A seemingly peaceful society, everyday life. Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani have paid special attention to several unconscious layers established after modernization. A system of modernization establishes itself by denying the past and renewing itself for the future. The tangible and intangible remnants banished from moderrnzation linger on all around us. Fischer and el Sani have been summoning these remnants or “ghosts” as they call them. In Berlin, where the two artists are mainly based. Fischer and el Sani have presented their works on the remnants of socialism established especially after 1989 and have dealt with idol stars, Gunkanjima (meaning ‘battleship island’ in Japanese) and Narita Airport while staying in Japan several times over the past 15 years. This, however, is not to make a political statement but to shed light on politics in our daily lives in close contact with the people and the scene. Furthermore, another important underlying conviction is that future is created only when we confront and reflect on the ideology that we still hover over and the ghosts of memory.
This work deals with what happened after the Fukushima accident (Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1) on March 11, 2011, and Japan depicted here as being different from the place they had developed ties to. They have captured not what you can see in Fukushima but the changes the March 11th Earthquake has imposed on the daily lives of many people in places ou tside Fukushima. The art work -containing people’s words, diverse places and people thinking about their future with eyes closed- depicts the empty space (Tabula Rasa) created from the disconnection of the past and the future, which is engraved by their footsteps.
The massive earthquake on March 11 definitely created a crack in Japan and may be interpreted as the collapse of the modern system the country has so far enjoyed. What should we do, march forward to the future in a moment of crisis? “Spirits Closing Their Eyes.” Why “spirits” not “ghosts”? Is “Closing Their Eyes” to escape reality, or to commit to the origin of and dedication to the future? The title is also food for thought for the visitors about our future.
