Pipilotti Rist

1996

Video, 00:07:00.
Materials: VHS

Collection: De Vleeshal Collection, Middelburg (The Netherlands) (Inv. no. VH0275).

For Grossmut begatte mich (Magnanimity, mate with me), Rist for the first time made use of large projections that blend into the architecture, breaking through the monitor’s restrictive framework and drawing visitors into an idyllic yet alienating underwater world. Music plays an important role for Rist, who for a while was the lead singer of Swiss band Les Reines Prochaines. For this work, and together with artist and musician Anders Guggisberg, she recorded a cover of the renowned song
Wicked Game by Chris Isaak, but here the sugary vocals turn into hysterical screams. By giving the sensory a central place, Rist shifts the emphasis in the space from the visitors’ cognitive experience to their physical experience. In this way, the work seeks to remove distinctions between tangible and fleeting, inner and outer, subject and object, dream and harsh reality.