I - Magie - Nation
Video-Sound Installation in the Atrium of the Government Building, Lucerne | Sound by Mikiko Yui | 2009
The project I-Magie-Nation sought young people aged 11 to 22 through various channels who wished to actively participate in a video art project. This phase of life is unlike any other—a time of transformation and becoming. Twenty-two individuals spontaneously responded to the call. In video interviews, they share their experiences during this unique stage of life. Ruth Baettig integrated these recordings into an installation that engages with the historical and architectural context of the site.
The atrium of the Ritter’s Palace, located in the heart of Lucerne, symbolically represents transit. Originally built as the staircase of a private city palace, it later became the transit hall of the Jesuit College, and today serves as the entrance to the government building. Each day, countless people pass through this atrium on their way between the old and new parts of the city. While most cross the square-shaped, colonnaded courtyard at ground level, those who ascend to the second floor discover eight paintings in the upper gallery depicting the Dance of Death—another kind of passage. These works appear to have been intended for this very location from the outset. Beneath the sandstone slabs at the center of the atrium lies a hidden fountain, once the most important in Lucerne. On the site of this concealed fountain, the artist placed a large basin filled with white liquid. Its surface serves as a projection screen for the video portraits of the young participants. Through headphones, visitors can immerse themselves in the world of these youths, who speak of their ideas of paradise, their bedrooms, and their desires to fall in love.
A sound composition by Mikiko Yui fills the space. The tones, sounds, and melodies blend with the ambient noises of the atrium, creating a constantly shifting soundscape that accompanies the silent yet expressive faces in the video projections, imparting an enigmatic enchantment. A cyclical experience emerges, inviting visitors to journey into their own thoughts and discover unexpected connections. I-Magie-Nation is an audiovisual production where past, present, and future converge at the heart of the hidden fountain—the place of I-Magie-Nation.
«With the expulsion from paradise, death comes into the world», quote from the Swiss Art Guide to the Dance of Death on the Second Floor, published by the Society for Swiss Art History, Bern 1978.
(press release)
