TREMATE
2022
installation in two parts
part of TFR-Archives
(1) soil from Oberlaa, box, mistmaker, projection
(2) plant, motor, electronics
Created for the exhibition “Lost Element. Re-Construction of the Lost Element”, VBKÖ
Curation: Anka Lesniak
TREMATE was created in 2022 as a two-part installation as part of the exhibition „Lost Element. Re-Construction of the Witch“ by the TFR Archive. The work refers to the sculpture of the „Witch“ by Teresa Ries, a Jewish-Russian sculptor who had to flee Vienna in 1938 and leave all her works behind.The sculpture „Witch“ that somehow ended up in a gardenshow in Oberlaa, Vienna, in the 70s, was simply left there and was severely affected by vandalism. Only much later it was brought to the Wien Museum and restored, but the hand of the witch holding a scissor remains lost.
Part One
The installation forms soil from Oberlaa (where the Witch was left behind) into an altar, with a water filled glass bowl on top. A mistmaker is placed inside the bowl and a beamer projects text on the mist rising from the bowl:
“TREMATE, TREMATE, LE STREGHE SON TORNATE”
(Tremble, tremble, the witches have returned.)
This phrase was used by Italian feminists in the 70s who took back the street at night to fight for more rights.
Part Two
The second part consists of a plant (a fern like the ones found in the forest) that trembles slightly from time to time. A motor being fixed in the plant moves in a programmed rhythm – a Morse code translated into motion:
I WILL SURVIVE.
Morse code is since its invention believed to be a tool for the communication with the supernatural and dead.
