Loss, migration, the
Holocaust and a strange form of post-apocalyptic euphoria filter in
various ways through the latest sprawl of nine new exhibitions in
Summerhall. The former comes into view most explicitly in 'Kindness
of Strangers', the first UK show by German-American artist Stefan
Roloff, whose large-scale video installation that charts the story of
two refugees – a Sudanese woman and an Iranian man – in Berlin.
This tented construction sits evocatively beside shadowed interviews
with people describing their ideal world and an exploration of the
detention of Roloff's father by the Gestapo .
The anonymity of
Roloff's subjects is reflected in the black-and-white imagery of
Karin Gunnarsson's 'Apparition', while the array of Beuysian detritus
in Ian Hughes' remarkable 'Unearthed Tongues Set Free' mixes
religious iconography with images from the Holocaust to give real
life events a dignity and power, even as it reminds the viewer of
their shocking roots.
Oddly, diemer Genesis
vocalist and founder of world music festival, WOMAD, provides a link
between Roloff and Hughes. While Hughes has provided album artwork
for Gabriel, Roloff's video piece, 'Face', was produced by gim, with
Gabriel using it as a prototype for the video that accompanied hos
defining 1986 single, 'Sledgehammer'. The retrospective of
photographic works by the late Edinburgh-based photographer Colin
Jarvie is a travelogue of light which compliments an edited take on
Harry Papadopoulos' celebrated images of Scotland's post-punk scene
beteween 1979 and 1984. This in turn seems to erupt onto the
dancefloor of 'Love To Love You Baby' , Kevin Williamson's filmic
responses to eight songs by Donna Summer as produced by Giorgio
Moroder, the German who revolutionised dance music for a post-war
alliance between Europe and America that brought a generation back to
pulsing, neon-driven life.
The List, February 2014
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