8 Voices
interactive 8-channel hd-video installation, 2019
The installation was created for the exhibition „And We Ought To Keep Silent?“ in St. Paul in Munich, organized by the Art Pastoral of the Archdiocese Munich and Freising. The title refers to apostle Paul‘s statement in his first letter to the Corinthians: „As is customary in all the churches of the saints, the women are to remain silent in the assemblies; they are not permitted to speak: they are to submit, as the law also says. If they want to learn something, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is not proper for a woman to speak in the assembly.“
Eight women from different backgrounds with different professions, all very committed in their field, make statements about what is important to them. The visitor sees these women on monitors on the back of the last row of banks on the north side (the women‘s side). He can see from the facial expressions and gestures that they have something important to say. But he doesn‘t hear them because the sound has been turned off. You have to keep silent in the church as Paul demanded. Whoever wants to give them a voice, wants to hear their message, must go to a link on the Internet and enter a password there. Whenever a group is marginalized, silenced, it takes special effort to listen to them.
I like to isolate certain patterns of perception or behaviour and couple them with other elements to make them conscious and question them. Here the sound is switched off, but the women speak uninterruptedly. And they are visible, even very present. They occupy the entire bank series. You can see four next to each other from the altar, four from the entrance. They are like talking sculptures.
Installation view towards the entrance
Photo: Johannes Seyerlein