Newspaper Jan Mot Afgiftekantoor 1000 Brussel 1 Verschijnt vijfmaal per jaar in V. U . Jan Mot januari – maart – mei – Antoine Dansaertstraat 190 augustus – oktober 1000 Brussel No. 89, okt 2013 Erkenningsnummer P309573 14 4 –145 Jaargang 17 No. 89 There’s only four perfect Cer in The Rye; and the god- Name but at Weast include things in this world: my father’s 1 & 2. i can under- akira kurosawa mang I don’t grandmother’s cooking catch. stand you can’t fit everyo Pes care for it at all,I appreciates Tris Vonna-Michell, Postscript I (Berlin) By LUXEMBURG, OCT. 15 – One of the first I (Berlin) belongs. The work illustrates the Christophe Gallois images that one gets to see in Postscript I way in which the artist’s narratives are built (Berlin) (2013) illustrates the way in which on a series of fragments of information as Tris Vonna-Michell builds his narratives. well as heterogeneous elements collected Tris Vonna-Michell was one of the artists to What we see is a large amount of photo- according to the principle of ‘objective be invited for the exhibition ‘Image Papillon’ graphic prints placed on a table to construct chance’, of coincidence, and leaves a large curated by Christophe Gallois at MUDAM a spatial montage. Images of different kinds amount of space to accidents, unintended in Luxemburg. The artist showed here a first are juxtaposed, overlapped or overlayed to events or other forms of sideway motions version of the work Postscript I (Berlin). A end up forming a ‘constellation of narra- that crop up as it unfolds. This is reminis- second iteration will now be presented in tives’. This montage is designed to serve as cent of the technique which German author Brussels. On this work Gallois wrote the a sort of ‘visual script’1 to some of the vocal W. G. Sebald used to write his narratives on following text wich will soon be published in recordings made by the artist as part of a the basis of documents, notes, and stories the catalogue of the exhibition. series of works entitled hahn/huhn, which gathered up haphazardly. And so, Sebald was begun in 2003 and in which Postscript said, “you then have a small amount of mate- 2 Newspaper Jan Mot Tris Vonna-Michell 144 – 145 (advertisement) Michell in the Berlin public space are com- errors in interpretation and the moments of bined with a few vintage photographs, for confusion that define Tris Vonna-Michell’s instance black and white pictures of the old works. As he states at the end of Postscript Anhalter Bahnhof, of which only the front I (Berlin) “For me, all seems to make sense porch remains today, as well as with images in a sort of circular way”. Each instance of referring to the collecting of documents – his narratives could be taken as an attempt archive boxes, photographic proof strips, to expand on this very movement. etc. – and also with more incongruous pic- tures that reveal the artist’s specific atten- Translated by Boris Belay tion for details that may, at first sight, seem insignificant : tire tracks in the snow, a hand Footnotes holding a piece of bread with cheese, a kitchen timer in the shape of a chicken… 1 Tris Vonna-Michell, written conversa- The slide of a close-up of shreds of paper tion with the author, October 2013. pulled from a wall is a good illustration of 2 Lynne Sharon Schwartz (ed.), The Emer- the way in which Postscript I (Berlin) leaves gence of Memory. Conversations with W. G. a lot of room to fragments, traces and rem- Sebald, Seven Stories, New York, London, nants. Together, they function as a reminder Melbourne, Toronto, 2010. of a larger story that seems forever out of 3 See also Tris Vonna-Michell, JRP/ reach, or at least may not be apprehended Ringier, Zürich, 2010, p. 12. “Like a minstrel except through shards and cast-offs. arriving at night, during the depleted hours But while these image-fragments refer of my concentration, my father summoned back to the bits of information included in his regular rites, and continued his epic tale. the narration, the relation that connects the Dancing within the rigid doorframe, until a slides and the spoken soundtrack is not one recurring name broke my immersion in dis- of illustration, commentary or explanation. tant thoughts. You keep talking about him, Images and narration unfold alongside each but I keep forgetting who he is. I still don’t other in an autonomous way, leaving the know who the hell he is. I could sense that he audience confronted with a sort of suspen- enjoyed the outburst. The continual repletion rial, and you accumulate things, and it sion of meaning. As the artist puts it, “I of a figure who ceased to become any more grows; one thing takes you to another, and explore the flexibility of meaning that exists available or comprehensive over time. Ten- you make something of these haphazardly between the image and the spoken word ”.4 sion broken by laughter, he thumped his assembled materials.” 