The art installation Il nuotatore, created in 1984, was the first media art installation which imai examined for the restoration project CASE STUDIES in cooperation with restorers, art historians, technicians and artists and which has since been re-staged.
Description of the work
Il nuotatore va troppo spesso ad Heidelberg (The swimmer - You go to Heidelberg too often), created in 1984, is one of the most significant works of Studio Azzuro, an artistic studio founded in 1982 in Milan by Fabio Cirifino, Paolo Rosa and Leonardo Sangiorgi.
In the video installation a swimmer swims up and down. As he swims he appears to break through an arrangement of 12 displays. An additional display shows moving and partly distorted images of a clock. A blue light saturates the ambient surroundings and lends the installation the atmosphere of a world under water. The visual impressions are complemented by water sounds, music and the reading of the story "You go to Heidelberg too often" from Heinrich Böll, 1977.
Presentation history
For the first staging of the video work The Swimmer in the Palazzo Fortuny in Venice (1984) two rows of 12 displays were placed in a space arranged in the form of a swimming pool.
The first presentation was followed by numerous stagings. They were all limited to a single row of 12 displays. The swimming pool was not set up again. The video sequences of the swimmer were transferred to laser disc in the nineties. New systems were tested for their synchronisation. After a longer running time, however, the 12 videos ran asynchronously.
Questions
The questions resulting from this case study on the one hand concerned the memory medium with playback devices used in the installation and on the other hand the context and the form of the presentation:
- What are the roles played by the location (cultural, historical, social references, spatial conditions) and the staging (the indication of the swimming pool, visitor guidance, number and position of the displays, light, sound, etc.) for The Swimmer?
- Which characteristics of the work are absolutely essential for its authenticity?
- What is the condition of the original U-matic tapes and laser discs from the nineties?
- Should the videos be digitised and if yes, from which source: U-matic or laser disc?
- How is it possible to avoid an asynchronous playback of the 12 videos of the swimmer?
- What significance do the CRT displays have for the effectiveness of the art work? Can they be replaced by flat screen displays?
Restoration by imai
Data medium: When evaluating the video material during the project some specific ageing of the two data media systems used (U-matic tapes and laser disc) was determined. This was characterised by some lost frames on the U-matic tapes and the laser discs showing a typical large-scale flickering and in comparison to the picture of the original U-matic tapes the picture was low-contrast and lacked focus. Apart from that, it became apparent that the laser discs contained a shortened version of the video sequences. Both versions were backed up and all the data media was cleaned. For the presentation at imai additional video files in mpeg 2 format were created and stored on compact flash cards.
Synchronisation: A 12-channel mpeg player with integrated control software was used to present the work. In comparison to the version 12 U-matic or laser disc players, the synchronicity of this version was permanently secured.
Re-staging: The imai foundation re-staged the work The Swimmer and presented it in the exhibition Crossing the screen (30 November, 2006 - 14 January, 2007). The staging in Düsseldorf was
based on the form of presentation established in previous
re-installations.
Preliminary results
Location and staging: The result of art historical analysis of the work and an interview with the artist Leonardo Sangiorgi was that the concept of the installation was not limited to the first exhibition location. The first staging of The Swimmer was unique in the way that visitors could descend via steps "into" a sort of swimming pool and stroll around the displays. The set-up of a swimming pool was, according to Sangiorgi, no longer necessary in later presentations. Due to the new type of staging, however, the experience offered to the visitor by the work has changed significantly. The ambient blue light, the sound components, and the separate video sequence of the clock all have an important role to play for the video installation.
Displays: The overlap of the separate displays in the picture of the swimmer is an essential aspect for the authenticity of the installation. The number of displays, however, is not defined. According to Sangiorgi, a double row of 12 displays is not necessary. Sangiorgi believes that the CRT displays in future could possibly be replaced by flat screens and could be replaced by projections. For aesthetic and restoration reasons it was necessary to question both as they would substantially change the aesthetic and in particular sculptural qualities of the installation.
gefördert durch:
CASE STUDY 2
CASE STUDY 3
