'Journey to an absolute vantage point'
2 channel HD video installation 6 mins 13 secs loop, 2009.

'Journey to an absolute vantage point' combines a live performance of a specially commissioned tango music score and a fiction told to us by a German actress speaking in English, with images recorded in the grounds of Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin. The royal park is the setting for a meeting between a man and a woman whose goal it is to exchange information for unrevealed purposes. Part romance, part spy film, part documentary, these genres are fused with references to other artists and art works including Caspar David Friedrich and Beethoven. The relationship between music, images and text shift and collide as clichéd sentiment and dramatic tension are employed to build the narrative to a pivotal scene, in which the fictitious couple have an argument.

click on images for QuickTime movie

Credits:
Voice: Nikola Krastner
Original Music Soundtrack: Michael Fleming
Violin: Cora Venus Luney
Cello: Arun Rao
Piano: Conor Linehan
Lighting: Deirdre Noonan
Film Grade: Perry Gibbs
With support from Artquest/ACAVA Berlin Residency Award, The Elephant Trust, The Arts Council of Ireland

© Michelle Deignan 2009