Nachtruhe mit Schaumstoff
Installation

Insomnia. Those who suffer from it tell of horror stories. Anja Bergman seems to know about it. City fountains have a special place in their neighborhoods. They are jewels of Urbanity. For some people they have another side though, they are incredibly loud! Or could it be in their minds? In Anja's Video installation we see two small video monitors showing video loops set up higher than our heads on.

the wall (the set up looks like a Namm June Paik installation with bulky out of date equipment). The loops force us to jump form side to side with our eyes trying to connect a story. My left eye sees a close up of a city fountain at night with two water jets streaming out. Somebody that we cannot see in the shot is setting up what looks like foam covers onto each stream, in effect muffling or silencing the noise. It looks very odd and if you don't look a few times it is hard to get (looking like abstract sculpture). My right eye sees a blond woman's face up close, we see her expressive eyes reacting to what is happening on the left side. Her face is lit from the side with changing colored lights. The light pulses on her face and makes a slow dramatic rhythm. We have to individually interpret her expression which to me is one of curiosity-as if wondering: "what is going on here?". The "melodrama" is enhanced by the cool jazzy music in the background. All this adding up to a campy and subtle video performance loop.

Carlos Varela