Thomas Steffl (GER)
Helikopter
2003
two DVDs, 400 x 300 cm back projection, television, 60 min. loop, stereo sound
more photos »
Helikopter is a simplistic extreme of mimesis and abstraction. Transcendental, cognitive, emotional, it is a specific blueprint that is equally elemental. Outside the installation room Steffl places a monitor on which a red helicopter is at the point of take-off, blades rotating at full speed yet going nowhere, perfectly stationery in a green field. Projected onto a large, partially translucent screen inside is a silver helicopter, set in the same landscape though shot from a more stylized perspective, its blades also at full speed, overwhelmingly present. Monitor outside, screen inside. Touchstones.
The shift in perspective, the red helicopter replaced by a silver one, mimics the semantic shift between document and experience – documentary and art. Hearing the sound of the helicopter’s blades, meticulously re-modulated, ever-so slightly tweaked to be more perfect than reality, facing the still yet moving image, is nothing short of induced meditation, an acoustic portal into the sublime. The longer I choose to stay in this space the more profoundly affecting this hallucinatory pulsing becomes.
The more I choose to suspend myself in this space, the more this suspension affects a cognitive shift, an investment of energy, a removal from the outside world that reaffirms presence.
The excitement of this impossibly minimal content is overwhelming. I leave the room convinced of something. I’ve changed. Social change. Change beyond that which occurs through information. The experience of a perfectly integrated Elysium from which there is no going forwards, no going back. [1]
- Notes:
- This paragraph is an edited extract from the essay “Palace Calls Crisis Summit” by Ian White, published in Markus Heinzelmann, ed., film<local> ( Frankfurt am Main: Siemens Arts Programme & Revolver, 2003).
Biography
Artist Thomas Steffl ( Germany, 1970) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany. Steffel’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Revolver, Archiv für aktuelle Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (GER, 2002), Zink & Gegner Gallery Munich (GER, 2003), and Pinakothek der Moderne ( Munich, GER, 2004). He also participated in the film<lokal> project at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (in collaboration with the Siemens Arts Program) (GER, 2003). Together with artist Jens Kabisch, he will present their Kinderkino project within the framework of Hans Ulrich Obrist’s Utopia Station 2 at Haus der Kunst, Munich (GER, December 2004). Thomas Steffl lives and works in Munich, Germany.