Installation photos, 2005

The installation „Attention, mines!“ from 2005 clearly demonstrates the power of forgetting when there is no imminent danger or personal loss, as long as everyday laziness makes us content and everything seems to be all right.

Mine warning tapes transform spaces into energetically loaded terrains and silently remind us of something terrible, when public space turns into a political arena of power and we become innocent extras who are not allowed to enter their living space.

There exists an interface where daily life is confronted with newly constructed borders. Spectators have the chance to create their own opinions and views, their behaviour and capacity of perception are an important part of the installation. The relationship between man/woman, space, environment and perception becomes gauged while the question of freedom in public space is at stake.

Similar to the sound installation „Disappear“ from 2004, „Attention, mines!“ claims to exercise power over space. History will be understood as a cyclic system bereft of something past in space and time. On strategically selected places, this psychological warfare is still applied today, not only in art, but also in real life.

Hence structures of the everyday of people living in mine-contaminated countries are laid bare. Refugees cannot return into their country of origin. Streets and routes for transportation are no longer accessible, people can no longer gather wood, cultivate their land, obtain food or engage in trade. The markets stay empty, people hunger and the economy is not functioning. Public money, which is needed urgently to build up structures, has to be spent for the treatment of victims and the clearance of mines.