A Sense of Warmth | Heroes of Labor | I am the Power (Dresden Walk)
The title of ‘A Sense of Warmth’ comes from the sensation that the narrator of the film experiences upon arriving on a small and remote island, about to begin her work on a project that monitors bird migration from Africa to Scandinavia. This ‘sense of warmth’ is both physical (coming from the heat of the sun) and moral: the woman believes that she will be able to live a simple and good life working for the cause of environmental science. What the film devastatingly reveals is that the purity of her moral quest is complicated by the events that unfold when humans intervene in the ecosystem by capturing the visiting birds in nets to collect data.
‘Heroes of Labor’ shows the portraits of individualized capitalism: the ‘big 12’ among the motivational and life coaches in this world, celebrated icons of self-optimization, look at us in a large grin from the wall. They seem to literally embody the postulate ‘I am the Power’ – the central motive of the second film/sound-piece in the exhibition. A nocturnal stroll through a pedestrian area – scarcely lit and with the typical mix of useful architecture and the faceless, over-renovated facades of old-buildings – opens another emotional realm.
At first sight these harmless, almost funny pictures of the ‘spokesmen of success’ and their visions presented here in sound and image address us directly as acting individuals, triggering in us a process of reflection on our own sources for motivation and doctrines: how far is our own identity and life plan imprinted by the neoliberal age? And how free are we in the decision-making for our existence?
