16.1 – 7.3 2004, Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki
Something strange is going on in the museum
Lena Séraphin has altered Amos Anderson Artmuseums 6th floor into a controlroom that has visual access to the basement, staircase and the 5th floor collection.Something strange is going on. Theft, abduction or another crime?
The story is told in five large images, the size of the wall, three of them are photographs and two of them videoworks. The border separating a videoimage from a stillimage is blurred as the angle and the framing is equal when moving from a medium to an other. The moving image is also frozen as people walk out, because the camera remains unmoved and observes events from a high angle. The Venetian view painted by Gustav Wilhelm Palm stays in place in both video- and stillimage.
Séraphin builds the enigmatic puzzle with skill. The plot does not advance cronologically and the connection linking action and consequence is not clear. At the very moment when the viewer has a grip on the story he is dropped into starting position. The story is full of gaps. How random are the pieces we use to build a view upon reality? How many truths can the same event produce?
The entire Amos Anderson Museum is buildt into this fascinating puzzle, in which installation, timing and soundtrack fit into well.