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"Nothing but nothing" emerges out of a research for a phenomenon
according to the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard:
"Why is there nothing rather than something?"
In considering content for a video installation Christian Wagner accessed
a broad range of ideas about the notion of nothing. Inspired by a uselessly
moving streetcar in Almaty, Kasachstan Republic, he started to film and
collect ideas about the nothingness.
Having gathered such a specific amount of interesting material during
the years, there was an opportunity to create something beyond the movie
business, beyond traditional storytelling itself, which, along with visual
explorations of nothing, could include several perspectives from other
disciplines. Sourced from architecture, theater and cinema, philosophy
and literature, these 24 independent pieces of work feed into a general
body of thought about absence, formlessness, invisibility, silence and
the immaterial.
Presented in the shape of the figure N (N for Nothing) the Video Installation
with 24 monitors will be a world premiere and presented for the very first
time at the Shanghai Artsalon 2003, China.
Creating new visual and written work the 24 screens (sourced
by 24 DVD-players) show independent clips about the Nothing. Viewing
the installation over and over there might be additional correspondence
for the viewer. Seemingly limitless references could appear: value,
meaning, the void, form and structure, infinity, belief etc. Just to
explore the idea of nothing. Meanings that do not attempt definitions,
the exploration of non places or imaginary space, the incidental, the
pause, silence or the general possibility of something hidden or unknown.
A perfectly subjective collection of nothing, offering 24 different
interpretations and corresponding screens making “something out
of nothing” and “nothing out of something”.
