Artists Information
In some rural areas of Switzerland, the white noise on a television set or blank video tape is called ‘ant racing’. For the installations displayed in the «substrat.01 – oberfläche.struktur» exhibition, Valentin Hitz looks at the inner structure of the television picture and the phenomenon of the images and their resolution. In his monitor installations, he ‘literalises’ the error messages listed in television user manuals, expanding the defects described in these manuals into the visual embodiment of the technical failure – making interference, overdubs, ghost images and even white noise visible.
«substrat.01 – oberfläche.struktur»
Valentin Hitz was born in Stuttgart (Germany) in 1969 and grew up in Switzerland. He studied directing at the Filmakademie Vienna. He works as a director and producer and has won a number of prizes for his films and screenplays.
substrat.01 – oberfläche.struktur
In 2001, the substrat exhibition series in Berlin put on display for the first time a number of current viewpoints in contemporary art. oberfläche.struktur brought together and juxtaposed five separate artistic approaches - Florian Bach's installation work, Franziska Furter's drawings, Nicole Hassler's painting, Valentin Hitz's film/installation work, and Jean-Thomas Vannotti's painting. All the artists are Swiss and spent time in Berlin as scholarship holders on a 3 to 12-month studio residency. In the «substrat.01 - oberfläche.struktur» exhibition, they have displayed new works created during this period.
The exhibition was supported by the Swiss Embassy in Berlin, the Fonds Cantonal de Décoration et d'Art Visuel Genève, the Département de l'Instruction Publique et des Affaires Culturelles Neuchâtel, the Zug Kulturstiftung Landis & Gyr, and the Verband Schweizer Weinexporteure SWEA.
In his installation «Ameisirönnä - Ant Race - Ameisenrennen», Valentin Hitz considers the basic structure of the television picture. The installation displayed here, a triptych, was set up in an unused goods lift and consists of three identical television sets. The two outside screens show continuous white noise. In the middle television casing, behind the screen, as many live ants as were required by the pixel composition to construct a full frame - 414,720 (720 x 576) - are scurrying around. A tinted perspex screen, evenly illuminated from the interior of the casing by three fluorescent tubes, circumscribes the ant-occupied interior space from inside. «Ameisirönnä - Ant Race - Ameisenrennen» is part of Valentin Hitz's «Error functions» project.
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| Ameisirönnä
(2001) Installation 3 televisions |
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| Ameisirönnä
(2001) Installation (detail) 3 televisions |
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| Flimmerkiste (2001) Installation (detail) Tinsel, Radio |
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