Untitled (Single Channel View)

1998-2000, single-channel video projection, black & white, silent, 10 min loop

The viewer is placed in the classroom of a boys’ school. Standing close to an empty school desk, the viewer has a narrow angle of vision diagonally across the class of 12-year-olds. However, the pupils do not seem to notice the presence of the stranger, or of the camera. The photograph shows them in a moment of quiet, eager expectation and everyone, except for one boy staring at the viewer, is gazing out of a large rectangular classroom window to the freedom of the indistinguishable world outside. One gets the impression that what has attracted the attention of the class is not an event taking place outside the window, but merely the prospect of such an event. The only movement visible is the shadow on the back wall of two trees whose leaves sway gently and silently in the wind.

[Text by Stephan Urbaschek]