[Febuary 13th 2003]
Interview

Annika von Hauswolff

Interview with Annika von Hauswolff
Annika von Hauswolff (1967) has a background in documentary photography and photo journalism, and since the 1990s, she has made her mark with exhibitions all over the world. Her current exhibition, Room for Increased Awareness about the Parallel Day, has been created for the x room. Text: Laura Stamer. Photographer: Torben Zenth

Annika von Hauswolff
Room for Increased Awareness about the Parallel Day
(Danish title: Rum for øget bevidsthed om den parallelle dag)
15. February - 5. May 2003

Statens Museum for Kunst, the x room
Sølvgade 48-50
1307 København K
Ph. +45 3374 8494
Fax +45 3374 8404
smk@smk.dk
www.smk.dk

How did you prepare for the exhibition in the x room?
In this case, I have taken the x room itself as my starting point. I was invited to exhibit a year ago, and I came here and saw the room. Both the wallpaper with the airplanes, the curtain and the podium with the sofa were created specifically for this room. Since it is such a large and special room, I wanted to grasp the architecture, get a grasp of the whole room. It did not feel right to just hang my photos.

Installation view

So in part, I have started out from the room's own architecture, but actually it all began with the title "Room for increased awareness about the parallel day". It has its origin in a writing error in an e-mail I received from a good friend, and I wrote back: "What is the parallel day" - I don't know, he said, I wrote it by mistake. It stuck in my head, somehow, and since then, I have worked associatively with the title.

I think that we are always living on parallel levels in our reality; perhaps the dream we had last night sticks in our consciousness all day and colours our perception of things. That is what the wallpaper is about. The work is called Backdrop, which refers to dreams I have had about airplanes falling from the sky.



Annika von Hauswolff: The memory of my mother's underwear turned into a flameproof curtain, 2003. Fabric, 570x1000 cm.

Then there is a level in the room which is about remembrance. That is what the curtain is about; it is called The memory of my mother's underwear turned into a flameproof curtain. It really springs from something very pragmatic. There is a large opening in the wall behind it that I wanted to hide, so my first thought was to put up a large curtain without thinking about what it was going to be. When I was choosing the colour of the fabric, I wanted it to be this flesh colour, and I began to wonder what this fascination was. When I went back, I thought of this memory I have of my mother's underwear…"shit - that is what this is about". I have worked a lot with this colour before and the materiality of the fabric, so the curtain became a manifestation of this memory, quite simply.

Annika von Hauswolff: Backdrop that refers to dreams where planes fall from the sky, 2003. Photograph transferred to wallpaper, 507x2100 cm.
Annika von Hauswolff: Skeleton object, 2003. Photograph, 120x150 cm.

You take your own everyday life as your starting point at the same time as you are using general elements - the chair, the radiator, the sofa and the bed - that you put into a new perspective?
In this case, with the wallpaper and the curtain, they are my own, concrete experiences. At the same time, I think it may trigger the viewer's own associations. For the most part, the pictures have their origin in personal experience, but I try to articulate it so that it becomes accessible.

Annika von Hauswolff: Philosophical chair, 2003. Photograph, 152x110 cm.
Annika von Hauswolff: Carrying a door through the room, 2003. Photograph, 160x120 cm.

You do not feel that everyday life is a limitation; on the contrary, it can be an opening to dreaming?
Certainly. It is about seeing things from different perspectives, but above all, it is about pointing out things, finding details in life that you might otherwise pass by without noticing.

I believe that everyday life contains details that are quite fascinating if you look at them long enough. Take a sheet, for example, if you look at it from a phenomenological perspective. The thing is there and it carries a philosophical potential that we may not always like. In certain pictures, I have not merely documented the details but also staged them, like the chair that floats above the ground - it is called "philosophical chair", by the way. It has stepped out of its existing role, as a chair that you sit in. Partly, it has no seat left, and partly, it floats, it has surpassed itself, you might say.

Installation view
Annika von Hauswolff: Domestic Sculpture Live, 2003. Sofa, wood, carpet, fire extinguisher, 120x480 cm.

On the one hand we take control over our everyday life or a given situation, we do not want to be controlled by the elements that make up everyday life, but you suspend that function?
The door, which is called "Carrying your door through the room", I have detached from its opening and taken on a journey through the room - what happens then? Is it still a door?

Annika von Hauswolff: Parallel Platform for Projection, 2003. Diptych, two photographs, 160x120 cm. each.
Annika von Hauswolff: No title, 2003. Photograph, 150x120 cm.

The title sounds like something very heavy, almost like carrying a burden, but at the same time it is a very playful title?
Exactly. First of all, the door was really heavy, it is oak, but at the same time it points to a new possibility. You do not you just have to carry your heavy yoke, some things you can actually change.

Annika von Hauswolff: Still life with dead flies, 2003. Photograph, 80x180 cm.

The minimalist form of expression and the theme of everyday life are typically Scandinavian. Is that something that you have contemplated?
No, not really. This is the first exhibition I have done where I have worked with different objects in the space. I mostly do photography, and for natural reasons, that is a fairly tight and minimalist form of expression.

Do you have any more plans for exhibitions this spring?
I am holding an exhibition in Lisbon in…May, I think. And then there is something in Italy, so there are a few different things. But it is difficult to think about other exhibitions when you are engaged in setting something up. I cannot really work with parallel projects in that way.

Translated by Nina Jagd Andersen