and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath

Installation

Four-channel sound-video installation │06’20″│06’20″│06’20″│06’20″│video│DV-PAL 4:3│B/W│stereo│ loop │ 2016

 

The project is part of a larger body of work in which Doplgenger explore the complex and intricate relations of labor, war, and economy. They focus on, and question, the media representation of labor—from the phenomenon of the temporary economic migration of gastarbeiter in postwar 1960s Europe to the labor market debate around the polarization between economic and war refugees in the course of today’s massive migration into Europe. Historic literary texts that deal with different labor contexts provide the inspiration and the titles for the works created so far.

The title of video-sound installation “and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath” takes the phrase from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939). The epic novel about the distress, exodus, exploitation, and social exclusion of a family of Midwest farmers during the Great Depression of the 1930s provides the point of reference of Doplgenger’s view of economically caused, historical and contemporary migration movements. Doplgenger intervened into the footage of Yugoslav television, which had been recording the processes of temporary economic migration to the Western European countries in the 1960s.

“The departing train is the backbone motif of the video installation “and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath”, and with it the theme of movement. The moving image and the image of economic-driven mobility are reflective of one another.”

– Verena Gamper

Credits
Image editing: Doplgenger
Sound editing: Doplgenger
Music: Doplgenger

Distributor: imai (inter media art institute)

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