Spiders from Mars

Series of 47 manipulated photos (56x76cm) and 5 installations 2003.

'Spiders from Mars' is a storyboard for an imaginary film. It was installed in its full lenght at Overgaden, Institute of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen 2003. An outtake was later installed at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin as part of the exhibition Berlin North, 2004.

'Spiders from Mars' tells the labyrinthine story of the main character Nikolaj, who turns mad after having an affair. He embarkes on a paranoid journey through a Denmark taken over by alien politicians from Mars. In a raw mix of real-time ready-made quotes from danish politicians and an array of cultural references from films and art-works (Nikolaj & Julie, The Body Snatchers, Eyes Wide Shut, David Bowie, M.Duchamp, A.Tarkovsky a.o.) 'Spiders from Mars' is created as a walk-through film, where the audience slowly reads its way through the story.

Each scene in the film was depicted with a photo, suggesting an ambience and a text describing the content of the scene. 5 scenes were depicted by installations instead of photos.In the paranoid-fantasy-section a large series of ready-made PR-photos of the danish parliament Christiansborg was distorted by using various Photoshop-effects, mainly 'liquify'. This section of photos might be seen as a commentary on a dissolving democracy, turned sour by an army of 'aliens'.

The text of 'Spiders from Mars' from is published by Space Poetry:

Edderkooper fra Mars, Space Poetry 2003