Homeland Security 1 - Rainer Ganahl

Rainer Ganahl
Homeland Security, I - V, 2003 dvd;

each video segment is less then 2 minutes long.


This video series represents a continuation of my language based video works entitled "Basic Feelings" and "Basic Conflicts" . The principle is always the same: a given sentence is uttered by me in all 11 of the languages I have been learning so far. In a situation comparable with that of a language lab, I repeat the same sentence in all these different languages touching on humor, absurdity and paranoia. With this new set of "homeland security" clips, filmed as police mug shots, I am making references to the newly created department of Homeland Security, that is most likely to bring us some kind of a quasi-totalitarian Big Brother police apparatus. Our homes will be subject to digital data mining and endless profiling - in a phrase: "homeless security," since it is becoming harder to feel our homes are actually home.
My 'homeland security" sequences start with Arabic, a language I have been learning only since 2001 and then ends with the more familiar ones. The sentences are simple and express a degree of paranoia: "I am not a terrorist" (1), "I am not a religious fanatic" (2), "I don't give money to terrorist networks" (3), "I don't know how to build bombs" (4) and "I am not downloading dangerous information from the Internet".
Rainer Ganahl

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• fine
• art
• homeland
• security
• politics
• languages
• rainer
• ganahl
• terrorism
• fear
• mania

[botadojudas]

twisted fuck!