Twins' graphic reminder of a suspicious time

By HANNA SCOTT

The mocking catch cry of the past five years was encapsulated by New York artist Olav Westphalen in his cartoon "What our village needs now is a biennale", implying that every man and his-or-her dog needed a biennale to put them on the map.

The point of difference for the Auckland Triennial is the local audience.

Biennale-bashing has become quite a sport, but two visiting British artists, Jane and Louise Wilson, defend the biennale exhibition model, saying it is important that it has an international context.

"The Istanbul Biennale attracted a huge audience," Louise said. "For the local people it was so brilliantly attended. And that's when you realise that these events are relevant."

Jane adds, "People get to physically encounter the art, not just read about it."

Normally based in London, the Wilson twins are in New Zealand for two months, undertaking a residency in Christchurch with Canterbury University.

Their visit was timed to enable them to participate in the Triennial with a work from 1997, Stasi City.

'"The work is basically about surveillance and that sort of paranoia around policing and self policing that were aspects of the Stasi [the former East German secret police]," suggests Jane.

"It was the curator, Ewen McDonald who wanted the piece. It makes sense in the context of the exhibition, the public/private discussion."

Stasi City involves two large-scale video projections installed in opposing corners at the Gus Fisher Gallery. Each corner features two screens so you can't prioritise one screen over another. The Wilsons filmed the Stasi Headquarters in Berlin.

"The work arose because we were on a scholarship in Berlin. What struck us both, and you can see this historical change from Nazi to communist rule, was how all these buildings were so politically charged."

According to the Wilsons, one in five people was a Stasi informer, everybody was policing themselves.

Distinguishing between public and private was perhaps impossible under those conditions in former East Berlin.

"It was kind of a schizophrenic city [in 1997], with the merging of two separate ideologies. There is an interesting tension there, of us going there at that time.

"So the work is almost about a moment and a phenomenon of a moment. It examines that period in the late 1990s. The place was about to open as a memorial site, and there's all this material that was left in this kind of limbo."

The video starts with an ominous electrical hum as a bank of ceiling lights floods on. Shot in real time, the work tracks through hidden doorways, interrogation rooms and offices that are only occasionally occupied.

The choreography of the camera is important. It recreates "how you look and how you orient yourself in a space", says Jane. With the camera constantly on the move, the video shows a space that is in transition.

"What do you do with these buildings which are so loaded historically? It was built as a Nazi catering depot.

"Under the Russians it became a temporary internment camp for Nazi sympathisers. That was when they introduced two torture chambers. Then it was a prison for political prisoners. "How do you grasp all that history?"

Ready with a response to their own question, the twins are careful to point out they are not making conventional documentaries. "We're much more about creating something that is experiential, which surrounds you and which you are immersed in, literally. That's part of our desire, to bring a viewer into a filmic, architectural space."

The Wilsons' video camera continually watches and records, echoing the function of the building as the definitive site for Big Brother-style surveillance. Stasi City came out of being and living there.

"The work brings the viewer into a site that they wouldn't normally have access to, or wouldn't normally be exposed to.

"Strange and disturbing spaces are part of our fabric. We have a desire to show some of those things that are there, but aren't always visible."

The Wilsons have still and digital video cameras for the trip to New Zealand. "We have a few options to research in the South Island, some mental institutions, but there's also a bunker somewhere we want to look at.

"There's no funding to produce work, but we will be running it as a research project.

"The real reason behind the visit to New Zealand is not specifically the Triennial, but to promote research, to create work and fuel an international audience for contemporary art."

Exhibition

* What: Stasi City by Jane and Louise Wilson, Auckland Triennial

* Where & when: Gus Fisher Gallery, Shortland St, until May 2