Wolf piece

Wolf piece

HDV-Video, colour/sound, 9:00 min (2019)

White wolves emerge as part of a dream-like landscape at dawn. As the wolves move between branches and foliage a sense of bewilderment and bottomlessness prevails. The wolves' movements defy a clear spatial perception. There are striking parallels to Sigmund Freud's famous case, the Wolf-Man, based on a nightmare a Russian aristocrat dreamed more than a hundred years ago: ‚I was terrified to see that some white wolves were sitting on the big walnut tree in front of the window. There were six or seven of them. The wolves were quite white, and looked more like foxes or sheep-dogs, for they had big tails like foxes and they had their ears pricked like dogs when they pay attention to something.‘

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Whereas Freud used the awesome dream to 'reveal' a supposed hidden trauma of his patient, the video places the wolves at the centre. It is about cherishing the unsettling presence of the wolves rather than about unravelling the mystery. Sometimes there is a profound abyss in the landscape the wolves traverse, but for them it does not seem to matter. They are what they are.


This artwork was enabled by a project scholarship from the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony/Germany (Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen).