Phantoms of Time
Installation, Filmstills on transparent Silk, Sound (Breath)
For my installation „Phantoms of Time” I worked with film material that was shot between the ’70s and the ’90s in my family circle, The amateur films show everyday scenes, captured by various family members on different occasions. In contrast to looking at photo albums, I was fascinated by the authenticity of the film, which shows not only one picture, but always contains a before and an after. This allowed me to experience a time that is the precondition of my very own existence but that I cannot experience. With the bond to the generations before me, I perceive the recordings as present, but to me they are history, because they originate from the time before I was born. I go back to the past from my point in the future, which I know, whereas the protagonists in the films don’t know it yet. The film material is a storage of time in which I can repeat and repeat again, like in a matrix, actions which really happened in the past. I take part in the mortality and vulnerability, the never-ending, inescapable change of the generations. The random nature of the shots opens up a feeling for eternity. For the eternal now, which alone forms our experience. The figures in the films are true, and yet it is only possible to capture a metaphoric, imaginary existence – they become bodyless phantoms of their own. […] The basis for an individual existence is the breath, from the first to the last. In the process of inhaling and exhaling, the cycle of birth and death, contraction and expansion becomes manifest – the polarities synergize. The sound of the breathing is omnipresent and at the same time being given. The individual experience of time is terminated – yet time doesn’t end with the end of an individual. Within the changing of generations, memories and experiences are carried – inescapably, we are confronted with the fragility of our own existence and the passing of the individuals. The breath projected into the space is meant to be carrying and to refer to an infinity beyond the personal.
im Juli 2021
Breaking Waves on the Surface of the Heartbeat Star MACHO 80.7443.1718
Video, 2024, 10min 10s (exerpt 1min 55s)
With MACHO 80.7443.1718, the most extreme example of heartbeat stars to date was classified in 2023. These stars are a binary system of stars orbiting each other in an elliptical manner. Each monthly orbit causes periodic fluctuations in the brightness recorded by telescopes, so that the resulting light curves are similar in their form to the rhythms of the heartbeat on an EKG machine. The gravity of binary stars creates enormous waves of gas as they approach. The waves generated at MACHO 80.7443.1718 are three times the size of our sun and thus move on an almost unimaginable scale. The larger star in this dyad is nearly thirty-five times the mass of the Sun. Powerful telescopes make it possible to perceive a reality that would otherwise not be there for us. Since practical experimental arrangements in astrophysics would go beyond the physical scope due to the dimensions of the phenomena examined, computer simulations are used for such investigations, which are intended to provide information about the processes in the vastness of space. The universe is constantly changing. This also applies to our own planet, which is estimated to be swallowed up by the expanding sun in five billion years. Astrophysicists have recently been able to observe a similar process in the constellation Aquila using infrared telescopes. The heartbeat stars are also expected to melt together from a pair to form a single star. Tonal translations of Kepler light curves into sound result in different stellar “heartbeats” and form the sonic foundation of the video work. This is repeatedly interrupted by bits and pieces from all-too-familiar pop culture songs that are anchored somewhere in the unconscious, or other collected voice fragments. Excerpts from a lecture by the astrophysicist Dr. Morgan Mac Leod narratively accompany the experimental video work.
From the macroscopic excursion into the outermost and abstract, it goes back to the microcosm of what is innermost within us: our heart. Artificial intelligence has an important application in cardiovascular medicine. An AI trained for this purpose generates artificial X-ray images of people and thus depicts a whole range of different diseases, organ shapes and sizes. In order to deliver equally valid and reliable results for all ethnicities and genders, artificial intelligence must be constantly trained with data sets and then checked accordingly. For medical treatments, these processes represent an almost magical advance: they not only make the hidden interior of the living body visible, but rather the organs can be viewed in their entirety without having to be removed from the body. At the threshold of the widespread use of AI, the question is not just about an expanded perception of our senses, as is the case with the telescope. Rather, we are actually expanding our awareness of what brings new opportunities and risks and is ushering in a new era at top speed.
