Within collaboration with artist Zofia Twardowska we discussed what those have in common and gathering visuals to accompany the conversations. We were interested in different forms and reasons of isolation and how present they were even before Covid 19. We came across hikikomori, severe socially avoidant behavours and theatre group Yokaï and their performance Gimme Shelter on isolation.
Idea was to recreate a room where isolation usually happens and fill it with site-specific computer screens which are the only connection to the outside world, but in this case just videos leading to another room. It was important to not only mimic the isolating feeling, but to share and understand it as a broader concept connected to Marx’s theory of isolation and Hannah Arendt’s point on loneliness, which are both taking it not as a personal but a very political subject.
Visitors of the installation were first stopped by the three questions When would you isolate yourself?, How often do you feel distant from others? and What do you hear in your room? and had to also answer them privately. As they progressed through the questions they ended up in the closed space with computer screens and pictures. Even before entering they could hear mumbling voices, which then became clearer with subtitles next to the videos.
Collaboration: Zofia Twardowska
Installation was exhibited in June 2023 at Zuid Boijmans in Rotterdam.