TSÉ TSÉ

At the height of mad cow’s disease, of swine fever and dioxin crisis, the artist crossed the Dutch borders with Holland and Germany with a collection of live tsé tsé flies in order to show them to the tiny German village of Borken where the curators Jan Hoet and Michel Dewilde organised the group show Artline 5 around the dialectic of the notions of nature and architecture. The flies were caged in a double-walled vivarium illuminating the corner of an obscured room with tropical heating. Two tiny microphones spread the characteristic sound produced by these flies who spread the sleeping disease live around the room. The principle theme of this action was the question of clandestinity as well as the notions of quarantine and the risk of infection. The sound installation is built around the concept of occidental Africa. The recording was realised in the Tropical Institute of Antwerp in a hothouse for African flies where the artist had to regularly bring the cage in order to feed the flies. In 2003, the same installation was also shown in the frame of the group exhibition Ici & maintenant - Belgian System curated by Laurent Jacob at Tours et Taxis in Brussels. This video combines original footage of the installation with footage from the program Kulturszene by Bernhard Pfletschingher broadcasted by WDR (West Deutsche Rundfunk) on May 17th, 2001, in Cologne.

This work has been digitised in the frame of DCA Project