The Super-8 films from unknown sources collected and digitized from different time periods and regions form an aesthetic contrast. The analogue and privately produced short films, a few minutes long, seem almost innocent. They were created in the initial phase of the establishment of amateur film recordings. The specific quality of the film material makes it clear how much our visually conditioned sense of time is tied to certain appearances and camera techniques. The recordings are a testament to the fascination with time captured on celluloid – not least because of its material transience and the associated risk of disappearance of the fragile documents, they were digitized and transferred to the post-analog age. Photographs of the Wells Cathedral astronomical clock, a historical document of the once dominant geocentric idea of order in the universe, confront scientific errors. The question arises as to what allodoxies we will have to admit to ourselves in the future and how our contemporary worldview will be turned upside down.
Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know.
To Drop A Stone Into Water
Sound, 2min 2s
The sound piece To Drop A Stone Into Water plays with an imaginary state in which contact with extraterrestrial creatures could actually have been established. Snippets of sound from a home movie, which dates back to the same time as the Arecibo message was broadcast, are superimposed on individual fragments of a historical documentary about an emergency operation. What is actually going on remains cryptic and seems to be characterized by both expectation and uncertainty. “I believe” is repeated like a mantra, based on FBI agent Fox Mulder’s credo “I want to believe” from the American mystery series The X-Files. To throw a stone into the water means to cause a reaction of ever larger circles on the surface of the water, while the trigger sinks to the bottom and is forgotten. We cannot currently know what effects the earthly message might have or what circles it might draw. According to legend, Orson Wells’s infamous Panic Broadcast frightened listening Americans in the 1930s because the realistic radio program made them assume an actual arrival of Martians. Whether friend or foe remains unclear, but the urgent desire to explore and search for life outside of Earth represents one of the greatest mysteries, whose eerie nature fuels fears and hopes at the same time.
Big Mother
Video, 5min 25s, 2023 (exerpt 45s)
Footage: Rhein-Main-Drone, Rettungshundestaffel Barnim
Every spring, countless fawns die a cruel mowing death due to intensive agriculture. The reason for this is that in the first few weeks of life they instinctively crouch when faced with danger instead of fleeing. Hidden in the grass, the animals are invisible. Teams of fawn rescuers establish themselves throughout Germany with the aim of preventing the disaster. At night, they comb the meadows using drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras to find the wild animals and bring them to the safe edge of the field until the danger is over. Big Mother examines the relationship between humans and their environment and how technology can bridge different species. The work is interested in the positive potential of such a twinning and is dedicated to expanding perception through technology.
Tierschutz durch Technologie?
Text: Fabian Kassner
Mona Freudenreich verhandelt in ihrer Videoinstallation „Big Mother“ das Potential des Einsatzes digitaler Prothesen für ökologische Zwecke.
Düstere Luftaufnahmen von Wärmebildkameras, deren Ästhetik an Überwachungs- und Kriegsszenarien erinnert, werden mit detailierten Bleistiftzeichnungen von Rehkitzen auf weißem Seidenpapier kontrastiert. Erst auf den zweiten Blick erschließen sich die Zusammenhänge: Die Aufnahmen dokumentieren Rehkitzrettungen, bei denen die Jungtiere im hohen Gras mit Hilfe von Drohnen geortet und durch Helfer:innen vor dem Mähtod bewahrt werden.
Bietet der Einsatz neuer Technologien Lösungen für Probleme des Umwelt- und Artenschutzes? Gibt es Alternativen? Wo liegen die eigentlichen Wurzeln der Konflikte zwischen Mensch und Natur?
AD INFINITUM
Video, 20min, 2024 (exerpt 2min)
AD INFINITUM shows scientific images like a collection of evidence, brings them out from the hidden realm and opens up new connections by combining the material. The focus is on film as a time-based medium with the potential to represent processualities and as a means of expanded perceptions.
