Seraphin

Lena Séraphin, Andrea Meinin Bück & Don Quixote Complex 11–27 March, 2011

Kluuvi Gallery / Helsinki Art Museum Press release

Around ten years ago I saw an article about an Austrian photographer, Andrea Meinin Bück (b. 1968). At the time, Meinin Bück worked as a photographer for the foundation Vera Incessu Patuit Dea. Her job was to document European cultural heritage with a focus on buildings under threat of demolition.In her work, she got to know cultural heritage sites that were threatened because of aggressive new construction and inadequate resources for renovation. She became increasingly disillusioned about the factors that drove the preservation of cultural values. Her burning interest resulted in radicalisation. On one tragic night thirteen years ago, good intentions led to shocking consequences. Since 2001, Meinin Bück has been serving a life sentence for the murder of a French property shark. I became interested when I read about the clearly intelligent and competent professional whose life took such an ill-fated turn. I contacted her to find out more. During our ten-year correspondence we have been able to share things that we consider important. We have discussed the Don Quixote Complex, a state where fact and fiction get mixed up. In the novel written in the early 1600s by Miguel de Cervantes, the protagonist Alonso Quijano assumes a new identity in order to act according to the ideals he has adopted from chivalric romance novels. Meinin Bück, too, acted according to her ideals, believing that she was taking society to a better direction, but her dedication carried her to a borderline state. This exhibition tells about the journey to the destructive borderline and the way back to reality – a reality that frightens Meinin Bück. According to the laws in Austria, she can appeal to be released on parole in 2014.- “I don’t need to give in to senseless intentions anymore, but it is difficult to distinguish what is real and what isn’t, to be who you are without assuming a role,” she says.

The exhibition is part of Lena Séraphin’s doctoral thesis for the Aalto University School of Art and Design. Thanks to: Arts Council of Finland (media art division) and Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.

10.12 2001
Liebe Lena,
Thank you for your kind letter and interest. Yes, I do get a lot of post, most of it is twisted fan mail of all sorts. Some see prison like a resort. My vacation is of a permanent nature, not really holidays when it lasts forever. I don't have access to the Internet so emails are not possible, but please do read my letter as one of many to be sent northbound.
Andrea

12.7 2004
Dear Lena,
The past being a marriage with the third reich is a burden. I did not understand the closure, did not see what was so heavy. The silence was pretty complete on Blütengasse. It doesn´t comfort me to know that liaisons also looked like the Finnish-German brotherhoood in arms. For me the deal is alive inside our Austrian minds. Thank you Lena for trying to console me but it is dippy of you to do so.
Yes, a man in a uniform is the ultimate genre. Did you know that we say that the length of a mans step is to be regarded as a sign of the size of the male organ. And it´s not an army joke. So what about the Finnish SS volunteers?
The resting German soldiers are not very threatening. And yeas, it is a proper question when does somebody get demonised, but Lena - demonised. I have been demonised. I am the only imprisoned of three people committing a capital crime together. In the Austrian papers I am
Die Redhed, in the French La Rouquine. Famous or infamous it doesn´t make a difference, once you have been given a name it sticks to you. Die Redhed von Blütengasse reads Die Rüde.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
A

7.8 2005
Lena,
I´d like to write about things like the phantom of liberty the white swan falls in love.
But all days are alike.
Wake up call-breakfast-meds-Zelle-lunch-outing-Zelle-dinner-meds-Zelle-lights out
I wake up and I undress. You can summon a life with wake up and then undress.
As a girl I thought that speaking and things happening around me had a magic link. Like if I would say, tomorrow the sun shines and we are having Vanillekipferlns in the backyard, then it happens. I´ll give it a try. Tomorrow I will fall in love. See, this is all in vain. I can´t change and be here in immobility. Do you still remember the propaganda images. That´s me, a negative. Beautiful as hell. I am restless, taking a brake.
A

17.9 2008
Dear Lena
Steven, Paul and me slipped into being saviours on a mission of god knows what. We were sent to Italy by Vera where a family was planning to sell off their 17th century park. I mean the parks actual future lies within a shopping mall. What might they have there then? A Gourmet Kitchen World? Our idea or the lesson was to brake in and give them a good fright. "If you sell the park, something bad happens." And when it didn't work out I collapsed.
Yes and no. I can look back at it now. But it makes me estranged. Because I really truly loved that park. For me its demolition was a personal loss. Why should beauty be something I can't keep? The destruction of the green theatre was a breaking point for me. A bit difficult to say but humanity was lost in me and for me. I rejected everything.
A

23.5 2009
Lena,
Everything stopped in Guereule. All was calm and still the morning after the killing. Quiet like in Blütengasse. I was barefoot. Steven and Paul had already left, or fled like they said. I walked in the raped building and saw Michel on the top of the staircase. I didn´t know why he was lying there. I sat down and spoke to him. J´ai dit que je laimais. I said I loved him. Michel was the traitor I loved. I went rambling on. Then I continued outdoors, to the patio, through the cherryorchard and continued toward Arbresle, the road was almost washed away by the rain.
More than ten years. Here, thinking is all you can do. In meetings we are guided to integrate both good and evil. We sit in a circle and I often look at the whiteness of the walls. It reminds me of the silence at home in Blütengasse.
A

1.6 2010
Lena, ma Léna
The redhead has grown old. La Rouquine a vieilli. Being an inmate has saturated me. I do not wish to part. What can I do to stay? I have imagined crimes that give me a return ticket. Some people say that the first moments, the first days out of the gates predict what is to come. I would like to leave on a sunny day. Maybe I should write to the warden about it, ask for some sun. I would like to go through the gate and then walk forwards, forwards. In my dreams I do it.
I´ll stay here,
Andrea

2.2 2011
Dear Lena,
Thank you so much for all your efforts in preparing our show. I am certain everything will work out in the very best of ways. I won´t be there for the opening! Could you bring flowers to be me? One more thing for you to do! I would love yellow roses.
Please say hallo to Mika and all your dear ones,
Andrea