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Intervening Zemo Nikozi is an installation in the public space of the Georgian village Zemo Nikozi. During the period of the political elections, three posters were attached on the fences of different properties. The posters show pictures of three domesticated animals who live in the farming village which is still strongly affected by the war of 2008. The gazes of the animals reflect another concept of coexistance on the villagers. They work like a messenger from another world reminding their passers-by of what may be more important than exclusively human matters.
SOCIAL DISORDER AND A WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
Performance | Zurich, 2010 | Kiev, 2014 | Warsaw, 2014
Concept and idea: Sabine Schlatter and Benjamin Egger | Realised for ich tier! (du mensch) – du tier! (ich mensch), Perla Mode, Dienstgebäude, Zurich, 2010 | Referendum on withdrawal from the human race, Closer, Kiew, 2014 and Teatr Powszechny, Warsaw, 2014
In the performance the participants are encouraged to drag a dragging-horse in a carriage through the city. In the statement published before the performance Benjamin Egger is pointing out: «The simple fact that the world is constructed by the connectedness of countless individual worlds could have more tragic consequences. Existing categories such as states, gender, animal or profession shall be dissolved as such. A heterogeneous society must redefine its concepts of hierarchy and social exclusion. Human-animal-relations shall be freed from their hierarchical structure and should be established as a bond committed to a dynamic and productive jumble. The socially respected workhorse shall be dragged through its world by its holders. No longer as a workhorse, but as the owner of a world.»
THE VOID OF TARZAN
Installation in public space | Advertisement Screen
Sinop Biennial - Clusters and Crystals: Observing at Point Zero | Sinop | 2014
The Turkish translation of «Adam is Tarzan – Tarzan eats Adam» is displayed on an advertisement screen in the middle of the city of Sinop. The work is referring to the Sinopian Tarzan Kemal, who died in 2004. He was a prepetual wanderer in underpants, playing the drum, taking care of plants and animals and fighting against the slaughtering of lambs and the littering in the city. The poetic intervention associates the biblical first human Adam with Tarzan from the story of Edgar Rice Burroughs who was raised by apes. The work plays with the concept of the very first human. Must this first human being not have been born to and raised by an ape mother? And if so, how does this change the conception of the human in general?
SONG FOR THE BANISHED
Video | Colour | SD | 8' 09'' | 2009
Performance | Shedhalle Zürich | 2009
Performance | Helmhaus Zürich | 2009
Concept: Sabine Schlatter & Benjamin Egger | With: Ramona Welti, Limmatnixen Zürich, René Müller, Renate Schlatter and Sabine Brüllhardt | Cinematography: Benjamin Egger | Scenography: Sabine Schlatter & Benjamin Egger
Song for the banished consists of a video and two performances. The project is dedicated to three wild animal populations on the verge of being shot by state authorities: The nutria in the west, the brown bear in the east and the black swan in the center of Switzerland. Ramona Welti performs in every part the song «The Rose» accompanied by three flag-wavers with animal masks. In the video she is additionaly accompanied by the synchronized swimmers of the Limmatnixen Zurich and performs on a raft in the middle of an indoor swimming-pool.
DER VERBUND
Video | Colour | SD | 8' 36'' | 2009
Concept: Sabine Schlatter & Benjamin Egger | With: Marcel von Arx, Dina Wild, Gregor Mägerle and Sibylle Rashad, a deer, a donkey, a falcon and a weasel | Cinematography: Benjamin Egger | Scenography: Sabine Schlatter & Benjamin Egger
Der Verbund shows a loose coalition of humans and nonhuman animals. Each group performs in a cardboard landscape. Physically seperated the two groups meet through the edit of the video. The song «Maybe This Time» is performed by Marcel von Arx accompanied by Dina Wild on the accordion and Gregor Mägerle on the drum while Sibylle Rashad is roller-skating around them. Der Verbund is anticipating a coalition of nonhuman and human animals and is celebrating a new state of being-together which is about to come.
