Frédéric Moser / Philippe Schwinger
Unexpected Rules Video
installation; Film 35mm, transferred to HD, backprojection, 16:06 min.,
colour, stereo, English, 2004; Room, 6 × 3,3 × 4,2 m, wood, metal,
lighting & video system, 1,300 colored bulbs
The video installation
Unexpected Rules
by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger takes us to see a play in the
White House. On an empty stage, illuminated in changing colours by
coloured light bulbs, seven actors perform “The Clinton - Lewinsky
Affair”: from 1995 to 1996, the former U.S.President and the intern
Monica Lewinsky had an affair with inappropriate intimate contacts –
the words Clinton used in a later television speech to the nation
correcting the false testimony he had given to the investigating
committee. The affair sparked immense media interest and led to
impeachment proceedings based on the report of the Republican
investigator Kenneth Starr. The scandal ended with the public apology
of Clinton for lying.
The re-enactment’s script begins with the spreading of an intrigue and
ends with the whispering of a lie, both by the character of the lawyer
(Starr). In between, the story about sex and power in the Oval Office
unfolds between Amanda (Monica) and Roy (Clinton), the lawyer, the
President’s family, and a secretary (Linda Tripp). Roy is shown as a
susceptible victim of a deliberate intrigue out of political
calculation, who only decides to perjure himself on the lawyer’s
advice. The retelling of this historical event by Moser and Schwinger
reveals the impossibility of arriving at a truthful analysis amidst the
various interests surrounding the affair and their representation in
the media.
By using historical models, the artists engage in
their work with the utopian vision of American society and its traumas
about truth, guilt, and self-representation. Through the formal
precision of their works, their critical commentaries and
interrogations are a convincing mixture of theatrical dramaturgy,
film-directing, and stage installation.
Anke Hoffmann
... back
