Der Knabentanz (Little Boy Dancing)
INSTALLATION · 2001 · KÜNSTLERHAUS BETHANIEN, BERLIN · WITH THOMAS GERWIN
Meaning "The Dance of the Lad," this was an installation of slides and sound at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. It was about the ghosts of the city and its many historical residues.
There were two strands to this installation: architectural stills, and a young boy dancing, all in shades of blue, purple and grey. The architecture of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium, the former air force building of Göring and the Nazis, and mostly interior shots of the then new Libeskind Jewish History Museum. The latter avails itself of a similar “gravestone” aesthetic and viewers thought it was the same building. Meanwhile the little boy dances on as a symbol of grace and redemption, haunting and opprobrium. A sound piece composed by my friend Thomas Gerwin was of the boy laughing mixed against more foreboding samples of the clack-clack of the slide machines, now an antiquated form of display technology.
