HUM/吽 (24 h, Qinghai, China)
24-hour video loop in public space
2008
HUM/吽 (24 h, Qinghai, China) is a video loop lasting a total of 24 hours. It consists of 24 one-hour sequences. The filming took place throughout Qinghai Province in China in July and August 2008. Each of the 24 sequences was shot at a different full hour of the day and it is shown at that same hour in the exhibition. There are no camera movements and each segment represents a single take. Image and sound have been left largely unaltered and unedited. Unlike the widespread somewhat exuberant and rather hectic image of China, the video depicts a practically uneventful und uninhabited environment. Made over the course of a more than 4000 kilometer journey across the vast territory of Qinghai Province, HUM/吽 (24 h, Qinghai, China) is an anti-road movie that leave the motion to the audience. Like in Jens Brand’s other HUM videos, places are shown which produce stationary sounds. The static film images often seem like “stills” in which the sound equally seems to have been “frozen in time”. The sole anomaly—but then on a cosmic scale—are a few minutes from the “HUM/吽 N 38°30.696' – E 100°47.965' / 01.08.08 / 7–8 h LMT” sequence. This particular recording was made near the small town of Minle in Gansu Province, approximately 70 kilometers north of Qinghai, during a total eclipse of the sun. The work can be realized in different formats: The film is shown as a 24-hour-long video loop on a monitor or a large screen in a public space. The film is divided into 24 segments shown on 24 monitors. Each monitor is only turned on for one hour each day at the hour of the segment it shows. The monitors are distributed throughout the city where the exhibition is taking place and their positions are determined proportionally in accordance with the geographical sites of the original recordings. The exhibition sites are therefore determined by chance within the given circumstances. The city becomes a three-dimensional score for the movie. /
Commissioned by the Goethe Institute Beijing and the Guangzhou Triennial, China 2008. Realized with the assistance of Mei Wa FUNG & Echo HO, and the help, logistical support and advice of Andreas Gruschke, Birgit Hopfener, Quin HUA, Xaver Erhard, Yu-Ming ZHOU and the Qinghai Baide Investment and Development Co., Ltd. and the driver LU Yong Hong.