Separating Fusion (2007)

video performance
Hungarian Culture Institution – Gallery U
Helsinki, Finland
2007

Finno-Ugrian Interchange
Collaborator: Salla Rautiainen

 


A long time ago the Finns and the Hungarians used to speak the same language, called ancient Finno-Ugrian. But they aren’t able to communicate with each other anymore using Finnish and Hungarian terms.

What happens when a young Hungarian artist meets a young Finnish one and they start working together in order to find a language they both speak?

During the video-performance, “Separating Fusion,” Gina Haraszti and Salla Rautiainen are sitting in arm-chairs in a stylized enviroment, which imitates a home. They face their own video works, projected into drawn televisions. An audiance gathers on a fake carpet and they use specially prepared remotes to control the videos. The two artists are controlling their own videos but sometimes they try to affect each other’s or the audience’s viewing.

During the three days of the performance, the videos are mixing together more and more and finally they become self-controlling.