Torfs, Ana
Anatomy, 2006
Slide and video installation, 2 slide projectors, 1 wooden base, 117 b/w slides, loop of approx. 35 min., video on 2 monitors, color, loop of approx. 90 min., audio, German spoken with English interpretation via wireless headphones,
dimensions variable
Acquired in 2010
Representing and presenting, reality and fiction form the cornerstones of the slide and video installations with which the Belgian artist Ana Torfs retells and visualizes literary, historical, and political topics. In Anatomy, she addresses the trial following the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Ana Torfs selected concise, contradictory statements from the extensive files and had them spoken by actors. On various levels, she combines text and images taken at the anatomical theater of the Charité hospital in Berlin into an installation in which all eyes are directed to the center of the room, to the dissection table. The object to be dissected is, however, invisible and only comes to life in the viewer’s imagination.