Video projection HD, loop, silent and 5 body bags recovered with gold leaf
Dimensions variable, 19' 27''
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz
We see a wall-size projection with five body bags lying in front. At first it is not clear what the projection depicts as the wave motions of the ocean footage run vertically instead of horizontally. Upon coming closer to the body bags, that are used in disaster recovery operations, we notice that they have been covered in gold leaf for this work – now resembling a precious reliquary.
In a first presentation in 2014 in a Cologne gallery, also heard in the room were heartbeats that Edith Dekyndt took from the "Golden Record" on the Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977. These sounds were sent into space as audio information to communicate with extraterrestrial life and in this setting seem to echo back from space.
The work was created after two boats with refuges from Somalia, Eritrea and Libya sank in dramatic circumstances off the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa in October 2013. Hundreds of people drowned, including numerous children. The island is known for its glorious beaches and its flora and fauna but, owing to its location, is often in the headlines as a landing place for refugees in distress at sea. In this installation, Dekyndt weaves various stories together, creating an allegory of the ambivalence of emotions. Explaining the concept, curator Regina Barunke writes: "Paradise Syndrome describes a mental state of dissatisfaction and depression that may appear as a symptom when a person has fulfilled all their wishes in life. The term originally applied to people in retirement who have moved to the Mediterranean coast or some holiday island and who see their life as one constant holiday but who cannot experience this as happiness."
Christiane Meyer-Stoll
"Her method summons a variety of hypotheses that touch on life and death, and on the delicate balance between mankind and all living things, as well as on the history of art and the space of exhibition."
Kitty Scott
Kitty Scott, Edith's Laboratory, 1996, in: Ombre indigene – Edith Dekyndt, Brussels, 2016, p. 176.
