In the movie THE MATRIX, the young bearers of hope, Neo and Trinity, are flying, falling, clambering, fighting and making telephone-calls. The heroes of the Matrix are on the telephone whenever they are located in the virtual world and looking for contact to the real (underground) world. Also, they are mostly in the act of fleeing, on a hunt or in combat. All this can be read as a metaphor for a performance society of mediated communication and pressure of time, especially distinctive in present Zurich. Feelings and empathy are less cultivated than rational planning and efficient work. The inner contact between emotions and success oriented thinking often gets lost. One symbol of this economically highly efficient city is the skyscraper ‘Prime Tower’, the highest business building of Zurich. Details of the Prime Tower facade and views out of it (including its own shadow on the view outside) are combined with portraits of Trinity and Neo. Their facial traits betray stress, concentration and tension. Quotations from the work of Carl Gustav Jung (from ‘The Real and the Surreal’, a chapter in ‘Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche’, 1932) augment the images and comment in a surprisingly up-to-date manner human perception and life conditions which apply even more to modern technological societies.
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Exhibitions
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Baroque Promises and Constructive Doubts
Solo ExhibitionKunstmuseum AhlenAhlenGermany02.06.2019 – 11.08.2019 -
The Matrix at Lake Zurich
Solo ExhibitionInstallations in railway stations near ZurichThalwil + KüsnachtSwitzerland01.02.2005 – 31.03.2005