Sven Johne’s video work is composed of a tracking shot through Dresden’s old city at night, the streets empty. We hear a monotone, female voice reciting self-assuring sentences such as, "I am divine," "I am rich," "I embody power." These affirmations, which in psychology are used to strengthen self-confidence, were taken from online success seminars. Johne sees the inflationary presence of such guides as a symptom of widespread insecurity that is being exploited for profit. Here, the sentences become the mantra of an invisible figure - perhaps ourselves - who wanders through the baroqueizing shopping streets of Dresden. In the reconstruction of the past it finds a perfect backdrop for the hard self-optimization urge of the neoliberal present.
Further Media
- Location & Dating
- 2018
- Material & Technique
- HD-Video, 23'35''
- Museum
- Galerie Neue Meister
- Inventory number
- Leih-Nr. L 562