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Richard Kriesche «Twins»
Richard Kriesche, «Twins», 1977
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Richard Kriesche «Twins»Richard Kriesche «Twins»Richard Kriesche «Twins»
Kassel | Germany | audiovisual performance
 

 Richard Kriesche
«Twins»

In describing reality I tried to return to the reality that can be experienced, i.e. in the project shown at the 'documenta', the phenomena specific to the TV picture are coupled with those of the real image. The isochronous duplication by the video image is experienced via twins sitting in two identical rooms, making the visitor unsure which reality is being experienced – is it the current reality, the past reality of the twins, or the isochronous reality of the video image.
Richard Kriesche

Two young girls, identical twins, sit in two separate but completely identical rooms, both in front of a video camera, and both reading Walter Benjamin's 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’. Next to either girl is a monitor showing a live recording of the other twin. This apparent duplication of a human being is duplicated once more by a reproduction. This irritation – which reproduction is of whom? – is reinforced by a quote from Benjamin's book that hangs on the wall as a programmatic statement: 'The reproduced art-work (person) becomes to an ever increasing degree the reproduction of an art-work (person) that is designed to be reproduced.'