Daumenkino (Flip Book)

The first ten minutes of the video work "Daumenkino" (Flipbook) by the Basel-based artist Matthias Aeberli show a collage-like display of cut-out images. Whilst the title translates as ‘Flipbook’, the work is not a flipbook film in the true sense of the word, where the individual pages of a booklet flicker so quickly between the thumb and the index finger that a drawing becomes animated. Instead, Aeberli lays out photos, postcards, excerpts from books, catalogues and newspapers in various sizes, both superimposing and neighbouring each other on top of a light brown wooden background. Repeatedly, his hands and especially his two thumbs hold the cut-outs and intervene in the frame. They are assembling or rearranging motifs, whilst the only audible sounds are the ones produced by placing and removing the pictures from the table and the steps of the artist moving around the room.
Each illustration is dedicated to a different subject, which has usually been cut out following its contour. The first sequence shows a brown, repeatedly bent and creased cardboard roll on a wooden tab-le covered with spots of paint, thus referencing the artist's studio, who is primarily a painter. Here Aeberli quotes a well-known visual effect – the trompe l’oeil, which was predominantly used during the Baroque period and depicted deceptively realistic-looking objects. Edward Collier's ‘Quod Libet’ (1701) and Cornelis Gijsbrecht's ‘Back of a painting’ (1670) are prime examples. 
In some cases, Aeberli arranges just one image, in others, he works with several images on the screen, whilst leaving the camera unmoved. Sometimes it is the colour combinations that are the determi-ning elements, in other cases the continuity of characters or their connections to other images. The arrangement appears intuitive. Instead of film-like accumulation of individual images, Aeberli creates a circular back and forth structure. Similar, repeated motifs are also regularly part of his drawings and paintings. He creates contrasting combinations through the juxtaposition of everyday objects and famous works of art, such as with the picture of a colourful children's swing with plastic seats next to the Renaissance painting of Mantegna's Dead Christ (1480).
In a text that he wrote for a reading at the Basel Literature Festival 2003, Aeberli describes his practice: ‘The longer I am busy working with my own and other people's pictures, the least clarity there is, even though one picture still leads to another, instead of a gradual reduction or an explanation, new levels of meaning are constantly opening up.’ (Aeberli 2003, quote from matthiasaberli.ch).
"Daumenkino" (Flip Book) can be interpreted as images showing memories from the past. They buzz around in a disordered and spontaneous way and evoke moments of collective memory. Contrary to the individual images in a conventional flipbook, Aeberli’s work do not result in a coherent sequence, but rather breaks developing narratives and any meaning-generating continuity.

Seyma Bayrak (Übersetzer Christopher Haley Simpson )

--- Präsentationshinweise

videocity.bs beteiligt sich bei der „∑-Summe“-Aktion, bei welcher die unabhängigen Kunsträume in Basel sich im Jahr 2017 abgesprochen haben, das Medium Video im November in den Mittelpunkt zu stellen, um eine Vielfalt an Themen und Herangehensweisen vorzustellen. Ein Aufruf erging an die audiovisuellen regionalen Kunstschaffenden, Werke der letzten beiden Jahre einzureichen.  Die videocity.bs-Kuratorin Andrea Domesle hat aus den über 200 Einreichungen 5 Künstlerinnen und Künstler ausgewählt.
Obwohl unabhängig und eigentlich für einen Kunstraum entstanden, ist bei videocity.bs spannend zu erleben, welche Herausforderung die Grösse der elektronischen Werbetafel und der öffentliche Raum an die Videos stellen: Welchen Einfluss hat das quirlige Treiben des Messeplatzes auf die Wahrnehmung der autonomen Kunstwerke?  Das Leben verstärkt die Faktoren Bewegung und Raum in den Videos und dort, wo diese mit Ton komponiert sind, ersetzt es die ursprüngliche Tonspur.  Der Alltag lässt die Videos in neuem Licht erscheinen und umgekehrt, die Videos den Alltag.  videocity.bs wird einen Monat lang zum immateriellen Bestandteil des Messeplatz und regt zu Austausch, Verschiebungen von Ordnungssystemen, unerwarteten Blicken und Begegnungen an.

 --- Notes on Presentation

videocity.bs is participating in the "∑-Sum" action, in which the independent art spaces in Basel have in 2017 simultaneously agreed to put the artistic medium of video at the centre of focus, in order to showcase a multitude of themes and artistic approaches. An appeal by "Summe" association was made to the audiovisual artists working in the region to put forward works completed during the last two years. videocity.bs curator Andrea Domesle has chosen 5 artists from out of the 200 applications. 
Although independently created and intended for an art space, it is exciting to witness during videocity.bs what challenges the large electronic advertising screen and the public space pose to the videos: What influence does the lively hustle and bustle on the Trade Fair Square have on the reception of these autonomous art works? The surrounding flow of life itself amplifies the factors of movement and space within the videos and wherever these have been composed with sound, the original sound track is substituted by noise from daily life. Everyday life allows the videos to appear in a different light and conversely the videos experience the different framework of today. videocity.bs is poised to become an immaterial daily component of the trade fair square once more, stimulating exchange, the displacement of interpretative systems, summoning unexpected views and encounters.

https://www.matthiasaeberli.ch

    --- EN

Under the title of “ ∑-Summe” five videos from five artists are brought together by the curator Andrea Domesle, format 16:9, 1-canal. The videos from Pascale Grau, Parvez Imam and Dirk Koy have a soundtrack, but during videocity.bs they are however shown without sound on the eBoard, so that the Basel city sound for once provide their unique sound track.
From 03.11. till 30.11.2017 the videos had been visible with certain exceptions on a daily basis from 8 till 24 hour, broadcast interspersed between the infos on the eBoard of the Basel Congress Center, Messeplatz 21, adjacent to the Swissôtel Le Plaza.

--- D

Unter dem Titel „∑-Summe“ sind fünf Videos, Format 16:9, 1-Kanal, gruppiert. Die Videos von Pascale Grau, Parvez Imam und Dirk Koy haben eine Soundspur, werden auf dem eBoard jedoch ohne Ton gezeigt, so dass die Stadtgeräusche ausnahmsweise den Sound bilden.
Vom  03.11. – 30.11.2017 wurden die Videos mit einigen Ausnahmen zwischen Infos auf dem eBoard des Congress Center Basel, Messeplatz 21, beim Swissôtel Le Plaza gezeigt. Täglich 8 bis 24 Uhr.

Artists: 
Matthias Aeberli, *1952, lives in Basel, matthiasaeberli.ch
Pascale Grau, *1960, lives in Basel, www.pascalegrau.ch
Parvez Imam, *1967, lives in Basel, www.parvezimam.net
Dirk Koy, *1977, lives in Allschwil, www.dirkkoy.com
Vladimir Mitrev, *1972, lives in Basel, www.vladimirmitrev.com