March 2020, London UK
This video work was realised site-specifically for the window-gallery 139artspace in London. The artist used the window of the gallery to repeatedly write the word “NOW” on the glass. Filming herself sitting in front of the gallery, the surrounding of the city becomes an additional layer of meditating on the constant change we are part of.
The exhibition was realised just a few days before the country, the artist is residing (Austria) blocked its borders due to COVID-19 pandemic, in mid March 2020. The video work remained exhibited. As the gallery is a windowgallery, it is able to be observed from the public space.
The photos show also the site-specific work of Matej Frank, that was part of the duo exhibition “Archiving the Present”
link to other present/presence (air)
“present/presence” is an ongoing project visualizing the natural, transformative and ephemeral characteristics of a resource after an intervention by the artist. The title refers to Henri Lefebvre’s hypothesis (in Rhythmanalysis, 1992) about the common confusion of “presence” (not being able to be represented, and only able to be experienced in the very moment) and “present” (sometimes seeming to be “presence”, but actually representing the presence through, e.g.media).
In “present/presence (air)” the artist exhales onto a window, writing “NOW” on the foggy glass. After it disappears, she repeats the action.
Jasmin Schaitl 