Ana Torfs: ANATOMY

Ana Torfs developed the installation ‘ANATOMY’ during her residency at DAAD, Berlin (2005/06). As with many of Torfs’ other works the starting point for this project originates in text: the record of the proceedings of the trial of the murders of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg — founders of the German communist party — held in May 1919 in Berlin. Ana Torfs selected testimonies from this trial to compose “A Tragedy in Two Acts,” the literary script for her project. Twenty-five young German actors were chosen to re-enact these testimonies while filmed on video. Through twenty-five versions of the “truth” a fragmented, variable and constantly shifting idea of the last hours of the lives of Liebknecht and Luxemburg emerges. Another seven “models” posed for the artist for black-and-white slide photographs in the demonstration room of the Anatomical Theatre in Berlin, a building which is ideally suited to Torfs’ ‘anatomy’: the scene of so many dissections and analyses, i t reflects various aspects of her own artistic process as she scrutinises the historical texts. The result is an installation that interlinks large-screen slide projections with video images on two monitors. The actors on video recite the testimonies in German. Over wireless headphones the visitor can hear an English version spoken by an interpreter; there is no clear divide between naked fact and its interpretation, between fact and fiction. Any story is almost invariably coloured by language.

Over the years, Ana Torfs (born 1963, Belgium) has gained international recognition for her work and has participated in numerous exhibitions worldwide such as the Lyon and Montreal Biennials (1995, 2000). Solo exhibitions have also been held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels, 2000), Roomade (Brussels, 2004), GAK: Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst (Bremen, 2006), DAAD Galerie (Berlin, 2006). In 2004 Torfs created the web project ‘Approximations/Contradictions’ for the Dia Art Foundation (New York). In the course of 2007 the artist’s work will be presented in group shows in TENT (Rotterdam), Würtembergischen Kunstverein (Stuttgart) and the Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin).

Ana Torfs: ANATOMY