ZeittraumThomas Köner  

06.03- 05.04.2008

 

The German word Zeitraum (literally, a ‘time room’ or ‘time space’) has a spatial component that lies at the heart of all of Thomas Köner’s sound and video installations. In the past, Köner has used images from surveillance cameras to reflect on the way they monitor observation. Taking a step forward, he has now invented imaginary tools that emulate them to observe how fragments of daily life can merge into the vast space of a given moment. Blurred and unstable, memories and splinters of the here and now become perceptible as the fabric of observed time.

At Espai Ubú, Köner presents three video-installations: Périphériques (2005-2006), Pasajeros Peregrinos Pilotos (2007), and Pneuma Monoxyd (2007). Set in cities like Harare, Belgrade, Dortmund and Buenos Aires, these works reflect Köner’s interest in the periphery. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, his approach is not so much anthropological, as an attempt to reflect on the agitated emptiness of these urban landscapes by acting as a window into a ‘room’ that is full of unforeseen experiences.