Taking intimacy out of intimate

The 4-channel video installation Taking intimacy out of intimate (2020) deals with the spatial behavior of people as a nonverbal communication system. By means of spatial constellations, gestures and postures, a "spatial language" is created between communication or interaction partners. Taking intimacy out of intimate is an attempt to analyze and visualize this language through choreographies.

In 2020, the themes of distance and detachment have taken on a new weight. The distance "1,50 m" opened for the first time the discourse of generally accepted distance regulations. In Taking intimacy out of intimate a culture and society shaped by this new distance is reflected, in which previously distances between people followed unspoken rules. In the process, personal boundaries are often overstepped in a way that is not commented upon.

Based on the research of the American anthropologist and ethnologist Edward T. Hall, these personal boundaries ('personal space') are investigated experimentally and placed in relation to situations in everyday life. The result of these physical explorations are five choreographies that deal in particular with the 'intimate space' - the area close to the body.

Four large-format rear projection screens hanging freely in the room frame the stage of the bodies in the exhibition space. Guided by the timing and sound of the projections, the recipients are constantly repositioned in the space. An own choreography of the bodies in the space emerges.