used for presentation didn’t got darkened, no 
curtains got used to dim-out the light from the windows.
We had a crowded candlelight opening, a clean place filled with the 
flickering light of the City Angel projection, interfering with all 
the specific individual experiences, fears and hopes of the visitors.
We enjoyed an interesting mix of guests.

After the show, the secretary of the house organisation office, 
responsible for SchirmerStraße 22 called me, asking about City Angel. 
"Is there a social encountering place founded?" Ups, - I understood. 
"Yes, indeed.” I answered smiling.

Ralf Rosowski, march 2007
contact: ralf.rosowski@due-erre.de

(1) The Red Cross is the original and official protection symbol 
declared at the 1864 Geneva Convention. It is, in terms of its color, 
a reversal of the Swiss national flag.
(2) Pina Bausch, contemporary german choreographer, "Sit down and 
smile." (stage direction, 2002)
(3) Rene Descartes (1556 - 1650) Descartes suggested that the body 
works like a machine, that it has the material properties of 
extension and motion, and that it follow the laws of physics. The 
mind or soul, on the other hand, was described as a nonmaterial 
entity that lacks extension and motion, and does not follow the laws 
of physics. This form of dualism proposes that the mind controls the 
body, but that the body can also influence the otherwise rational 
mind, such as when people act out of passion.
(4) Peter Altenberg (1859 - 1919) was a writer and poet from Vienna, 
Austria. This quote is taken from the frontispitz of Dr. John 
Schikowski "Geschichte des Tanzes" (Büchergilde Gutenberg, Berlin,) 
1926