Video installation
2 video monitors, 2 video players, 2 video tapes, black and white, sound, 45 min (loop),
2 metal-racks (118,5 x 60 x 48 cm each),
table tennis rackets and ping pong balls
Reconstruction table, metal-racks and technical equipment:
Ernst Caramelle with Generali Foundation 2000
The installation Video Ping-Pong consists of a real table-tennis table with a shelf supporting a monitor at each end. The screens show video recordings of table-tennis players in action. A ball appears briefly on the left monitor, then on the right, in a fast game. It seems to be played back and forth between the two apparatuses. At an acoustic level, one hears the ball bouncing, but there is no real ball to be seen.
The game remains an illusion; the materially existent table is not played upon. The space between the players is bridged by an acoustic fiction. The situation tempts one to make use of it. If a real game is started, the medial reality shown by the video monitors is set in contrast, and the viewer becomes uncertain: is this a live transmission of a game or a recording? (Doris Leutgeb)
