Fly me to the moon

FLY ME TO THE MOON (2011)

Mixed media installation

8’21 min video loop, stereo, projection

6’18 min video loop, silent, in monitor

Photographic c-print, 166×116 cm

Photographic c-print Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 72×53 cm

Sculpture 50x46x13 cm

FLY ME TO THE MOON (2011)

Installation view, Goldsmiths, University of, London, UK

I met Lenn when I was jogging in my local park. He would sit at his scooter, every day, at the same spot on top of the hill; viewing the panoramic scenery of London while surrounded by classic music from his small portable radio. Lenn always says “hi” to everyone passing by and gives encouraging words to the running people. One day, I started talking to him. He told me then that he was not afraid of dying, and that he had lived a wonderful life. After this meeting I started to film Lenn in the park and at his nearby home where we watched the opera ‘Turandot’ several times. I started filming the jukebox in a pub next to my house. The jukebox had an appearance of an old jukebox, but it had been digitalized and was called ‘Digital Nostalgia’. Not many people in the pub use it, instead the radio-channel ‘Gold’ plays out music from a speaker behind the bar.

The ship derives from my personal archive, a past love. I visited Lenn several times, and we talked about his life. He was a pilot under the Second World War, then became an opera singer and an actor after that. We spoke about past relationships, emotions, life and death. But mostly, we talked about music.