Should I, after tea and cake and ices, have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?

EN
The title quotes T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, written from comfort while sensing the weight of what lies beyond it. The work moves within this tension: the sweetness of the everyday and the awareness of what happens outside our sight.
A real honeycomb is suspended above a news screen. Honey drips down, the honey and the honeycomb are coating, slowing, concealing the images. Sweetness becomes a layer over what is unbearable, revealing how we try to sweeten reality into something we can digest. Visitors are invited to taste the honey, becoming complicit in this gesture of softening the world.

The installation is accompanied by a performance in which honey gets spread over eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The senses are sealed off — as if what cannot be perceived simply does not exist. A childlike logic that echoes an adult struggle: the constant stream of news can only sometimes be survived by not looking at it.

DE
Der Titel zitiert T. S. Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, ein Gedicht, das aus einer komfortablen Position heraus die Schwere des Weltgeschehens erahnt. In dieser Spannung zwischen der Süße des Alltags und dem Wissen um das, was außerhalb unseres Blickfelds passiert, bewegt sich die Arbeit.
Eine echte Honigwabe hängt über einem Bildschirm, auf dem Nachrichten laufen. Honig tropft hinunter – benetzt, verlangsamt, verschleiert die Bilder. Die Süße legt sich als Schicht über das Schreckliche und zeigt, wie wir versuchen, das Untragbare verdaulich zu machen. Besucher:innen können den Honig kosten und werden damit selbst zu Teilnehmenden dieser Strategie der Verzuckerung.

Zur Installation gehört eine Performance, in der Honig über Augen, Ohren, Nase und Mund geschmiert wird. Die Sinne werden verschlossen – als würde das, was man nicht sieht, hört oder schmeckt, schlicht nicht existieren. Ein kindlich anmutender Reflex, der dennoch auf ein reales, erwachsenes Ringen verweist: die Nachrichtenflut wird zur Herausforderung, die manchmal nur durch Wegsehen zu bewältigen ist.

Should I, after tea and cake and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? . 2017 . performance (video still)

Should I, after tea and cake and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? . 2017 . honeycomb, screen, news ticker . dimensions variabel

Should I, after tea and cake and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? . 2017 . Detail

Should I, after tea and cake and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? . 2017 . performance (video still)

Should I, after tea and cake and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? . 2017 . performance (video still)

Should I, after tea and cake and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? . 2017 . honeycomb, screen, news ticker . dimensions variabel

Should I, after tea and cake and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? . 2017 . Detail

Should I, after tea and cake and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? . 2017 . performance (video still)