Come on Over to the Dark Side

Kulchur Pieces 5

CR 65. Year 1979

Wv 65 Come On Over To The Dack Side
Wv 65 Come On Over To The Dack Side 1

Do you see my love among the crowd?
Tell me, did you meet her?
Do you see the water rise?
I’m here
Come closer
Do you mind coming over to this side?
Come on over to this side

Gerz’s thinking can basically be traced back to the following polarity: On the one hand there is the cultural, the defined, the organized, the precise. On the other hand, there is life, warmth, the present. Still, this simplification is wrong insofar as life cannot be reduced to a term.

Erich Franz 1981. Translated by e_CR editors

Im Grunde läßt sich das Denken von Gerz auf diese Polarität zurückführen: auf der einen Seite das Kulturelle, das Festgelegte, das Geordnete, das Eindeutige, und auf der anderen Seite das Leben, die Wärme, die Gegenwart. Wobei diese Vereinfachung insofern falsch ist, weil das Leben, sich nicht auf den Begriff bringen läßt.

Erich Franz 1981.

Get out of my lies – the title of the exhibition originates from the mirror-writing manuscript of the installation Come on over to the dark side. Not as if there were any truths other than those lies. Rather worded in the awareness “…that there are no truths. The truth, which we are talking about, does not inform against other people but against myself. That is why the lie is the only way to tell the truth.”

Volker Rattemeyer 1997. Translated by e_CR editors

Get out of my lies - ein Ausstellungstitel, der dem Spiegelschrift-Manuskript zur Installation Come on over to the dark side entstammt. Nicht gemeint, als gäbe es eine Wahrheit neben diesen lies. Vielmehr vom Künstler in dem Bewußtsein formuliert, “daß es dazu keine Wahrheit gibt. Die Wahrheit, von der wir hier reden, ist nicht die, die andere Menschen denunziert, sondern die, die mich denunziert. Von daher ist die Lüge die einzige Form, die Wahrheit zu sagen."

Volker Rattemeyer 1997.

Categories

Installation

Framing lumber (painted with photographic opaque), nylon cord, motor, rollers, 2 cassette recorders, amplifiers, loudspeakers

A wooden wall, painted with photographic opaque, is positioned at an angle, dividing the room into two parts. In front of the wall a nylon cord forming an endless loop is stretched horizontally between the two side walls of the room. Driven by a motor, it slowly pulls a cassette recorder across the floor. A woman’s voice comes from the cassette recorder. A male voice answers from the inaccessible part of the room. Each voice recites the same text at different speeds.

Exhibition

Luzern 1979

Bibliography

I: Luzern 1979, pp. 8-10, 11-20. Kraców 1980. Regensburg 1983, pp. 84-85. Ludwigshafen 1984, pp. 18-19, 170-179. Bielefeld 1985, pp. 110-116, 210. Paris 1994a, pp. 245-254.

II: Billeter 1979. Brühlmann 1979, p. 29. Kneubühler 1979. Monteil 1979, p. 33. Pohlen 2, 1979, pp. 106-107. Red. 11, 1979. Red. 12, 1979. Schmid 1989, pp. 34-35. Koenneke 1991, p. 22

III: Kunz 1979. Carstensen 1980, p. 85

V: Kunstgesellschaft Luzern 1979, p. 31. Lara 1980. Skira 1980, p. 93

Access general bibliography

Documentation

b/w photographs

Exhibitions of the documentation

Wroclaw 1980 (Kraków 1980)

My name is Jochen Gerz