A live projection on a white box, built to the exact specifications of the Picasso painting, at the Astra Gallery in the vacated Unceta weapons factory in Gernika April 26, 27, and 28. – 2007. The occasion being the 70th year commemoration of the 1937 brutal bombings of civilians, on a monday, a market day in Gernika.
My focus was on the universal feeling of helplessness towards seemingly random, brutal, external, forces taking control over unshielded, innocent, life. Forces that, without discretion or regard to how a life is lived, take it away.
Related to events of today; it could be a tsunami as well as unjustified war, or a terror bombing. Man-made politically/economically motivated forces from countries or corporations. Decisions made far away, outside the influence or realm of the people that it affects.
I performed the projection of the IR (infra-red light spectre) time-lapse images and 4-channel sound with a MIDI-controller and different software. With a head microphone, live sound over prepared sound-loops sampled from my three visits to Gernika and in front of the Picasso painting with the anglified title “Guernica” at the Reina Sofia in Madrid.
The first place this painting was shown, after the World Expo in Paris, was at the Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo, my home town, in December 1937.
The sketch of the hall and the white-painted plywood box. A purpose-built “canvas” with the exact dimensions of Picasso’s painting.
Impressions from the production in 2005-06 and from one of the events in April 2007. Filmed by Dani Asua and Zigor Extebarria (who also produced the piece in Gernika)
Inspiring some of the imagery in this project
A cultural program, EITB KULTURA TRANSIT, is produced by Dani and Zigor for Basque TV. Here some that was shown in connection with the event.
The poster for the event.
