nor here nor there

The five-part series of works “nor here nor there” explores imagined pictures of dying and disappearing and different subtexts such as decay, pain, physical deterioration, spirituality or ideas of nature and transfers them into video performances. Large fabrics painted with thermochromic colours were worked on with the body in a performative way. When the body touches the dyed fabric, the radiated heat makes the colour transparent for a short time, the imprint becomes visible as a fleeting appearance and disappears again. This creates a kind of time-based, performative painting which has been captured on film. The ephemeral images show fragmented, partially deformed, constantly changing human vexing images, and depending on the point of view, new constellations and narrative connections open up between the individual video sequences shown on large monitors.

The series of works was created in the context of the SNSF research project “Settings of Dying – an interdisciplinary perspective 2020–2023”, for which Eva Wandeler is artist in residence. She complements the four perspectives language, design, religion and care with a free artistic approach that focuses on images of dying.

The SNF research project is a collaboration between the Bern University of Applied Sciences (Bern University of the Arts and Dept. of Health) and the Zurich University of the Arts. The Partner in Practice is the Centre for Palliative Care, City Hospital Waid and Triemli (www.sterbesettings.ch).

Thanks to: Dr. med. Roland Kunz, Medical Director Centre for Palliative Care for the conversations and making the exhibition possible, the research team for the inputs and many conversations, Robert Huber for the support with the shooting.

And a special thankk to the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation for the additional support of Eva Wandeler’s Artist in Residence project.