Made by hand

Made by hand. If you Google that statement, you will be met by a torrent of design products. We are ready to pay extra for something that has been made with care by human hands rather than having been produced by machines.

Eva Koch’s work Made by hand is shown on two closely juxtaposed screens that together form an almost abstract picture. On both screens we see a concrete wall divided by a piece of timber. It is clearly old and is overgrown with moss and algae. One screen focuses closely on the wall, the other follows the wall upwards in a slow and silently gliding movement. Along the way we see the shadow of whoever is filming. The camera is handheld; this is a video ”made by hand”, as is the concrete. The camera now focuses on its rustic beauty, so that we seem to be looking at an aesthetic, contemplative picture.

What we see is a close-up of a lock on the Kovzha, the river that links Lake Onega with the White Sea. The lock is part of the 227-km-long canal system that in November 1931 Stalin ordered thousands of forced labourers from the Gulag to build in just 20 months. It was all done by manual work as a proof of what the Soviet Union could achieve.
It is estimated that 50,000 people died during the process.

Made by hand

Made by hand. Googler man det udsagn kommer der et væld af designprodukter frem. Vi vil gerne betalt ekstra for noget, der er lavet med omhu af menneskehænder frem for at være maskinelt fremstillet.

Eva Kochs værk Made by hand, vises på to tætstillede skærme, der tilsammen danner et næsten abstrakt billede. På hver skærm ses en opmuret stenvæg med træværk imellem, den er tydeligvis gammel og begroet med mos og alger. Den ene skærm stiller tæt på murværket, den anden følger stenvæggen opad i en langsom og lydløs glidende bevægelse. Undervejs ser vi den filmendes skygge, det er et håndholdt kamera, en video, der er ”made by hand”. Håndlavet er også det murværk, hvis rustikke skønhed der er stillet skarpt på, og nu synes at være et æstetisk kontemplativt billede.

Det vi ser, er et nærbillede af en sluse i Kovzha Floden, der forbinder Onega Søen og Det Hvide Hav i Rusland. Slusen er en del af det i alt 227 km lange kanalsystem, som Stalin i november 1931 udkommanderede i tusindvis af tvangsarbejdere fra Gulaglejrene til at bygge på kun 20 måneder. Det hele blev lavet med menneskehænder, som et bevis på Sovjetstatens kunnen.
Man anslår at 50.000 mennesker døde under processen.