Body and Consumerism

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Media installation in the exhibition space of Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral

May 19 - May 28, 2007

Künstlerhaus Schloß Balmoral
Villenpromenade 11
D 56130 Bad Ems
T.0049 2603-94190
F. 0049 2603-9419-16

www.balmoral.de
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The project deals in particular with the relation between the human body and consumerism as well as biopolitics and population control, and it aims at a visualization of the changing interaction between the cardiovascular system and consumerism of a human.
Two video films are activated by treadmills in a gym. The speed of people walking on them controls the pace of the video projections. The media installation links human walking movements to the sensations felt/experienced in a non-interacting consumer's world.
One of the films shows the camera move through a supermarket and, in turn, a hospital, which appears - due to the complete absence of any human life - beyond any everyday reality.
The other video deals with the transition of goods from their exchange value to a utility value when passing the scanner cash register.
With its project, RG is trying to contribute to a creation of critical awareness and, furthermore, to make the relation between the consumer and the producer, the circular flow of production, consumption and reproduction as well as their social control function transparent.

see video

Opening on May 18, 2007 with a talk given by Prof. Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, Cultural Sociologist at Dresden Technical University: Arbeit und Konsum: Virtualität als Schicksal

see also: Soziologische Forschung braucht visuelle Fantasie
a talk between Karl-Siegbert Rehberg and RG (in German)