Christian Falsnaes

Destroyed copies of Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, Attesa (1962), Yves Klein, Monochrom blau ohne Titel (IKB 98) (1957), Imi Knoebel, Hartfaserbild 210 x 160 (1968/2010), Bruce Nauman, Eleven Color Photographs/Self-Portrait as a Fountain (1966), Blinky Palermo, Blaues Dreieck (1969), Reiner Ruthenbeck, Schwarzer Papierhaufen (1970), Franz Erhard Walther, Zwei Keilformen (1994)

4K video, 10:24 min

During the opening of ICON, an exhibition curated by Christian Falsnaes, comprised of works by male artists from the collection of Kunstmuseen Krefeld, the visitors suddenly start to destroy the exhibited art works.

They perform a radical gesture in the Museum, only to become an art work themselves, in the form of a video piece directed by Falsnaes.

Curator: Dr. Silvia Martin

Camera: Harald Mellwig

Sound: Frank Bubenzer

Camera assistent: Jochen Keller

Starring: Sylvia Martin, Sabine Schmidt, Dirk Rose, Christian Falsnaes and random visitors at Kaiser Wilhelm Museum

Music: The Arrival and the Scribe by Jamie Bathgate

Produced in collaboration with Kunstmuseen Krefeld

2-channel video installation

Performed by:

Rachell Bo Clark, Senya Penelope Corda, Blanca Dakli, Jemima Rose Dean, Léonard Engel, Amelia Emma Forrest, Gosia Gajdemska, Laura Giuntoli, Simon Knab, Julia B. Laperrièr, Justyna Kalbarczyk, Marissa Medal, Janosa Mike, Francisco Bejarano Montes de Oca, Sonia Noya, Birte Opitz, Marcell Proske, Marie Rechsteiner, Flupsi Upsi, Maciej Sado, Danilo Andrés, Lisa Stertz, André Uerba, Jochem van Bruggen, Alexandra Vasilieva, Cindy Wegner, Frida Yngvesson

Camera: Harald Mellwig / Sound: Frank Bubenzer

A single person moves alone through the streets of Berlin. It is unclear what brought this person here, what purpose s/he pursues, where s/he is going or coming from. The person carries out different actions, displays different body language, and expresses her-/himself in different ways, but always only reacting to her/his own body.

A group of people moves together through the streets of Berlin. It is unclear what brought these individuals together, what purpose they pursue, where they go or where they come from. The individual bodies are attuned to one another, so that movement, body language, and expression are synchronized. What emerges is a swarm, a mob, a decentered collective body that neither seems to go anywhere nor to achieve anything.

SELF follows a series of recent works, in which Falsnaes critically examines his own practice. Where most of Christian Falsnaes’s works are based on the unscripted reactions of an unsuspecting audience, SELF is staged and filmed with hired performers. The element of persuasion and uncertainty that comes from working with unwilling exhibition visitors is replaced with a seemingly effortless execution. The feeling of distant neutrality is augmented by the fact that the protagonists are seen from behind.

Visitors, white room, mirror, costumes, sound

Visitors are invited to put on a costume, enter a white room, and follow the directions of a disembodied voice. Participants are able to observe themselves and each other in a mirror. By wearing a black costume every person surrenders their individuality, becoming a part of a staged sequence of movements. Participants are transformed into performers of a complex choreography of which they are the only audience. 

Costume design by Flavia Romera

performance with six dancers and audience.

Fall is a piece directed by Martin Forsberg and Christian Falsnaes, conceived to be performed by an audience together with dance company Corpus in the context of a collaboration between The Royal Danish Theater and Chart.

Fall conserves in it's structure the collaborative character of the commission, insofar it makes a random audience join forces with a group of six professional dancers in order to create together an art work. In Fall the becoming-art of the ordinary people crashes into the becoming-life of a dance company, within an open frame where the unexpected physical and psychological reactions of the audience define the image and character of the piece.

Falsnaes leads the audience through a choreography developed in collaboration with Forsberg, centered around the act and quality of falling, as an effective dramatic resource that enables an awareness of the weight and structure of ourselves as singular cells and as part of a collective.

- Daniela Brunand, 2017

3x cut clothes on black wooden frames

160cm x 120cm

Three black wooden frames form the starting point for the production of three pieces entitled Self-portrait, Portrait of Gallerist and Portrait of Collector. They stand as depictions of three of the main actors within the art fair context. Under the instructions of the artist, the visitors become active agents in the destruction of the artist, gallerist and collector’s outfits and the construction of a collective collage made out of the resulting fragments. 

stage
stage light
audio on headphones
visitors   

Through headphones, visitors receive instructions to go on stage and perform a choreography.

Hereby the stage transforms into a pedestal, with visitors becoming the exhibited sculpture. A structure that continously takes new forms as the choreography is constantly re-interpreted by different bodies.

camera with headlight
live-feed projection
camera operator
instructor
visitors

FEED is a closed circuit video installation and immersive performative environment in which group situations are centered around rituals of submission and construction of power and authority, while the interaction with individuals is focused on exposure , expression of the self and staged behaviours. This takes place within a precisely defined set of conditions: the space organization - with the language facilitating the action and the ongoing production of images where the artwork shapes and articulates itself. 
Playing with today's general zest for visibility, attention and amusement, the artist creates a highly manipulative situation, a "show" within a show, inside which questions of obedience and resistance are re-directed towards the art system, revealing the unfolding social responses and behaviours.
(Anna Smolak, curator of the Future Generation Art Prize exhibition)

2-channel video installation
one hired instructor
visitors  
 

Two video projections opposite of each other show pre-recorded performances, faces of different people fighting for attention, images downloaded from the internet, and different colors.  A voiceover instructs visitors to relate to the projections, to analyze them and reflect on their reactions to them, to perform in front of them, and to carry out different actions (standing still, dancing, kneeling down, walking around) while looking at them in order to experience how these actions influence their reactions to the projected images.  

