present but not yet active

Collective performance and video 13 min 34 sec, Manifesta 4, Frankfurt 2002

 

present but not yet active was an attempt to take part in a show without displaying anything but instead to ‘diffuse’ into the show by a shared experience with the curators. This experience with the curatorial team of Manifesta took place at the Frankfurt zoo a month before the opening. The aim was to discuss and experience the architecture of display and to look at the dilemma between authenticity and visibility. present but not yet active was at the same time also a film set where three ‘grzimeks’ (after frankfurt’s famous zoo director and filmmaker Bernhard Grzimek) documented the scene from different viewpoints.  While grzimek 1 tried to shoot the tiger and grzimek 2 shot grzimek 1 and the curators, grzimek 3 took photos from the distance. All three angles come together in a short video.

The video was given to the curators after the end of Manifesta as a documentation of the shared experience. At the exhibition itself nothing was displayed. Yet the video was shown since then in exhibitions, seminars and discussions.

grzimeks: Stefan Pente, Ines Schaber and Natascha Sadr Haghighian