To Call until Exhaustion

Rufen bis zur Erschöpfung

Crier jusqu’à l’épuisement

CR 26. Year 1972

Crier jusqu'à l'épuisement Jochen Gerz CR 26 - 028

The question is asked whether something has come to pass here that conforms to the autonomous patterns of relationship between the thing and the individual or which was imposed on him up to estrangement.
Georges Schlocker 1975. Translated by e_CR editors

Gefragt wird, ob hier etwas geschehen ist, das mit dem autonomen Beziehungsraster von Ding und Individuum konform geht, oder das ihm aufgezwungen wurde bis zur Entfremdung.
Georges Schlocker 1975.

To Call until Exhaustion is a duel between the artist, the “original”, and the mechanism, the medium of reproduction. The issue of deterioration of the original with regard to time is a recurrent theme in Gerz’ s work. Set in front of the camera, whose potential for resistance is greater than that of a human being, the “I” is depicted by its physical limits. The dialectic between the individual and the machine comes up again in Exhibition of Jochen Gerz next to his photographic reproduction (1972): after standing next to a photograph of himself for two hours, the image ends up taking the place of the original. However, the outcome is not always unfavorable to the living being in this dependency-hate relationship between the artist and the machine: in The Smoking, a work made in 1970, Jochen Gerz takes photographs of a smoking factory chimney as often and rapidly as possible until, after 196 pictures, the camera jams.
J-M. Bouhours, Georges Heck 2002

The distance that becomes visible can only be bridged acoustically, and only temporarily. In an almost unbearable manner, the act of seeing, like the act of showing, becomes physical here.
Rudolf Frieling 2006

Keywords

Performance / Work in public space

Video camera, microphone, tripod Duration 18 minutes

On the construction site of the Charles de Gaulle Airport, Jochen Gerz calls out in the direction of a camera and a microphone placed at a distance of 60 meters until his voice gives out.

A photo piece and an edition, as well as the video documentation of the same title, are realized on the basis of the performance (616, 776, 669).

Kunsthalle zu Kiel.

Realisations

Le Blanc-Mesnil, 7. Februar 1972. Saarbrücken 1973

Bibliography

I: Darmstadt 1973, pp. 121-127. Köln 1974a, p. 14. Paris 1974c. Karlsruhe 1975a, pp.13, 122. Paris 1975a, pp.13, 55. Aarhus 1976. London 1978, p. 15. Luzern 1979, p. 109.Bielefeld 1981, pp. 10, 33-34, 94. Bruxelles 1985, p. 67. Yokohama 1987, p. 6. Essen 1991, p. 8. Paris 1993b, p. 124. Vancouver 1994, pp. 27-28, 41-44. Tel Aviv 1995, p. 22. Regensburg 1995a, p. 229. Rotterdam 1998, pp. 34-35. Zürich 2000, p. 116. Paris 2016-2017, p. 148, Ivry-sur-Seine 2017, pp. 69, 74, 154-155. Genève 2018, pp. 21, 27

II: Red. 11, 1975, pp. 27-28. Gatard 1978, p. 34. Drateln 1989, p. 44. Heck 1994, p. 39. Wagner 2, 1994. Mesnard 1997, p. 73. Fondevila 2022.

III: Parent 1972, p. 19. Rogendörfer 1990, p. 228. Mesnard 1997, pp. 72ff.

IV: Nuremberg 2018. Universität Hamburg 2018 Online-Projekt "Literarizität in der Medienkunst"

V: Metken 1977, p. 124. Gruber 1983, p. 112. Blümler 1989, p. 4. Wolf 1992, p. 228. Louis/Widrich 1997, p. 13. Rudolf Frieling 2006, pp. 128-131, Benthein, Lau and M. Marxsen 2019, pp. 3, 56-57, 79, 86.

VI: Magazin Kunst 52/1973, p. 100

Access general bibliography

Documentation

Video (669), 19:26 min (Jan Herman, New York 1972)

Vidéo Les Beaux Jours, Strasbourg, imai, inter media art institute, Düsseldorf

Exhibitions of the documentation