© 2014 VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Photo © Photo: Ellen Bailly / Stadtarchiv Stuttgart
- Artist/s
- Ulrich Bernhardt
- Title
- Der Fluss
- Year
- 1978
- Category
- Installation
- Video
- Format
- Video Installation
- Material / Technique
- 2 television sets in metal casing, custom-made electronics, contact mat, three wall clocks, tent, camera, monitor, video player, 1/2" videotape
- Dimensions / Duration
- Installation dimensions variable
- Collection
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media
- Description
- “With my first video installation »Der Fluss« (The River), I wanted to visualize the flow of time, which permanently flows through us […] We can envision this rationally, but we can’t feel what the flow of time of this Earth is like.“ [1]
In his only closed-circuit-installation, named »Der Fluss« (The River), the German artist Ulrich Bernhardt engages with the phenomenon of time on several levels.
On a monitor that is located in an open tent, we see an endlessly flowing spring. Beginning here, a track made of metal foil leads to two further TV sets stacked on top of each other; the bottom one displays nothing, and the top one a current TV program. When a member of the audience steps on a contact mat, which is located underneath the metal foil, they trigger a mechanism that makes the upper TV image ’leak out’ like water, beginning at the top. Parallel to this, an image of the visitors appears on the bottom TV, which is recorded by a camera in real time. In addition to the subjective experience of temporality that is created through the monologue-like situation with one’s own appearance on TV, the objective aspect of the flow of time is also thematized. Apart from the monitors, there are three clocks on the wall that display the time in three different time zones. Through this thematization of the flow of time by means of different systems, both human beings and technology become active components of the installation.
[1] Ulrich Bernhardt., »Tod, Zeit, Rhythmus, Leben. Objekte, Projekte, Fotografien, Videoarbeiten, Installationen, Aktionen der Jahre 1967 bis 1996: Retrospektive und Aktualität.« Galerie der Stadt, exhib. cat. (Sindelfingen: Lütze-Museum, 1996), p. 16.
Author
Julia
Images
Ulrich Bernhardt, »Der Fluss«, 1978, video installation, installation dimensions variable, ZKM | Collection© 2014 VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Photo © Photo: Ellen Bailly / Stadtarchiv Stuttgart
Ulrich Bernhardt, »Der Fluss«, 1978, video installation, installation dimensions variable, ZKM | Collection© 2014 VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Photo © Photo: Ellen Bailly / Stadtarchiv Stuttgart
Ulrich Bernhardt, »Der Fluss«, 1978, video installation, installation dimensions variable, ZKM | Collection© 2014 VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Photo © Photo: Ellen Bailly / Stadtarchiv Stuttgart
