Montreal 2010 (MUTEK Festival 2010)
at Place Des Festival
'Time Drifts' Media Installation by Philipp Geist
02. - 06. June 2010
The Berlin-based artist Philipp Geist has developed his video installation 'Time Drifts' for the square Place Des Festival next to the Contemporary Art Museum in Montreal. In his installation Geist interprets the themes of space and time. He avoids using canvases and projects directly on parts of the facade, on the ground of the whole square, on stairs, and on fog streaming into the square.
The result is an interplay between the concrete, tangible wall/square and the transparent, dissolving projection ground. Words are projected onto the ground, and they are reflected into the fog. Fog is, similar to time, always in a flux, you cannot hold or keep it. This concept refers to the characteristics of museums and to their function as a place for conservation and for providing the visitor with both facts and imaginations: The dissolving projection ground symbolizes the fragmentary knowledge and understanding of life in the past and present, but knowledge is also secured and preserved in the form of text, clearly visible on the concrete. The people become part of the projected images while walking around the square and entering the building. Thus, Geist develops a dialogue with the location, his artistic work and the visitors.
This methodical approach to the theme 'time' is supported by the projected images themselves. Words that relate to the topic both directly and indirectly cover the whole ground of the square. Some terms and sentences are obvious references, some invite the visitor to think about the phenomenon of time and its historical and cultural connotations. This cultural consideration will be enhanced by the fact that the texts will be in the two official languages of Québec, English and French, and additionally in German, which is the artist's mother tongue. There will be single words, quotations and proverbs by various authors. The installation invites the visitors to stay and contemplate, to detect meanings in the thick carpet of partly overlapping words. The carpet's threads of words are woven chaotically, and it takes time and movements across the square to see and decipher them. It is the poetry of the texts and the dream-like atmosphere that will transform the location.
In the images which are projected onto the facade, Geist creates a pictorial, abstract imagery at the computer which also refers to time. Geometrical, spatial forms like squares, cubes, perforated planes, lines and rays, overlay each other in an on-going process and build up a complete picture in order to dissolve it right away. The various elements create a complex architecture of images which is always in a state of flux. By displaying depth and three-dimensionality, the work symbolises the constantly developing, enlarging space of continuing time lines, and represents the complex networks emerging from different spatial components spreading in the course of time.
Philipp Geist works internationally as a light and multi-media artist in the mediums of video, performance, photography and painting. The Berlin artist Philipp Geist (1976) showed a 4D mapping installation on the facade of the royal throne in Bangkok on the occasion of king Bhumibol's 82nd birthday in December 2009. The one-hour-show was the central part of the celebrations and was seen by 2-3 million of visitors. In 2008, during the 'Long Night of the Museums', he showed his video installation 'time fades' at the Kulturforum. In this installation Geist interprets the themes of space and time. He avoids using canvasses and projects directly on parts of the façade of the architecture and on transparent grounds like sheets of gauze and fog.In September 2007, he realized the video installation 'Time Lines' on the entire front of the Palazzo delle Espozioni in Rome at its re-opening after it had been closed for five years. The installation was opened by the mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, and was seen by approx. 20.000 visitors. In 2005, he realized the large project 'Winterzauber' ('Winter Magic') for the Lake Side Restaurant in Zurich and in 2006, he opened the Salon Noir within the context of the exhibition 'Melancholie, Genie und Wahnsinn' ('Melancholy, Genius and Insanity') in the Berlin Neuen National Galerie. Together with the symphony orchestra OBC Barcelona and the Finnish sound ensemble Pan Sonic, Geist opened in 2004 the Sonar Festival in Barcelona. His works were shown at the Dissonanze Festival in Rome, at Clubtransmediale in Berlin and at the Mutek Festival in Montreal which is renowned for new media. He has exhibited his live video performances internationally at the Central House of Artists (CHA) in Moscow, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London, the National Gallery in Warsaw (Zacheta) and at the opening of the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.Further projects are characterized by their complexity and the integration of the location, the sound and moving images.
