Investigative art project, public intervention, short film
Together with Mathias Weinfurter

Artist in Residence at NIROX Foundation, Research November 2022 - January 2023
Exhibition at synnika space Frankfurt/Main in April 2023

The exhibition Blurry Gazes follows the interdisciplinary research work of Anna Boldt and Mathias Weinfurter, which the duo began in Colombia under the title "Miradas Borrosas" in 2019 and continued in the context of their residency at the NIROX Foundation (2022-23) in the Republic of South Africa. The central exploration of the artistic research addresses questions of private and public space, functions and mechanisms of security architectures, and examines their relationship to social structures that produce poverty and exploitation under the sign of capitalism. Like through a magnifier, Blurry Gazes thus functions as a mediator that not only focuses on individual lived realities, but aims at global comparability. The exhibition at Synnika shows in the form of a video installation by Boldt and Weinfurter the results of the research, which were realized with photography, film, and interviews, and contextually complements them with sculptural work.

In 2019 Boldt and Weinfurter realized the experimental research and art project Miradas Borrosas (en. Blurry Gazes) in the Colombian village of Ambalema. The starting point was the footage that Google had taken on site six years earlier for its online service Google Street View (GSV). Until then, the residents had no knowledge of their existence and public accessibility, as the village does not have permanently installed internet access. After an extensive engagement with the inhabitants through the confrontation with the photos, their experiences and impressions, a participatory intervention and a performance was realized on site. The interventions resulted in a film that was shown as part of a spatial installation.

Text by Naomi Rado