LIES LIKE TRUTH, 1999

Arlington Arts Center Washington
Curated by Wolfgang Becker

This work was presented during the court hearings on President Clinton’s impeachment at the AAC, located 5 kilometers from the White House. The installation feigned an electronic surveillance of the Oval Office.

1. At first the visitors discovered a fingernail-sized monitor showing the Oval Office. A nearby headset transmitted the sound from the art center’s office (voices, sounds of printers, telephone rings) and thus simulated the original tone of the executive office.

2. The visitors’ reactions to this supposed view onto the center of executive power was recorded by a camera module and microphone and was shown simultaneously on a screen on the downstairs floor of the art center.

3. In a secluded part of the mezzanine, a commercial video camera was set up and recorded an »official postcard of the White House«. It was from here that the picture of the Oval Office was transmitted to the miniature screen on the upper floor.

The visitors could pick up the individual stations of the installation visually by following the line of cables that connected them.