Dennis Del Favero
1999
Interactive
Video Installation
Dennis Del Favero produced Cross Currents as an interactive
installation and CD-ROM during the first phase of his Artist-in-Residency
at ZKM in 1999. The interactive installation formed the first in the
Produced at ZKM series while the CD-ROM formed the second
in the ZKM Digital Arts Edition. In the interactive installation
the viewer enters a room with a severely tilted and wedge-shaped floor.
Interacting with the viewer's movements is made possible by means of a laser motion
detection system, which produces a split-screen video projection beamed onto the
two intersecting walls of the room. The innovative laser motion detection
system was developed by ZKM computer scientist Andre Bernhardt. The
projection is accompanied by a synchronized sound and narrative audioscape,
while fragmented items of hotel furniture emerge from the various
surfaces of the space.
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Installation: Axonometric view |
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Cross Currents explores the traffic in human beings, specifically
the sex trade, sweeping Europe and exploiting, amongst other victims,
refugees from former Yugoslavia. These refugees, lured by false advertisements
and enticements, find themselves forced to work as prostitutes in
the hotels and streets of Berlin and other European cities. The work
explores these issues through an interactive narrative dealing with
the relationship between a young Croatian mail-order bride and her
Serbian body guard. This narrative reconstructs the events leading
up to a police raid on a sex slave hotel in central Berlin during
which the woman escapes and her body guard and would be lover are killed.
This reconstruction is enacted by means of each viewer's individual
trajectory across the space which triggers a series of cascading points
of view including that of the man, the woman, their cities of origin
and respective journeys to the imaginary refuge of Berlin.
Exhibited at:
ZKM, Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Kunstverein Rosenheim, Rosenheim,
1999; Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney; John Curtin Gallery, Perth; Ffotogallery, Cardiff; City Exhibition Space, Sydney; Mildura Regional Gallery, Mildura, 2000. Gertrude Posel Gallery, Johannesburg, 2001.
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