SITUATION #70

Don’t Wind It up, Turn It on by Marge Monko is a play based on the semantic meaning and effect of advertising photography. The work consists of a publication that also serves as a script for a five-part performance. Texts by Monko and quotes by Erika Jong, Jacques Lacan and Karl Marx appear alongside extracts from various wristwatch advertisements from the 1970s and 1980s. These elements are set against photographs seemingly taken from watch adverts, but whose compositions achieve their intended effect via watch-less wrists and gestures in front of a monochromatic green background. In the performance, the texts are read by a male and a female actor, while the photographs from the advertisements are recreated by choreographed movements of their hands and arms. Reminiscent of a film set, the re-enactment takes place in front of a green screen, onto which background motifs corresponding to the staged poses are projected in real time. Don’t Wind It up, Turn It on explores the strategies of advertising photography and the complex interplay between luxury and desire, and images and image conventions.

The performance took place during the launch of SITUATIONS/Placeholder on Friday, 7 April 2017, 7 p.m. at Fotomuseum Winterthur. With Tobias Bienz and Martina Momo Kunz.

More by Marge Monko: margemonko.com