2009
History Exhaustion
installation
installation view with radio, antenna, stray area and story book
anntenna (6m short wave antenna), stray area (nine framed digital prints, 40x30 cm)
installation view with radio, antenna, stray area
radio (short wave receiver for number stations, 70 x 36 cm)
The History Exhaustion Story Board (Book, 25 x 18 cm)
scroll down for details
The frame and background of this installation is a story by the artist: Three protagonists, representing different parts of our societ – the entrepreneurship, social criticism and unionized labour, set off on an expedition, after they receive radio calls from an unknown area. The exhibition is comprised of artefacts and objects from this fictitious world. As independent works, these artefacts build an evocative continuum, which has been translated into the form of an exhibition.
The main exhibition space is dominated by an eight meter long antenna. Through a short wave receiver, an automated voice announces a code of numbers. During the Cold War this so-called »number stations« were used to communicate secret messages to spies and secret agents. Only with the help of the correct counter code could these columns of figures be decoded.
Along the long wall hangs a series of images depicting different mountain-scapes. These images refer to the different stations of the alpine tour such as the »Valley of the foreshortened Critique on Capitalism« or the »Precipice of the Over Production Crisis« where the protagonists meet with an accident or are possibly left behind. It is only the worker who disappears in an unknown area...
History Exhaustion Trilogy
A video trilogy referring to the work.
2010
History Exhaustion
Radio Play
»History Exhaustion« is the 24 min audio transformation of an installation Francis Hunger created in 2009, with the voice of Richard Cotter. It features lots of short wave radio noise, some self made music and the narration about three friends going on a hike.
It was broadcasted at Radia, a network of rebroadcast FM stations interested in radio art with FM emissions in Bruxelles, Kingston, Montreal, Halle, New York, Grenouille, Marseille, Skopje, Berlin, Dunedin, Vienna, London, Dartington, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Praha, Budapest, and Rotterdam http://www.radia.fm/
A production for Radiator by Miss Gunst aka Verena Kuni, FFM, http://www.gunst.info/radiator
2009
Artist Book
The artist book Die Bergwanderung (The Mountain Hike) is an integral part of the installation history exhaustion.
