Die Weserburg, Museum für moderne Kunst, 2008
●● Peter Friese
●● Peter Friese
On entering the darkened space, one 111 discovers a large number of oval speakers lying on the floor that have been connected by means of thin cables and apparently tend in one direction in a winding stream. What makes these cable connections so striking can, however, be heard as soon as one enters the space: a downright wall of sound consisting of the cheeping of numerous small rodents, the permanent patter of thousands of tiny paws, and quiet rubbing sounds. The association with rats is intuitively thrust upon us in the sense of a mental inference. But this is not yet everything: a dull rumble comes from an area behind a section of wall, from where this virtual stream of rats is apparently gravitating toward, accompanied by hissing and gargling. The gruesome discovery: the technical rats are all converging on a large video projection that at first glance calls to mind an oval or rhombic maw. A monstrous hole rhythmically opens and closes; it drones, fumes, and hisses, and appears to imbibe the stream of rats in pumping, convulsing swallowing movements.
●● Peter Friese
translation: Rebecca Van Dyck
C.A.C. de Basse-Normandie, Hérouville-Saint-Clair 1998