¬ Samantha Bohatsch
Samantha Bohatsch's video work Gigi pt 2 (2021) is a new production for the project gossip, fleeting moments, and performances. Bohatsch's association with Gossip suggests a lonely sadness that takes up space: the I of the text, Gigi, confronts the reader(s) in all his/her emotional vulnerability and hopelessness: "I am so lonely, but can't be with anyone." In An Archive of Feelings, Ann Cvetkovich points to a kind of radical archive of emotions that queer (there: lesbian and gay) history enters and requires in order to document intimacy, sexuality, love, and activism. Bohatsch's Gigi pt 2 can be read as part of this queer radicality and yet is ultimately (also) about a very basic, general experience of being alone - a feeling that is likely to resonate with some of the passers-by on the anonymized pre-Christmas shopping mile Ku'damm. The transposition and transfer of the text onto the digital showcase advertising surface is reminiscent of the aesthetics of AppleMusic or karaoke videos, in which the current line of text is highlighted, but the context always remains visible. The result is a visual language that will be very familiar to many of the passers-by: a sad song to sing along, which expresses the pain, emotion and loneliness of every karaoke singer - as if it had been written just for you. Samantha Bohatsch's showcase work is extended by a reading performance.
Samantha Bohatsch makes reading performances, text-based sound pieces and installations. They deal with interpersonal relationships and transformation processes, inspired by personal experiences, observations from the internet, queer and feminist literature, history and pop culture. Bohatsch has received artist fellowships by the Federal State Baden-Württemberg, the Arts Foundation Baden-Württemberg and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. Their works have been recently shown at Kunsthalle Mainz (D), Galerie Bernau (D) and Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (D) among others. Bohatsch is based in Berlin. They studied in Vienna, Berlin and Karlsruhe (D) where they finished their studies as Meisterschülerin of Silvia Bächli.