The work speaks of our own breadlines here in Finland and the message of the work remains valid. The shots used in Remember Us are very close to documentary news footage: the camera follows the people in the queue, initially showing just their legs and concealing their identity. This is exactly what news reports of breadlines are like. Standing in a breadline is so shameful that nobody wants to have their identity revealed. We would also not really want to know who they really are. We would just not want to think about it at all.
However, the scenes used in Remember Us are not news footage, if only because the camera recording them is at an odd angle. This provides a new viewing angle, a point of view that is very different from that used for news reports. It is worth asking what is actually at an odd angle, the camera or the world. The beautiful and melancholy music used in the work gives it a fateful mood. The key scene of the work shows the person queuing for bread make a note in his notebook of the number of loaves received. The camera is standing behind his shoulder, the camera is the man queuing for bread. Through the camera I, the beholder, am the one queuing for charity bread.
Mixed installation
1-channel installation with sound
Music: Henry Purcell ‘Dido and Aeneas’
Remember us, 1998
HD-video / Stereo / Duration 03’30 min.