Tacit Call is a 3-channel-videoinstallation in three acts that are simultaneously synchronized but spatially separated. Three protagonists, not quite human, not quite machine and a ghostly dog explore a mysterious world in search of the origin of a fragmented videofile, which they receive and try to decode. However, it is impossible to determine which part is the first, second and third one, as each of them inspires and influences the others. It is about nothing less than solving the Münchhausen trillemma* and answering the question of the dynamics of inspiration.Music is playing in the exhibition rooms - but what appears to be a single piece is actually a fragmentary composition. In the three rooms of the gallery, three black wooden benches stand in front of synchronized projections. According to Valentin, this is science fiction, but the images in Tacit Call do not depict ultra-modern technology, but an ancient, mysterious world.The three protagonists of the films ILZ, INN & DANUBE (named after the three rivers that flow together near Passau, Germany) are neither human nor machine. Paul Valentin developed the complex design of the characters, from the so-called "rigging" (the creation of a virtual skeleton) to the drapery of the clothing, together with character designer Alexander Degner. The heads of the three creatures are reminiscent of bi-neural microphones, which use anatomical ears to reproduce human sound perception. Their faded suits are based on glittering versions of Nijinsky's ballet costumes. Small cameras are embedded in their eerie masks and their translucent hands are similar to those of ballistic dummies. Everything about them is designed to be perceptiving-machines.The music for the film was created in close collaboration with musicologist Jan Kuswari, who also developed an eternal piano piece for the project "A Piano Plays In Another Room and It's Raining" (2022). In an old theater, INN grasps an invisible form with his translucent fingers and turns around himself in circular movements. ILZ places his hands in the openings of a giant computer and seems to influence the images that appear to him. DANUBE meets the dog DIA and crosses a wide plain with her, which is blocked by monumental walls that stand like sets on a huge stage.In TACIT CALL, person and film, animal and machine, ghost and action meet in three ways to translate a problem that is insoluble in philosophy into the language of art. TACIT CALL opens that door just a crack to the ethereal connection we have to the unconscious space of ideas and invites us to enjoy the floating state in which the answer meets the riddle.
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November 9th 2023
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February 9th 2024

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at Britta Rettberg Gallery Gabelsbergerstraße 51
80333 Munich

Wednesday – Friday: 12am – 6pm
Saturday: 11am – 3pm