The Interrogation, 2017, single channel HD video (color, sound), 18'35"
The Interrogation is a video constructed entirely from still film photography and photo shop collage – playing out as a photomontage along with a voiceover. The work is two narratives intertwined. One comes from an audio recording of the artist interviewing a local officer from the Commission for Discipline Inspection. In this interview, the officer talks about the psychological tricks he had used to succeed at his job interview. Then he describes the mental methods he always applies to his suspects during the interrogation process. The other narrative is a short story written by the artist and inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s movie Persona (1966). In the story, an actress refusing to speak and a nurse trying to make her talk gradually switch roles and turn into each other. These two narratives together bring to mind the complexity of the reality that we are currently in: Our everyday routines and the extreme situations that remain hidden behind our mundane daily lives intersect through a similar structure of communication. The roles that people play in these scenarios are thus in constant flux.
The Interrogation is a video constructed entirely from still film photography and photo shop collage – playing out as a photomontage along with a voiceover. The work is two narratives intertwined. One comes from an audio recording of the artist interviewing a local officer from the Commission for Discipline Inspection. In this interview, the officer talks about the psychological tricks he had used to succeed at his job interview. Then he describes the mental methods he always applies to his suspects during the interrogation process. The other narrative is a short story written by the artist and inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s movie Persona (1966). In the story, an actress refusing to speak and a nurse trying to make her talk gradually switch roles and turn into each other. These two narratives together bring to mind the complexity of the reality that we are currently in: Our everyday routines and the extreme situations that remain hidden behind our mundane daily lives intersect through a similar structure of communication. The roles that people play in these scenarios are thus in constant flux.