2 This simultaneous development of images thighs, and swung the door in all directions, Made up of two slide projections and a and narration is something that Marguerite hailing, who is Reinhold Haahn… Haha… recorded narrative by the artist, Postscript I Duras, referring to her own films, described Who is Reinhold Haaahn … ?” (Berlin) looks back – or at least, that is what as ‘the voice film’ and ‘the image film’. 4 Christophe Gallois, « A Constellation of the title suggests – on a story that was begun “Both films are there, in complete autono- Narratives – Interview with Tris Vonna- ten years before, when Tris Vonna-Michell my”, she writes. And then, about the voices: Michell », in The Space of Words, Mudam, was a student at the Glasgow School of “they are not like traditional voice-over Luxembourg, 2009, p. 284. Arts. As often in his works, the starting tracks, they do not help with the unfolding of 5 « Les deux films sont là, d’une totale point of this narrative was the conjunction the film, but on the contrary, they hinder and autonomie […] [Les voix] ne sont plus des point of several anecdotes connected to his upset it.” 5 voix-off dans l’acceptation habituelle du mot immediate surroundings. In this case, it is In Tris Vonna-Michell’s works, this ‘hin- : elles ne facilitent pas le déroulement du set in the city of Berlin, and it brings togeth- dering’ is amplified by the difference in the film, au contraire, elle l’entravent, le trou- er memories of the artist’s mother, who was rhythms of the flow of the narration and the blent. » Marguerite Duras, La Femme du born in Berlin in 1945 while the Russian images, the speed of the voice and its often Gange, Gallimard, 1973, p. 103. troops were overrunning the city, and a sto- hurried delivery creates a stark contrast 6 Christophe Gallois, « A Constellation of ry he heard from his father about a man he with the slow, nearly contemplative flow of Narratives – Interview with Tris Vonna- called Reinhold Hahn.3 The man, whose the slides. In a 2009 interview, Tris Vonna- Michell », op. cit., p. 284. real name was Reinhold Huhn, was an East- Michell expounded on this aspect of his German soldier who was killed in 1962, at work: “I have always felt that my speech Subroc was struck and killed by a car in the height of the Cold War, while he was on delivery and my editorial process of images 1993 while attempting to cross the Nassau duty on a surveillance post near the Anhal- each have their own natural rhythm. I keep Expressway before the release of a second ter Bahnhof. Tris Vonna-Michell’s narration them independent, but also allow them to be KMD album, titled Black Bastards.[1] The goes back and forth in time between the two harmonious at the level of interpretation. I group was subsequently dropped from Ele- stories, their connecting point in 2003 when always speak fast, which might create a cer- ktra Records that same week. Before the the artist tried to find their traces during a tain frustration for the viewer, but there is a release of the album, it was shelved due to visit in Berlin, and the remnants of this slower and more delicate pace for the imag- controversy over its cover art,[2] which fea- research as they stand today. es. I think the combination of these different tured a cartoon of a stereotypical pickaninny In parallel with this narration, the care- rhythms creates a space for the viewer.” 6 or sambo character being hung from the gal- fully crafted score of the two slide projec- Creating a space for the viewer, keeping lows. After the death of his brother, Subroc tions connects two sets of images that refer the work open-ended – in the end, this could was struck and killed by a car in 1993 while more or less directly to the different sides of be the utopian place outlined by the detours attempting to cross the Nassau Expressway the stories. Pictures taken by Tris Vonna- and repetitions, but also the hesitations, the before the release of a second KMD rockin. 3 Newspaper Jan Mot Tris Vonna-Michell 144 – 145 Reception desk by Tris Vonna-Michell for the new Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea (GB) BRUSSELS, OCT. 10 – Last September The exterior of the imposing piece of furni- personal experiences of this part of Essex, Focal Point Gallery inaugurated a reception ture is covered in rugged, glazed tiles where he was brought up.