destroying seven shelters
(2018)

Existence always takes place in space. Both physically perceptible and spiritual dimensions of forms of being cannot do without spatiality. The video work "destroying seven spaces" refers to such existential spaces, their perception and fragility within life. Based on Henry Lefèbvre's spatial theories, Olivia Wiederkehr designed the sculpture "seven spaces": an object made of seven expedition tents that she sewed together. The individual tent stands as a metaphor for the human individual, the tent walls can be read as the physical boundary of the human body (skin) or as the psychological boundary of our spatial existence. The space-occupying tent object served her as a material figure of thought to illuminate the fragile connections and areas of tension of being human within society. In order to make this sensually tangible, Wiederkehr performed with and in the tent sculpture by sometimes gently, sometimes vehemently setting it in motion, pulling and tugging at it. This caused the object to deform, swaying back and forth due to the tension, so that individual tent spaces threatened to collapse. The interplay of the construction, which did not change in itself, but which, depending on the physical force applied, immediately made its expansion or contraction visible. For the present video work, Wiederkehr goes one step further in her artistic creative process. She uses the existing tent sculpture "seven spaces" to performatively depict the end of a creative cycle. She places the question of the vulnerability of one's own and collective identity at the center and focuses on the moment when the protective shells are destroyed. The destruction of the personal protective space - whether through external or other influences - fundamentally dissolves its function as a protective shell. In the process, what is worth protecting is exposed or even destroyed. This can have both positive and negative effects - in both the private and social sphere. What does this mean for an individual and what effects does this process of destruction have on a society? What dynamics develop in the process? How much space does an individual need in order not to be destroyed in (or by) a society? In her socio-critical video, Olivia Wiederkehr has seven young female performers destroy her tent cult track "seven spaces". The performers, dressed in white overalls, were instructed by her to completely destroy the tents without any other aids than their own physical strength. The overalls serve as an aesthetic distinction between the sculpture and the external human intervention. A duplication becomes visible: people destroy a spatial sculpture that stands as a symbol for a society - an interplay within societal, political and social spaces in which we move on a daily basis. From a bird's eye view, the video work "destroying seven shelters" looks like a flower-like object in a meadow. The protagonists approach the object hesitantly and test it for its tension. After a phase of approaching it, they become more courageous, enter the sculpture and pull with all their might until the fabric gives way and tears. In less than twenty minutes, the sculpture is dismantled into its individual parts thanks to their great physical effort. Their task is done - the performers leave the site.