Janina Lange

Description

Encompassing sculpture, video and performance, my work explores the relationship between performer and audience. I am interested in creating installations that encourage ways of thinking and experiencing that are physical, visual and social. The physically accessible structures function simultaneously as a hiding place and a stage. While the viewer watches a performance on a screen sheltered inside the sculpture, her interaction with the objects turns her into a performer: She is looked at by other spectators. The structures aim to create a field of tension between self-awareness and immersion in the films, reminding the viewer of her public presence in space whilst also taking her on an inner journey.

The placement of the sculptures in relation to the architecture of the building provides a multitude of viewpoints from which the spectators (turned performers) can be seen and thus intensify the experience of the work. It is important that the installation is complimentary and catalytic in the way it uses space, activating rather than occupying it. Furthering the dialogue between viewer and site, the wooden structures bear marks of the narratives that unfold in the space; every interaction leaving a physical trace. The viewer wears the space. It is the moment of entering and exiting the sculptures that the she is most aware of her own presence and a shared moment of public intimacy is created.