2008
„Weltall Erde Mensch“, loop-raum für aktuelle kunst, Berlin
»Weltall Erde Mensch« is an installation specially made for the gallery space. It combines five wood constructions with monitors and video film loops which resemble the science fictions ambiance of films in the fifties and sixties.
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loop - raum für aktuelle kunst is proud to present a new video and photography installation by Till Exit, entitled “Weltall Erde Mensch“ [Universe Earth Man] after the book presented at the GDR coming-of-age ceremony, which championed a near-future Utopia brought on the wings of technological progress.

 

We cannot deny the growing proliferation of technology in our lives. However, the reigning belief that technology makes for a “more beautiful life” has vanished.

 

Till Exit’s works attempt to remember the future. Utilizing five video-installations, the artist embarks upon a nostalgic journey, splicing footage of architectural spaces from ‘50s and ‘60s international sci-fi films.   The spaceship hallways, airlocks and automatic doors immerse the viewer in the aesthetic of the then avant-garde.

 

The flashing lights and chunky props may strike the contemporary, digitally-spoiled observer as campy and clumsy.  And, yet, the humility of the stage set is undeniably touching, and the scope of architectural vision that it metonymically embodies is as timeless as it is poetic.

 

The artist has imbued each video sculpture with its own specific content, and thus its own character. But these chatty personages conversing with each other really belong to another, lofty realm: the protoplasmic ideologies they so fervently espouse could be tenets of a book anticipating a “New Mankind.” 

 

The monitors, mounted high on deer blinds, float like satellites in the gallery space.  Yet, the observer remains securely grounded in reality: the gallery floor has been covered with typical East German flooring of a dispirited office; the brown-beige patina--patterned, penetrated, and ruptured--is a disturbing counterpoint to the futuristic vision emanating from the monitors.

 

“Weltall Erde Mensch” longs wistfully for the past’s perception of the future. But can the “hopes of yesterday” be rekindled amidst the modern knowledge of their impossibility?  Perhaps, we can relive while remembering, and recognize that the dewy-eyed optimism portrayed, although deeply buried, still lingers inside of all of us.