| Katya Sander | e@katyasander.net |
| Estimations 2008 Three-channel video installation consisting of three HD-monitors and a window with a view. 40 mins Produced for The Taipei Biennial 2008, Taipei Museum for Contemporary Art, Taiwan.  “Estimations” takes its point of departure in the very concrete position of the spectator in a room in the museum from where a part of the city-scape can be seen. In the videos, a figure pursues the idea that “the market” or “the economy” has a boarder somewhere; a line where it ends, and touches something that is not it. The figure (visible as text on the monitors) asks people working in re-insurance-industry certain questions. Different voices (audio) respond. The figure is an unknown main character that carries out an investigations. It tries to find out if there is a boarder somewhere, between something that can be estimated and thereby enter the sphere of global economy, and something that can’t. This protagonist speaks to people who work with estimating, especially estimating risk, in relation to the re-insurance industry. “Re-insurance” is the insurance of insurance companies, i.e. it deals with calculation of risk on a more global as well as mathematically abstract level than ordinary insurances. The main use of reinsurance is to protect a company against high-scale losses – the kinds of losses that are caused by very large events such as natural catastrophes or international financial crisis. Reinsurance companies function by spreading risk over large areas that are different geographical as well as economical. In that sense, reinsurance companies operate only globally, and by attempting to foresee (calculate) and also spread risk on a global scale. In the video we follow a series of questions or conversations being unfolded. They are all carried out over the telephone (skype), and neither the interviewer/researcher or the interviewees are introduced outside the conversations. One conversation leads to another as the interviewer attempts to clarify some questions about “the economy”, calculation of “risk”, what cannot be known, and “the state”. While the viewer looks at the monitors (and thus also out of the windows) at the cityscape outside the museum, the character engages in different conversations trying to pin down a “boarder” or “edge” to the economy; a place where it ends or meets something that can’t be estimated. Abstract issues of risk and the spread of risk, definition, calculation, time, horizons and fear are anchored to a random but nonetheless very specific view out the window.     Installation: The viewer is presented with four square holes in the wall, each the size of a screen for a large-format HD-monitor. Behind three holes are actual monitors, whereas behind the fourth hole there is a window with a view towards the surroundings of the exhibition-space. This view should preferable suggest some kind of urban structure, be it a skyline, a street with traffic or a work environment. (The window is covered with a blue-tinted polarization foil.)     On the three monitors, three different videos are shown in synch. Apart from the conversations and some staged footage, they all contain images shot of the view from the window; fragments in different sizes, smaller or larger details. It is important that this recorded material is the view from the actual place in the building where the piece is positioned. From here, a landscape can be contemplated. It could be any landscape, but it isn’t: It is this very specific landscape, and even though it is put in front of us as if it is a monitor, aligned with other monitors, it is also the ‘real’ view out the window. While watching the landscape outside the museum through the hole, we thus simultaneously see the parallel video-footage placed next to it, focusing on different fragments of it.     Some video stills from the 3 monitors:       Practical note on the site-specificity of the piece: The current version of “Estimations” was made for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, and thus consists of footage mainly shot from that specific location. However, the idea of the piece is that the very specific relationship to the location in which it is shown, can (and should) change as the location changes. The piece is not about one specific site, but rather about any specific sites relationship to the questions asked. As such, for the installation of the piece, new footage would be shot of the specific view/window, and edited into the video according to the same structure every time. Moreover, the conversations with re-insurance people continues and develops. See the Taipei-version of the 3 monitors here. Please write me a short note about who you are, if you are doing research or simply curious, and I'll send you the password. My address is in the upper right corner of this page. Credits: Appearing in image: Angela Andersson, Susanne Sachsse. Voices, re-speaking original interviews: Cylena Simonds, Ben Borthwick, Lulu Jacobsen, Sarah Sheikh, Cordula Daus, Daniel, John. Camera Tapei: Jihong Lee, Camera Berlin: Katya Sander, Nicolas Siepen. Edit & tech: Ewa Einhorn, Angela Andersson. Special thanks to Ewa Einhorn! Texts: Read Brian Holmes' text "The Interscale – Art After Neo-Liberalism" which describes part of Estimations.  |