Katalogtext zur Ausstellungsprojekt, Kunst e.V. / KISS - Kunst im Schloss Förderverein e.V., Untergröningen 
Seit im 19. Jahrhundert die Fotografie erfunden wurde leben wir in einem ständig wachsenden Universum der Bilder, das sich durch die Einführung von Fernsehen, Video und CD-ROMs geradezu explosionsartig ausdehnt. Das ungeheure Ausmaß der Bilderflut führte allerdings nicht zu einem vollständigeren Eindruck von der Welt, vielmehr herrschen fragmentarische, unzusammenhängende Visionen vor, deren Verarbeitung es dem menschlichen Auge zunehmend schwerer macht, sich auf einzelne Motive zu konzentrieren, geschweige denn die Fähigkeit zu einer Kunst des Sehens zu entwickeln. Industrialisierung des Sehens nennt Paul Virilio dieses Phänomen einer Anpassung an die Allgegenwart einer mächtigen Wahrnehmungsindustrie und regt an, über eine Art Recht auf Blindheit nachzudenken. Analog zum Lärmschutz sollte die Ausstrahlungsintensität von Bildern eingeschränkt und die optisch Dichte unserer sinnlich wahrnehmbaren Realität begrenzt werden. „Manchmal genügt es, etwas anders zu sehen, um besser zu sehen.“
Im Zeitalter hyperbeschleunigter Videoclips und Zapping inszeniert Anna Tretter mit TEMPO in Schloss Untergröningen eine Arbeit, deren hervorstechendstes Kennzeichen eine fast aufreizende Langsamkeit ist. Die ruhigen, sich scheinbar kaum verändernden Bilder der Videosequenz sind das aktuelle Resultat einer künstlerischen Entwicklung, die im April 1996 ihren Anfang nahm und noch nicht abgeschlossen ist. Damals projizierte sie als Teil der Ausstellung Konjunktiva in der Huberte Goote Gallery an der Seeuferpromenade in Zug (CH) mittels einer Videokamera übertragene Bilder des Zuger Sees unmittelbar in Echtzeit in die Ausstellungsräume. Die Position der Kamera blieb während der gesamten Aufnahmen unverändert. Stoisch registrierte der Apparat jede Ente und jedes Boot, die in den engen Bildausschnitt eindrangen und die beruhigende Monotonie der sich sanft kräuselnden Seeoberfläche unterbrachen. Jeder dramaturgische Zusammenhang oder gar ein etwaig vorhandener Handlungsablauf wurden negiert. Es gab keinerlei vorhersehbare Ereignisse, es sei denn das Nicht-Ereignis. Die Projektion trat in erster Linie als eine Variation des Ausblicks auf, wie ihn auch die vorhandenen Fenster gewährten. Spiegel ergänzten die Installation. Durch sie kehrte der Blick des Betrachters, der den angebotenen Bildern folgend nach Draußen strebte, wieder in die Ausstellungsräume zurück.
Eine vierstündige Videoaufzeichnung, ohne Schnitte, Kameraschwenks oder ungewöhnliche Blickwinkel, Anfang und Ende allein durch die Länge der vorhandenen Videokassette bestimmt, ist von dieser Installation geblieben. Während eines Studienaufenthaltes in Valence (F), der sich unmittelbar anschloß, begann die Künstlerin, die Geschehnisse auf der Wasseroberfläche mit Hilfe eines Computers grafisch nachzuziehen. Das Bild wurde dazu mit einem schwarzen Rahmen umgeben. Von dort aus folgt sie den erscheinenden Objekten, zog ihre Bewegungen mit gelben Linien nach, die sich im Verlauf der Zeit zu einem beinahe undurchdringlichen Geflecht verdichteten. Nachdem derart die Tempi der Aufzeichnungen dingbar wurden, unterzog sie eine zweite Kopie des Ursprungsvideos einer anderen Bearbeitung. Diesmal löscht sie alle Objekte auf dem Monitor aus. Übrig bleibt nur das Wasser in ungestörter, sich gleichmäßig wiederholender Bewegung.
Die so enstandenen Variationen des Zuger Videofilms fanden erstmals 1997 in zwei Videoinstallation in Lublin und Kapstadt Verwendung, denen Josef Albers Diktum „calm down what happens happens mostly without you“ zur Seite steht. Für Untergröningen entwickelte sie eine dem barocken Ambiente spezifisch angemessene Variation des Grundthemas. Von einer Wandnische aus erfolgt die Projektion des Films auf eine schräg im Raum stehende, halbtransparente Fläche. Der Betrachter kann so die langsam unter dem dichter werdenden Netz der gelben Bewegungslinien verschwindende Wasseroberfläche von fast allen Positionen im Raum sehen. Gleichzeitig wird von einer der beiden Türen eine zweite Projektion auf die links neben dieser Tür liegende Wand geworfen, die in Format und Position exakt der barocken Supraporte entspricht, von der aus sie projiziert wird. Der Effekt ist der eines Bildes, während die Raumprojektion zwischen Objekt, Bild und illusionistischem Erzählkino oszilliert. Klassische Betrachtergewohnheiten werden so aufgebrochen, das Ereignis der Ausstellung ist in die Köpfe des Publikums verlegt. In diesem Sinne ist Tempo sowohl inhaltlich als auch formal die logische Entwicklung der Versuche Anna Tretters, die Wirklichkeit und die vermeintliche Gewißheit festgeschriebener Sehgewohnheiten zu hinterfragen und versteinerter Perspektiven, die gebieterisch zwischen wahrnehmenden Subjekt und wahrgenommenen Objekt unterscheiden, aufzulösen.
