Trans - Sebastian Acker

Trans
2022
HD video, various duration

Trans is a video of various edits which Sebastian Acker recorded from a window on the Trans-Siberian Railway when he was on his way to an artist residency in Siberia. Shot entirely on his smartphone, it merges bypassing freight containers – the precarious supply chains of goods and raw materials between between Europe and Asia – into a nearly abstract layer, which only allows fragmented glimpses of the boreal forest in the background.

The video was awarded the 20 Seconds for Art Award by Kunst im Öffentlichen Raum Wien at the 2022 Viennale, after being shown on more than 3400 screens on buses, trams and underground stations across Austria.

As part of PLEASE KEEP THE DOORS CLOSED, Sebastian Acker’s solo show at Kunstverein Dresden, the video responds to a different urban context: the video is projected onto ceiling tiles, which the artist has first removed from the gallery ceiling and then suspended to form a screen in the centre of the exhibition space. The void in the false ceiling exposes the electrical infrastructure and hidden architecture of the room.

Thus the installation uses the empty space itself to create multiple layers of depth, unexpected views and conceptual connections. The video, which was shot through a window and separates foreground and background, can itself only be viewed through the shop window from the exterior. The invisible goods and raw materials in the shipping containers, which are transported around the globe via precarious supply chains, meet the materials of the empty space which have their own unknown origin. And in the background, the forest twinkles between the shipping containers, at times disappearing from view, optionally as raw material or pristine nature.

PLEASE KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED, installation view at Kunstverein Dresden (solo), 2022

PLEASE KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED, installation view at Kunstverein Dresden (solo), 2022 PLEASE KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED, installation view at Kunstverein Dresden (solo), 2022 Trans, screening on 3400 infoscreens on public transport across Austria, supported by KÖR Wien, 2022

Trans, 2022, still from video