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True Blanking
The black exhibition space is dominated by a large black and white
projection. It shows a blurred, hectic image consisting of dots,
stripes and shadows. Contours dissolve intos pixels, like in scrambled
Pay-TV films. The underlying musical sound collages make the
picture vibrate. What first looks rather abstract can be associated with
a real picture at second glance. Occasionally, recognisable image
sequences appear, such as parts of a Hebrew inscription engraved in
stone or a view of a facade. The source material for Kjell Bjorgeengens
video work are recordings from the Bronx, from a Jewish cemetery in
Warsaw and a view into a bathroom in London. The recorded material,
however, is not taken over unchanged; it is electronically manipulated.
Bjørgeengen subjects all video material to a process that filters the
refresh and reset intervals of the video images, the so-called
'blankings' - a method that has been developed at the Experimental
Television Center in New York. Additionally, electronic sound
compositions influence the video as electronic impulses. The moment
between scanning and storing the video line visualized by Bjørgeengen
reminds of cognitive processes. 'Blanking' can thus be seen as a
metaphor for the interface between perception and memory. It is not the
realistic reproduction that is put to the fore but the volatility of
perception that more and more falls into oblivion. Bjorgeengens work
documents the modified perception of reality, the filtered and
manipulated view of todays media society. His virtual blanks, however,
leave the beholder enough room for his own thoughts.
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