Recordings from a camera collar taken at regular intervals over a longer period of time provide insight into intimate scenes from the life of a wild horse in the Gobi, comparable to a visual diary. Soon after the “discovery” of this species, which was considered a scientific sensation, the animals were in acute danger of extinction in the middle of the last century. With just a few specimens, after various successes and setbacks, it was possible to restabilize the population in human care. Since the 1990s, there have been research-supported release programs to reintroduce horses to the steppe as their original habitat. Thousands of years before these ancient wild horses were a source of inspiration for Paleolithic rock paintings and are immortalized in countless cave works of art. The prominent Lascaux Cave in France was discovered by accident in 1940. The following month, the first photographic documentation was made in black and white by Fernand Windels. Referred to as the “Sistine Chapel” of cave art, the time capsule was a magnet for countless visitors, but the air they breathed soon caused damage to the paintings, which were around 17,000 years old. Due to the destabilized climatic balance, algae, fungi and bacteria spread on the frescoes and put them in danger. Since the 1960s, only restorers and scientists have been able to enter the original cave under strict conditions. The electron microscopic and X-ray spectroscopic images in the video installation come from the context of an investigation into the microbial ecology of the cave. Views of alien-looking micro-landscapes form a bridge from the Stone Age to modern imaging techniques. Changes take place continuously at various levels and can be measured in detail through recording and documentation. In May of this year, astrophysicists published their discovery of how a dying and expanding star (ZTF SLRN-2020) swallowed a planet. The process itself was not new and had been theorized before. However, such an event was confirmed for the first time through observation “in the act” using various telescopes in the optical and infrared range. Light fluctuations at the pixel level allowed this interpretation as a result. This process was calculated using computer simulations and analyzed as an example. According to current research, this will be the fate of the Earth five billion years from now, when it will be devoured by the doomed sun in a final flash of light. Everything that begins seems to have to end at some point – although cosmic time scales are elusive.
A slowed down version of Donna Summer’s ecstatic 70’s disco hit I Feel Love accompanies the video installation like a technoid lament. The repetitive, loop-like beat and the exclusive use of synthesizers made the piece a pioneer for danceable techno rhythms. It was the last song on the record I Remember Yesterday, on which each track represented a different decade and this one pointed to the future.
The rapid development of technologies on different levels that make the unobservable observable leads us to expect numerous expansions of our worldview that will reconstitute our perception of reality and reflect ideas of transience and eternity in a wider spectrum.
Horse Footage: International Takhi Group/Great Gobi B SPA and Dr. Petra Kaczensky (Forestry and Wildlife Management), Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN) Lascaux Footage: Dr. Pedro M. Martin-Sanchez (Environmental Microbiology and Cultural Heritage) and Dr. Ana Z. Miller (Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry), Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville (IRNAS); Fernand Windels / Ministère de la Culture (France), Heritage and photography media library (MPP) Space Footage: Dr. Morgan McLeod and Dr. Kishalay De (Astrophysicists), Harvard-Smithonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) Star-Planet Simulation: Dr. Mike Lau (Astrophysicist), Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS)
last night’s dream
Handkerchiefs, Embroidery, each 40x40cm, 2022
when the house is finished, death moves in
Video, 1min 21s, 2022 (exerpt 30s)
Es war und es war nicht I+II
Filmstills from Videos I+II (each 5min), 2020
Footage: Foundation Conservation Carpathia
Nature is unaware of our concept of time. It was there before us and will be there after us. It does not need us – yet we need it. What is humanity? Are we not also nature? […] This actual absence of humans, creating an enigmatic mystery, is the core of the video works shown here.
aus: Atemwende – OSTRALE Biennale, 13. Internationale Ausstellung, Dresden, Katalog 2021.
Poem to a Horse
Video, 3min, 2021 (excerpt 30s)
The ghosts of silence wander through our dreams In the mist of loneliness The meadows of our longings
Talare
Shrouds on Velvet, Embroidery/Textile Colour, 140x210cm, 2019-2020
Our sense of time supposedly forms a stable foundation within which we see ourselves as sentient beings. Action is only possible in the now as this is the only state which we can experience with our senses. The now is eternal in that it unites the future and the past. Finiteness determines our physical existence and the cycle of nature. With the end of an individual comes the end of their experience of time. The form of a living being familiar to us changes in its matter to become part of the cycle from which it came. The awareness of impermanence and context makes it possible for us to recognize that there are things that reach far beyond us. It focuses on the moment.
aus: ZUKUNFTSVISIONEN – An die Substanz! Katalog 2020.