Katalogtext: Susanne Prinz
Projekt Kunst e.V. / KISS - Kunst im Schloss Förderverein e.V., Untergröningen, Kat. (darin Text von Susanne Prinz, S. 70 - 73).
TEMPO (TEMPORAL FLOW) - A Video Installation by Anna Tretter
Ever since photography was invented in the 19th century we have been living in a constantly growing universe of images which, with the introduction of television, video and CD-ROMs seems to be expanding almost explosively. Practically unable to absorb the wealth of optic impressions that surround us, we consume them flipping, zipping and channel-hopping at such a speed as to leave little time for thought. This immense flood of images has, however, not led to a more substantial impression of our world. Instead, the predominant forms of vision are fragmentary and disconnected whose cognitive absorptions make it increasingly difficult for the human eye to concentrate on individual motifs, let alone to develop an ability for the art of vision. Much rather, the endless stream of optic impressions is calling for a new economy of perception. "The industrialization of vision" is what Paul Virilio calls this phenomenon of our adaptation to an ever present and powerful industry of perception and suggests to think about some form of right to blindness. He has in mind that, similar to noise protection, one should limit the intensity of image emissions and the optic density of our sensually perceived reality. "Sometimes it is enough to see something differently in order to see better." (1)
Already this is the principal which Anna Tretter's early works follow mainly; they represent stern, geometrically constructed sculptures and wall reliefs. Her not quite rectangular rectangles, irritating to the eye, and the resulting play of light and shadow, already indicate the direction she is to take with her later Room Images- and Installations. Each time departing from an exact analysis of the given architecture, she examines the empirical space in terms of its morphological as well as psychologically perceptable quality as space of experience, in which she then intervenes. She builds small models to develop strategies how to identify the space. Using standardized materials, mirrors and temporary walls in situ, she finally undoes its three-dimensional property. The intention is to transfer the event of the exhibition into the minds of the audience. (2) For the past few years, one can observe that Anna Tretter has been following this strategy increasingly, with the renunciation to the thought of having to add anything to this urgent world of ours. There are fewer and fewer recognizable art objects in her work. They are replaced by light in the form of reflections and projections.
In her installations "Phosphore" (1992), "Latitude 48ø 10'12'' " (1994) and "Chamber Music 1996", Anna Tretter makes use of phosphorescing color, by means of which she succeeds in a surprisingly simple, yet convincing manner to redefine the given space. Depending on the intensity of the light falling in, these immaterial sculptures will influence the perception of the spectators in a subtle way. The interaction between the real space, as seen with the lights turned on, and the spaces produced in the dark by the phosphorescing planes represents an obligation for permanent self-positioning. At the same time, the spectator's perception becomes sensitized by the gradual reduction of the luminescent power of the colour during longer dark phases. In some of these works, the artist uses mirrors instead of phosphor or two-way mirrors. Particularly the two-way mirrors can propel the visitor into additional interlocked spaces of growing virtuality, once he steps between the reflecting planes. The basis of these space-related installations by Anna Tretter, which in their un-thing ness are not apprehensible, is a strictly constructive orientation. "Yet it appears in multiple fractures. The characteristic element here is the witty play between illusion and reality, between three-dimensionality and plane, between true existence and imagination." (3)
Using video as medium for the simultaneous representation of interior and exterior, reality and its visual representation is a relatively new tool for the artist. In April 1996, as part of the exhibition "Konjunctiva" in the Huberte Goote Gallery in Zug, Switzerland, she projected Lake Zug by a video camera directly
and in real time into the exhibition place. The camera remained in the same, unchanged position during the entire filming project. It registered stoically every passing duck or boat entering the camera's view angle, and interrupting the tranquil monotony of the softly rippling surface of the lake. Any dramaturgical relation, let alone any given plot, became negated here. There were no predictable events, except, of course, the non-event. This projection was enacted primarily as a variation on the moment, further enhanced by the actual view of the lake through the windows and the reflecting mirrors which complete the installation. With these, the spectators' view which was drawn outside through the presented images, returned to the exhibition space.
