Project Urban Mosaic:
CURING WALLS I-IV, series of endless video loops 2007, Pal DV 4:3, silent. Footage from Paris 2003-2006. Edition of 5 + 1 APS
Curing walls is a project concentrated on the phenomena of the endless amount of Pharmacia crosses in Paris. These well known symbols, referring to safety and health, have at the same time a playfulness and reflective visuality that fascinates me strongly. The aesthetics has not exceeded the symbolic, but the symbolic also has an esthetical side.
endless video loop
endless video loop
How are we influenced by the visual and informative symbols in the city environment, what do they reflect?´Curing walls is a series of pharmaceutical crosses filmed in Paris. The individual crosses are organised into video sculptures with 9 blinking crosses in one image, edited into a continuous loop. Found on every corner in French cities and villages, this neon sign stands as both an aesthetic, familiar form and as a signal for an accessible pharmaceutical depot, for the relief and concern for us as human beings. The pure and clear lines of the pharmaceutical cross can be understood as a contrast to the users’ physical condition. The blinking in Taranger’s loop doesn’t help; is the situation alarming?´ - extract from text by Marianne Gathe 2009