Follow Me
Stills, 2021
She said Follow me to the lodge where the woodpeckers nest at night To fly home Through space and time
eternal
2019
Nachtschatten
Filmstills from Videos, two Parts: 2min 23s und 2min 5s, 2020
Die beiden Videos Nachtschatten I und II versetzen in eine traumhafte, nie ganz fassbare Szenerie, die uns davon trägt in eine andere Welt, in der das Grau zu erzählen beginnt, in der es sich bewegt und Bilder einer intensiven Strahlkraft zu generieren beginnt. So leuchten die Augen nicht nur der Hasen in der Nacht, es sind auch die Augen des Traums, sie brennen von innen heraus. Es geht hin und her, vor und zurück – man könnte sagen: eine wunderschöne Darstellung dessen, was Freud mit der Rück-sicht auf Darstellbarkeit meinte. Die Glühwürmchen sind die Augen der Nacht sind unsere Träume.
Jury-Begründung zum Link 2 Future Preis des Psychoanalytischen Seminars Zürich für Psychoanalyse und (…)
Während ich schlafe, bin ich wach Im Dunkel der Schatten zeichnen sich Gestalten ab Sie sind mir vertraut Aber ich habe ihre Namen vergessen Im Traum begleiten sie mich Ich trage sie in den Tag Um ihr Geheimnis zu kennen Immer ein wenig weiter Bis sie in mir ihr zuhause finden
The Touch of Time (Chernobyl)
Tapestries , Embroidery, various sizes, 2019-2022
Something romantic in today’s parlance often denotes a state of sentimentality and longing. In the 21st century – as a result of dystopian threats such as industrialisation, economic explotation, climate change, littered seas, factory farming and nuclear disasters – this image seems to exist only in the guise of kitsch. The longing for a lost paradise implies that it no longer exists as such. More than 30 years ago, a major disaster occured in Chernobyl. From one hour to the next, thousands of people had to leave the exclusion zone for ever, leaving behind everything that was dear to them or had determined their lives up to that point. A few decades later, the contaminated area has apparently become a natural paradise where bears, wolves and even wild horses roam. A deceptive idyll? Or is humanity an even greater enemy of nature than radioactivity?
aus: Atemwende – OSTRALE Biennale, 13. Internationale Ausstellung, Dresden, Katalog 2021.
>> Die Lehrerin hat gesagt: > Zeichnet die Stahlung. < Ich habe einen gelben Regen gezeichnet ... Und einen roten Fluss ... << Julia Taraskina, 15 Jahre alt >> Wo das Dorf war, ist nur noch ein Feld. Unser Haus ist dort begraben. Und auch die Schule und das Dorfbüro. Und mein Herbarium und zwei Briefmarkenalben. << Wassja Mirkulitsch, 15 Jahre alt >> Jeden Tag bekamen wir die Zeitungen. Ich las nur die Titel: > Tschernobyl, Ort der Heldentaten < , > Der Reaktor ist besiegt < , > Das Leben geht weiter <. Der Politoffizier unserer Einheit organisierte Versammlungen und sagte uns, wir müssten siegen. Aber wen besiegen? Das Atom? Die Physik? Das Universum? << Arkadi Filin, Liquidator >> Radioaktivität. Gefahrenzone. Weiden von Vieh und pflücken von Beeren und Pilzen verboten. << Warnschild, verbotene Zone >> Man hat uns geraten, zur Gartenarbeit Baumwollmasken und Gummihandschuhe anzuziehen ... Und ein sehr aufgeblasener Gelehrter hat behauptet, man müsse das Brennholz abwaschen ... Hat man schon mal so einen Unsinn gehört? << Sinaida Ewdokimowna Kowalenka, illegale Bewohnerin der Zone >> Ich war nicht im Krieg, aber ich hatte das Gefühl von etwas Bekanntem ... Ich kann nicht sagen, woher das kam, aber es hing mit dem Tod zusammen ... << Oleg Worobej, Liquidator Zitate: Swetlana Alexijewitsch Tschernobyl. Eine Chronik der Zukunft.
Zeitfenster (Rumänien)
Filmstills on Velvet, ca.3x2m, 2020
Zeitfenster (Flamme)
Filmstills on Velvet, je 80x100cm, 2020
