Since 2011, I have been shifting objects into changing constellations in an attempt to reflect on habitual patterns and cycles of reproduction of that which is already known — in my personal life as well as in the more and less conscious ancestry in the realm of visual arts and its derivatives — that is, the existing imagery in the collective consciousness.

That empirical research phase had taken place in a department store window in Berlin, Neukölln, between 2011 and 2017. All changes and steps in the process, including the cleaning and transformation activities in the space, were equally visible for a public of passer-bys. Over the course of these seven years, I have shifted objects in four thematically focussed series that each were durational, stretching over five to seven months. During that whole time, not only I was shifting the objects, but they were also transforming, invisibly for most humans, by exchanging atoms and other very small particles. Behind the window panes, I wondered how to make my reflection process in the work accessible to a public as well. That was the original impulse for this video.

The improvisation for this video took place in my studio in Berlin in April 2018. I have shown a rough edit of the material already one week later, embedded in the original setting in an open studio weekend. The audio commentaries were assembled in a process which started in early summer 2018 and went through a couple of peer reviews, some of which were also recorded and became part of the plurilingual commentaries you can now here and read in the video.

What would be the meaning of progress
if we only could perceive every step we take in all its possible directions?