Say Hello to Peace and Tranquility, Installation at optica, Montréal, Canada
Videostill from "Say Hello to Peace and Tranquility"

Dagmar Keller / Martin Wittwer
Say Hello to Peace and Tranquility
1 channel video installation with music, 2001
23:00 loop
music by Michaela Grobelny alias M.I.A.

Say Hello to Peace and Tranquility (2001) is a constant flow of scenes shot in a quiet suburb where time seems to have stood still. A sense of timelessness is created by the smooth motion of a hidden camera and the constructed, artificial nature of the scenes: one can hardly tell if one is facing a photograph, a scale model, or an ad for a housing complex. A soundtrack by Michaela Grobelny envelops the spectator, reinforcing the
impression of atemporality. Is this a utopian vision, a fiction, an illusion, a critique of urban phenomena, or simply a fascination with this disturbing tranquility.

(Text by Nicole Gingras, curator of the solo show „Dagmar Keller / Martin Wittwer – messages passagers“, at optica, Montréal, Canada, 2009)

Say Hello to Peace and Tranquility, Installation at Museum für Neue Kunst, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2002