Den drøm om fred

Eva Kochs videoinstallation Den drøm om fred er et sitespecifikt værk skabt til et helt specielt byrum i København: Cisternerne under Søndermarken, et tidligere vandreservoir, der daterer sig tilbage til 1856. Mørkt, koldt og fugtigt minder rummet med dets drypstendannelser både om naturens drypstenshuler, men også om fangekældre, katakomber, og beskyttelsesrum, hvor mennesker har været holdt fangne eller frivilligt har søgt ly på flugt fra krig og ødelæggelse.

Titelværket, som befinder sig i cisterne 2, er et 15 meter stort sammenhængende levende billede, der veksler mellem nærbilleder af valmuer, der springer ud, og panoreringer over bølgende valmuemarker kombineret med en sagte lyd af fuglekvidder. Med forskellige intervaller afbrydes de røde billedflader af filmsekvenser i sort/hvid, der viser legende børn, og samtidig skifter lyden til børnestemmer. Tiden skifter mellem optagelser af legende børn fra 1930´erne til billeder af nutidens børn, men fordi alle optagelser er i sort/hvid, bliver disse skift næsten umærkelige.
Et andet sted på udstillingen har tiden fået sin egen indikator med en projektion, der viser det samme træ fotograferet hver dag året igennem. Som en form for påmindelse om, at verden fungerer uden menneskelig indgriben, at naturen har sin egen cyklus. Og at skønheden findes lige uden for din dør, hvis du lukker øjnene op. Det inderste cisternerum er forbeholdt hvide duer. Det ældste og mest kendte fredssymbol overhovedet. De videofilmede duer er skåret fri af billedrammen, så det reelt ser ud som om, duerne er på besøg.

Lyden er afgørende og følger den enkelte dues bevægelser – man ser den baske med vingerne, lette og lande et nyt sted. Bagerst i rummet flyver duer tilsyneladende frit i rummet. Eva Koch har udnyttet cisternernes fugtige miljø og lader projektionslysets due reflektere sig i vandstøv.
Som kontrast til det mørke, underjordiske rum fremstår Eva Kochs installation som en stærk lysende vision om legen, kærligheden og freden. En drøm, som på en gang er enkel, næsten banal, men som det netop nu synes vigtigere end nogensinde før, at vi har intakt.

That Dream of Peace

Eva Koch’s video installation That Dream of Peace is a site-specific work created for a quite special urban space in Copenhagen: The Cisterns under Søndermarken, a former water reservoir that dates back to 1856. Dark, cold and damp the rooms with their dripstone formations remind one both of dripstone caves in nature but also of dungeons, catacombs and bomb shelters, places in which people have been imprisoned or have voluntarily sought refuge from war and destruction.

The title work, which is situated in Cistern 2, is a 15-meter-long, coherent moving image that alternates between close-ups of poppies unfolding and panning shots across undulating poppy fields underlain with a faint sound of birdsong. At various intervals the red surfaces of the pictures are interrupted by black-and-white film sequences showing children at play, and at the same time the sound changes to the voices of children. The time shifts between recordings of playing children from the 1930s and of present-day children, but because all the pictures are in black-and-white, these shifts are almost imperceptible.

Elsewhere in the exhibition time has been given its own indicator with a projection that shows the same tree photographed each day throughout a year. As a form of reminder that the world functions without any human intervention, that Nature has Her own cycle. That beauty may be found just outside your door if you open your eyes. The innermost room is reserved for white doves – the oldest and best-known symbol of peace. The videoed doves have been liberated from their picture frames, so that it really looks as if the doves are on a visit.

The sound is crucial, and it follows the movements of each dove – we see and hear them flap their wings, take off and land in a new spot. At the back of the room the doves seem to be flying freely around. Eva Koch has exploited the dampness of the locality so that the light of the projected doves is reflected in droplets of water.

As a contrast to the dark subterranean rooms Eva Koch’s installation presents itself as a strong, radiant vision of play, love and peace. A dream that is both simple, almost banal, but which also just now it seems to be more important than ever that we keep intact.