November 27 to Jannuary 29

Anna Witt
"Passion, Power, Performance"

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Anna Witt’s performative interventions and video installations deal with the repetition of the cultural habitus of the individual and with the stereotypical constructs that are determined by family values, everyday politics and the mainstream communication media in Western society and their visual representations.

The exhibition Passion, Power, Performance at Kunstraum Lakeside looks at working life, including processes in today’s working world and the maximization of human resources. Marketing and management are no longer merely about the product or service itself, but about selling emotions. Seminars are offered on Emotion Work, Power Posing and Emotional Selling, geared at enhancing the impression of self-confidence and power and encouraging positive thinking. Professional presentations become performances and our native ability to use emotions for private purposes is channeled for commercial ends.

Sixty Minutes Smiling (2014) shows a formally dressed group of people against a neutral background. These women and men might be the management team of a particular company. Posing statically, they look into the camera for a full 60 minutes, “always smiling.” On a second video channel, the lens zooms in on the protagonists’ facial expressions. Details and emotions that are barely perceptible in the group picture become discernible here. Anna Witt will also show the work Gleitzeit (Flextime, 2010), in which a historical labor movement gesture – a raised fist – is connected with the idea of taking personal responsibility for one’s working time. In addition, a new project will be undertaken in the course of the exhibition in collaboration with the companies at Lakeside Science & Technology Park.