RAPHAEL REICHERT
i will always love you
2023
77', Loop
HD-Video,16:9, Sound
https://vimeo.com/863676251/1c6e71782a
i will always love you is a montage of clips of physiotherapy sessions, filmed by the artist‘s physiotherapist over the course of a year. Recorded with a body cam around his neck, the footage invites the specators to dive into a very intimate, but also playful process of various forms of healing. The video material and its mumbled original audio is overlayed with chansons about friendship and love that the therapist used to sing during his first career as a musical performer.
Exhibition view "Salon du Lapin", Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel, CH, 2024. Image credits: Leah Studinger
Exhibition view: "bitte warten", Hitlibold, St.Gallen, CH. Image credits: Leah Studinger
bitte warten
2023
Collaboration with Leah Studinger
30', Loop
2-channel HD-Video, 2x 9:16, No Sound
Waiting is a universal human experience and a phenomenon that transcends all social groups and cultures. According to the German sociologist Dr. Andreas Göttlich, waiting as a fundamental human experience is value-neutral and is only given a positive or negative value by the emotional charge of the persons concerned. There is a widespread thesis that modern people have forgotten how to wait. However, this is an ethnocentric, western assumption, which different studies suggest. The 2-channel video work bitte warten shows the artists Leah Studinger & Raphael Reichert while waiting. What are they waiting for? At least for the timer to run out. The answer to this question, deliberately left open, throws the viewers back on themselves and asks them directly: What are you waiting for?
my dog would take the bus
2023
16‘55“, 20‘04“, 23‘32“, 34‘53“, Loop
4-channel HD-Video, 4x 9:16, Sound
my dog would take the bus is a 4-channel video installation about the connections between animals and (public) transport. One of the four channels is a montage of cell phone footage of all the animals (both domesticated and wild) that could be found in the vicinity of a disused train station in northern Germany, as well as various means of transportation - first and foremost the omnipresent express and freight trains. This montage leans heavily on the aesthetics of „Instagram stories“. The other channels tell the stories of three people living at the disused station in the form of interviews, who have the most varied relationships with animals - from the vegan chicken farmer to the 84-year-old furrier who processed baby seal fur until just a few decades ago.
Exhibition view: "my dog would take the bus", Peripherie8, Basel, CH. Image credits: Leah Studinger
Exhibition view, Raphael Reichert: "Opt-in", Architektur Forum Ostschweiz, St.Gallen, CH, 2022. Image credits: Leah Studinger
otopexie
2022
Collaboration with Leah Studinger
15‘31“, Loop, 2K-Video, 16:9, Sound
The single-channel work otopexie was created as a reaction to a failed ear surgery. As an attempt to fix the error, several substitutions were tested. This fictional short documentary shows the individual steps of an ear correction. The process of the procedure leaves the viewer with a slightly oppressive feeling, but at the same time awakens a sense of defensiveness, driven by questions of why. The sterile, clearly structured video aesthetics and the sober presentation of the medical steps unearth an increasingly rampant awareness of the enormous complexity of social structures and their negative effects.
Exhibition view, Raphael Reichert: "Opt-in", Architektur Forum Ostschweiz, St.Gallen, CH, 2022. Image credits: Leah Studinger
pasta 1–4 (hommage to my father)
2022
Pictures shot and edited by Leah Studinger
C-print on aluminium
60 × 80 cm
Ed. of 5 + 1AP
Exhibition view, Raphael Reichert: "Opt-in", Architektur Forum Ostschweiz, St.Gallen, CH, 2022. Image credits: Leah Studinger
1000 push-ups
2022
24‘24“, Loop, HD-Video, 16:9, No Sound
1000 push-ups consists of smartphone recordings of a thousand push-ups. Although not in a row, they were done over a short period of time. This work is reflecting the absurdities of contemporary masculinity in the context of social media fitness challenges.
Exhibition view, Raphael Reichert: "Opt-in", Architektur Forum Ostschweiz, St.Gallen, CH, 2022. Image credits: Leah Studinger
Ø15:09
2021
15‘09“, Loop, HD-Video, 16:9, Sound
Ø15:09 consists of video recordings made during morning jogging sessions, filmed from the perspective that the smartphone assumes by itself when you hold it in your hand while jogging. The work is a meditation about the extent to which the imperative of complete self-optimization in all areas of social life is also applicable for artistic production.
Exhibition view, Raphael Reichert: "Opt-in", Architektur Forum Ostschweiz, St.Gallen, CH, 2022. Image credits: Leah Studinger
5-word news
2021
6‘37“, Loop, Stereo Sound, 4 potted plants (monstera deliciosa)
5-word news consists of overlapping audio-recordings of (German) news fragments, collected over a couple of years. In the exhibition setting, trendy monstera plants are used to try and create a homely atmosphere and help the viewers to reflect on the privatization of social development.
Exhibition view: "Heimspiel" Group show, Kunsthaus Glarus, CH. Image credits: Anna-Tina Eberhard
don‘t look into the sun
2020
12‘10“, Loop, HD-Video, 3:4, Sound
don‘t look into the sun consists of an interview with Indian-born actress and trans gender activist Living Smile Vidya, who is currently in the asylum process. This interview is combined with more than a hundred recordings of the sun, filmed with a smartphone over the time span of several weeks during the first Corona lockdown.
Exhibition view: "Undocumented Perspectives" Duo show with Ivana Kvesić, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel, CH. Image credits: Leah Studinger
globetrotter
2018
6‘37“, Loop, HD-Video, 16:9, Sound
globetrotter links the lives of two people by documentary means; the soundtrack consists of an interview with a Gambian refugee about his every day life in his old as well as in his new home. This is put in contrast with recordings from the artist's own video diary, filmed during a summer break, which could only be created through the freedoms he enjoys as a Swiss citizen.
Installation view, Image credits: Courtesy the artist
wind power is petting with the atmosphere
2019
26‘29“, Loop, HD-Video, 16:9, 4-Channel Sound
This video montage is a reference to the column „Windkraft ist Petting mit der Atmosphäre“ by Mely Kiyak from the German newspaper DIE ZEIT from the 27th of November 2019.
The work accepts Kiyak‘s ironic challenge to bestow something poetic on wind turbines with the help of Vivaldi‘s „Four Seasons“, in order to make wind turbines more popular with the countryside population. The soundtrack is complemented by the individual words of Mely Kiyak‘s column, arranged in alphabetical order, previously translated into English. The two sound loops thus create a shift, creating several combinations of image and sound.
In the exhibition setting, Vivaldi‘s „Winter, I. Allegro non molto“ can be heard from the front and the speaking voice from the back.
Installation view, Image credits: Courtesy the artist
on saving us
2019
3‘11“, Loop, HD-Video, 16:9, Sound
On saving us compares the possibility of accident-free driving with the possibility of error-free stabilization of video footage. Autonomous driving promises us accident-free traffic. But as long as the human factor still plays a role, problems of a utilitarian nature arise: Who will the algorithm run over, the elderly person or the playing child running carelessly across the street?
The human factor also plays a role in the stabilization of videos. Which technical means were used to take the shots, how calm does the hand remain when filming? The shots taken with the smartphone from the back seat of an electric vehicle direct the focus to the human factor, the steering hands.
The work examines what is tenable about the general view, that technology has the potential to solve problems in all parts of society.