“It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of modern society and the stability of its inner life depend in large part on the maintenance of an equilibrium between the strength of the techniques of communication and the capacity of the individuals own reaction." (Marshall McLuhan).
A summer weekend on the terrace of the Hauses der Kulturen der Welt. Four cameras: the visual focus is set on a cut of the Spree River, in the background the concrete bank. Three fixed cameras detain the continuous passing of ships. The fourth camera wonders for a moment with the passengers or with the strollers. Simultaneously, the artist asked bypassing pedestrians to ask questions. A day clipping.

The artist utilizes her audio and video installation in the style of Umberto Ecos’ „Open Work“. An unlimited sight on a putative undisclosed landscape view that invites the contemplator to pocket and associate the “terra incognita" in a subjective and personal manner. The alignment of the four films and the eight sound tracks arrogate an open discourse from the beginning. Several scenes run off simultaneously; turning out differently with every new vision and every new listening, just as a distorting picture, the planes of which jump in and out - according to visual angulations. This is how, according to his visual experience, the viewer can perform a personal completion of the work. No principle of interpretation can claim content ultimateness. To me, the fascination of the work lied in the shattering power of straitening the River. These tracings substantially increase the stream and therefore lead to the catastrophes of the Oder, Rhein or the Elbe. By transposing these contemplations – with the haughtiness of a sophist – on the important social challenges and their political discourses, obvious parallelism will be visible. The determination of discourses - the tracing of political solution models - automatically bring to a mid term increase of the problem risk. Everything is allegedly integrated within the solution process, as long as no unpredicted change of the general conditions takes place, just like the flood of the River Elbe.

Even opinion research institutes contribute to the phenomena through their almost democratic and questionable empirical precision, by asking questions and then pretending to mirror the perception of a majority. The narrowing down to some questions leads to a restriction of the entire discourse; a discourse that pretends to be representative. By filming people on boats and ships, the artist shows their following of a forgiven stream, within fore given roadmaps, apparently thoughtless, just following the River. The aesthetic and idyllic beauty of the River Elbe manifested from its other side, as we experienced its brown, oily and disgraceful force of nature, grasping for territory and inhuman. The social idyll was demolished. This will also happen to socio-political and socio-cultural frame discourses. One day, yes, one day.
Wolf Guenter Thiel

Susanne Schuricht, born in Meschede (D), lives and works in Berlin. She studied Industrial Design and Experimental Media Design at the UdK, Berlin and accumulated practical experience in photography.
Besides of her first personal exhibition „Between the Eyes“ PLAY - gallery for still and motion pictures in Berlin, she already participated in several group expositions, for example 2002 “Kunst, Kunststoff, Kunststoffrecycling“, Potsdamer Platz - Berlin; “Transmediale Side-Event“ at the Kunstfabrik, Berlin; International competition “Viper-Festival“, Basel; „Buckminster Fuller – your Private Sky“, Japan-Tour; 2001 „Buckminster Fuller – your Private Sky“, Bauhaus Dessau

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