An instructor is hired to make sure that all visitors follow the instructions.  At certain times throughout the performance, the instructor pauses the installation and engages the visitors in a group discussion about their experience of the work.

film studio
video display
instructor
visitors   

Each day the first visitor to the exhibition is filmed whilst following a series of instructions; the film is exhibited until the exhibition closes that day and then it is deleted.

If the first visitor of the day refuses to be filmed, no video will be shown that day. The process is repeated every day the work is displayed.

5-channel audio on wireless headphones
two people hired to follow instructions
visitors   
 

Five wireless headphones in different colors continuously play instructions directly to the people wearing them. The instructions are different, but synchronized and relate to each other.  

When visitors wearing headphones follow the instructions, choreographed situations develop, as they are told to relate to each other, themselves, and their surroundings through constant new instructions. 

Two headphones are worn by people hired to follow the instructions. Three headphones are worn by visitors.

App for android tablet
YouTube channel
visitors   
 

The Title Is Your Name is not a title, but rather refers to the titles of the videos that are created whenever someone performs the work: 
the names of the exhibition visitors. 

A room is lit by spotlights. In the middle of the room is a table and a tablet. Visitors must enter alone. Interacting with an app on the tablet, each visitor carries out a private performance. 

The app records the performance through the web-cam. If the visitor does not want to see the recorded video, it is deleted immediately. If the visitor does want to see the video, it is uploaded to the YouTube channel “The Title Is Your Name.”

performance
spray painted OSB-plates on wood structure, ca. 300 x 1500 cm
video   
 

A large white wood wall is placed in one location.  An audience is brought to the wall and instructed to spray paint it and saw it into pieces. The pieces from the wall are carried to another location by the audience and rebuilt as a collective monument. The audience kneels down in front of the work they have created and look at it. The instructor makes the audience cheer and display euphoric behavior throughout the performance. The performance is recorded on video.

Single channel audio on speakers
one hired instructor
visitors   

A voice continuously describes different situations evolving around social and physical interaction.  
An instructor is hired to make sure that the described situations are carried out by visitors.

Mobile phone / visitors

Whenever Available is shown, Christian Falsnaes agrees to the following conditions:

Throughout the opening hours of the exhibition, visitors can call him and receive instructions for performances that they carry out.

Every caller receives instructions for a personalized performance.

Christian Falsnaes agrees to be available during the opening hours of the entire duration of the exhibition.

performance
video   
 

The audience is instructed to sit down, to watch silently, to smile, to clap, to cheer, to stand up and cheer as loud as possible, to scream, to chant “Rise!”, to storm the stage, to dance wildly, to dance slow and sexily, to touch each other and keep dancing, to stop and look around, to leave the space. No further content is presented.

performance
marker on paper
photo
 

Time/Line/Movement is a series of drawings by Christian Falsnaes. 
Whenever one of these drawings changes hands the new owner must make a hand drawn copy of the original before burning it, making their interpretation the original.

oil on canvas   

Christian Falsnaes instructs random visitors to produce paintings. Under his detailed guidance, one visitor after another paints accordingly. 
Each canvas is painted by more than one visitor.

3-channel video installation

performance
cut clothes on stretcher bars
video   

The audience agrees to be recorded on video by shouting “Yes.” A music video for a self-recorded song is recorded in collaboration with the audience. 
The artist speaks to the audience about the ideas behind the work while they cut of the artist’s clothes and create a new work from the pieces. 
 

paint on canvas and on different surfaces in public space
photo   

A white canvas is prepared with paint and subsequently used to paint on a surface in public space. 
The canvas is displayed next to a photo of the painted surface in public space.

MALE DEMEANOR AS A CONSEQUENCE OF SOCIETAL POWER RELATIONS BETWEEN ARTIST AND AUDIENCE 

4-channel video installation   
 

An audience consisting of ten women and ten men are led through four different performances. 

In each performance, Christian Falsnaes takes a different position of authority (teacher, commander, star, aggressor) leading to four different types of audience behavior.

performance
video   
 

An unprepared audience is led from initial reservation to a state of euphoria and celebration revolving around the artist as the center of attention.

Performance
installation
video   
 

Visitors are divided into two groups, each entering a different space.  One space is a white cube (active) while the other is a cinema (passive) showing a live-stream from the white cube. Visitors in the active space are included in a series of rituals leading to the formation of a group called “Elixir.”  As “Elixir,” they paint the walls and perform a choreography.  Then they saw holes in the walls and enter the cinema through the holes.  The passive group is included in “Elixir” and everybody is brought to the street where they illegally spraypaint a large wall. Everybody is brought back to the gallery and led through a group meditation centered around self-reflection. 

performance
acrylic on canvas, 200 x 280 cm
video   

Christian Falsnaes performs in front of video projections of earlier works while the audience passively watches. 
He then surfs the crowd and allows them to use him as a brush in order to create a painting. 
Everybody leaves the gallery and goes into the streets where a spontaneous rave is initiated. 
Everybody sings Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” together. Everybody parties.

Performance
installation
video   
 

The exhibition space is turned into a set. A camera team is present at the opening. The audience is included in the production of a video work loosely following the steps of the "hero's journey" as described by Josepth Campbell. The final video is installed in the space