Bunte - Moti: ANALOGUE STORIES

The exhibition Analogue Stories brings together two artists whose work is connected through their profound interest in specific historical incidents and its literary accounts, as well as scientific phenomena that at times appear inexplicable. Through meticulous research they uncover hidden documents, objects and other materials to unravel and connect a set of stories or phenomena that seem un-representable and disconnected at first. The analogue film camera becomes an important conceptual tool and a metaphor for visualizing the multi-layered and often fantastic stories that, according to Melvin Moti, oftentimes exist only in the viewer’s mind, in his/her own private cinema.

In the exhibition at Fotogalleriet, Melvin Moti will show his 35mm film The Prisoner’s Cinema (2008) alongside the photographic series Biography of a Phantom (2004). The Prisoner’s Cinema refers to a phenomenon described in neuroscience as visual hallucinations taking place in respond to prolonged visual deprivation, such as those of prisoners confined in a dark cell for a longer period of time. The hallucinations take the form of geometric light shapes, which are seemingly ‘projected’ about a hand stretch away from the subject. Moti aims to visualize this phenomenon and thus re-stage the inner cinema of the mind. In the photographic series “Biography of a Phantom” Melvin Moti traces the appearances of a spirit named Katie King, which appeared for the first time in 19th-century Ohio. It is said that in the ensuing 120 years the spirit emerged from time to time in various other countries. Over the course of one year Moti collected all documents he could find about Katie King and discovered that she is the most photographed ghost in the history of spiritualism. Moti’s work shows selected photographs from archives proving Katie King’s spiritual existence combined with his own photographs of places where it is said that she appeared.

In the 16mm film The Garden of M. Lérétnac (2008), Andreas Bunte researched old analogue trick techniques to create tableau vivants-type scenes in which graphic elements, little animated processes and landscape shots have been collaged together. The film thereby draws on a number of ideas in connection with machine fantasies of the 19th century and concurrent thoughts on the creation of the landscape garden as a “Gesamtkunstwerk”. Andreas Bunte here also refers to literary accounts of such visions including the writings and undertakings of a certain Count Pückler-Muskau, whose life endeavor was to turn his vast property into a wondrous garden, a walk - in landscape painting reminiscent of Claude Lorrain or Nicolas Poussin. In combination with a set of collages and sculptural elements, Bunte’s film is a playful attempt to visualize the fantastic ideas of visionary writers and inventors during the period.

ANALOGUE STORIES.
Andreas Bunte - Melvin Moti