In the series HMKV Video of the Month, HMKV presents current video works by international artists for the duration of one month each – selected by Inke Arns.
Ming Wong: Angst Essen/Eat Fear
HMKV Video of the Month
On view 1 – 31 August 2016
Singapore-born artist Ming Wong’s oeuvre researches the representation of language and identity. Convinced that film is the best medium for getting an insight into foreign languages and cultures, Ming interprets classics of world cinemy, foreign language TV series or theatre productions in a new way.
During his residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Ming, who was inspired by the strong Turkish presence in Berlin’s Kreuzberg area, developed his video work, Angst Essen/Eat Fear, a reconstruction of a Fassbinder movie, Angst essen Seele auf (1973), which tells the story of Emmi, an elderly cleaning woman from Munich, who falls in love with a much younger Moroccan immigrant worker named Ali. The two unlikely lovers start living together as a couple, which at that time in Germany was socially looked down upon, if not deemed downright scandalous. In Fassbinder’s film, their relationship threatens to turn into a disaster under the pressure of hostile and discriminatory social reflexes.
In „Angst Essen/Eat Fear“, Ming plays all the roles. Speaking an approximate German, he embodies up to five persons at the same time, relentlessly switching between various identities defined by gender, age or nationality. By playing all the protagonists in a wholly unfamiliar language, Ming redirects the arrows of antagonism back onto every single one of the characters, thus turning each figure into an ‘other’ or a ‘stranger’. Beyond a reflection on identity and alterity – a topic which is at the heart of his artistic project – Ming’s works are enlivened by a deeply funny and entertaining dimension, which helps reveal the positive options unlocked by a playful state of ‘in-betweenness’ – in-between ethnicities, languages and genders.
Director of Photography: Carlos Vasquez
Production assistants: Jungju An, Sonja Schmidt
Make-up: Julia Lohmüller, Katrin Wespel, Lyn Kato
Supporting Actors: Kate Fulton, Hermann Heisig
Stills Photography: Anja Teske, Job Janssen, Anouk Kruithof
Ming Wong, *1971 in Singapore, lives and works in Berlin; 1997-99 MFA (Fine Art Media) at the Slade School of Art, University College London; 1992-95 Diploma of Fine Arts (Chinese Art) at Nanyang Academy, Singapore. Current solo shows a.o. Frieze Projects, London, 2016; La Passerelle - Centre d'art contemporain, Brest, 2016; Ming Wong: Next Year, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Peking, 2015; Ming Wong: Me in Me, NKV - Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, 2015; I should be like you, carlier | gebauer, Berlin, 2012; Persona Performa, Performa 11 at the Museum of the Moving Image, New York, 2011. Awards a.o. Special Mention (Expanding Worlds), 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009; Residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany, 2007-2008.