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record archive on videotape 1987
Edition of 100
Video, digitalized in 2020. 184:00 min. color, sound. DVD in cardboard box, numbered.
The hundredth edition of Edition Block is a rediscovery of Claus Böhmler's »record archive on videotape« from 1987. Claus Böhmler is one of the most important intermedia artists of the first hour. The »record archive on videotape« is considered a masterpiece of this art. It is a meditative video work that confronts the still relatively young medium with dry humor. For over 184 minutes, the circling of various long-playing records on a record player, filmed from above with a static camera, can be observed on a monitor while the tone arm constantly glides from the outermost groove to the inside. The artist's hands appear at the end to change the records. The sound experience accompanying the visually rather monotonous video is described by art historian Michael Glasmeier as follows: »We hear all kinds of sounds - ethnological, documentary, natural history, political, meditative or even cinematic, such as the music from ›Psycho‹ or the noisy ›Ed Sullivan TV show‹. Böhmler shows us a feast of sounds and provokes the most diverse atmospheres, associative and mental spaces with the simplest of means. The single, unwavering camera angle on the apparatus creates a calm and willingness to concentrate, with which hearing through seeing oscillates between object realism and psychedelia. Time, passing time, becomes visible and audible. It is a pleasure to indulge in the groove rides, where subtle humor is ready to stretch into infinity.«