What has remained of this installation is a four-hour video recording, without cuts, camera panning or unusual viewing angles, the beginning and end determined by the length of the tape alone. During her scholarship stay in Valence, France, which came right afterwards, the artist began to make graphic tracings of the events on the lake surface by means of a computer. The screen received a black frame around the image for this purpose. From there she followed the appearing objects, traced their movements with yellow lines which gradually became a dense, almost impenetrable web. After thus having objectified the recordings of the time flow, the artist has taken a second copy of the original video and erased all the objects on the monitor. All there is left is the water in undisturbed, repetitious movement.
These variations on the Zug video films form the basic material which Anna Tretter uses as point of departure in her latest video installation "Tempo", a work which she sees supported by Joseph Albers' dictum "Calm down, what happens, happens mostly without you." In the totally dark space of the Sala Mala of the Gallery Stara she presents the original videos, on a 120min. tape each, in such a way as to have only one of the films at a time visible to the spectator. On a wall installed in the center of the room the shots of the water surface are projected which gradually disappears beneath the web of yellow graphic lines as it becomes denser. On the opposite side of the wall there is a monitor showing the water surface, now artificially void. Facing it we find installed a mirror of almost equal format.
It seems appropriate at this point to mention a lecture about video by Vilém Flusser, titled "The Inverted Mirror" (4). To the philosopher of communication the video medium resembles a window or rather an inverted mirror while the film or color slide medium basically represents a further development of mural painting. The genealogy of video he visualizes on the following line: Water surface - magnifying glass - microscope - telescope. And, indeed, some of the elements of this ancestral line were applied in earlier space works by Anna Tretter. Her work "Tempo" thus
represents, in terms of both contents and form a logical development of her attempts to call into question reality and our supposed certainly of fixed visual habits. This dissolution of rigid perspectives which differentiate between the perceiving subject
and the perceived object not only takes place by involving the spectator in the reflection of monitor and mirror. Our visionary expectations are also being infiltrated by the projection for the contemplative effect of the lake's surface with the slowly
spreading lines of movement. At first, we are irritated by the heterogeneity of the theme and the exhibition's setting, its apparent lack of meaning and the unnerving slow speed being joined so unfittingly to the unpredictability of the events. After a while, though, simulated by the graphic patterns of movement, we seem, to be expecting new happenings. We are eager to watch the optic web grow without reflecting on the where and where-to of the ducks and boats. Whatever the camera's focus, the audience will accept it. It is only on stage where the appearance and exit of a character needs logical explaining and cannot just take place, as in a film. Already in the 6O's, Marshall McLuhan pointed out in his famous book "Understanding Media" that, while our civilization simply accepts the camera eye's movement as it follows a figure or lets it disappear from the scene, an African audience, for example, would not. "When someone disappears from view, the African will want to know what happened to him. An alphabetic audience, however, being accustomed to follow printed pictures of the imagination line by line, without questioning the logic of the lineary progression, will accept the film sequence without a question." (5) Thirty years later, after television has entered practically every household, the eye seems virtually to be stuck in a uniform. The drill by monitor has been accomplished. Constant focusing on a small rectangle has meanwhile, after decades of conditioning, lead to an artificial perception which more and more precedes original perception. Just as we seem to have problems today in viewing famous sights such as the Eiffel Tower or the Tower of Pisa in a different manner from the countless photographic reproductions we have seen, so television influences primarily our ability to concentrate on individual images and to allow slow motion.
"Tempo" offers the spectator several possibilities of reception without his getting lost in a chaos of perception. Although Tretter's space work delimits the possibility of suggestions, as would a picture, she does not limit them to a field of possible choices defined by the artist. The possibility of a uniform and definitive world spectrum is being questioned and instead the discontinuity of phenomena is made a theme. The visitor is thrown back on his own sensitivity by having to adjust his senses first of all to the darkness in the room, finally in order to become contemplatively patient while he looks at the seemingly unchanging video sequences. "Tempo" is thus, as Umberto Eco calls it, an open work of art. "An open work of art takes up the task of rendering a picture of discontinuity: it does not tell it, but it is." (6)
Translation: Annette Allwardt
(1) see chapter: Die Begehrlichkeit der Augen, in: Paul Virilio, Fluchtgeschwindigkeit, München/Wien 1996, P. 125-142, here P. 135
(2) see Beatrix Ruf: Mirror, Mirror... Ambush of Objectivity, cat. The Huberte Goote Gallery, Zug (CH), 1996
(3) Hans Gercke: Preface in Catalogue: Anna Tretter, Works 1985- 1993, Heidelberg 1993
(4) Vilém Flusser: Der umgekehrte Spiegel, in: Der Flusser-Reader, Mannheim 1995, P. 129-133
(5) Marshall McLuhan: Understanding Media - Die magischen Kanäle, Basel 1995, P. 433
(6) Umberto Eco: Das offene Kunstwerk, Frankfurt 1977, P. 165