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In the years 1999 and 2000 the law on the inviolable precincts of the German constitutional
organizations was altered. It concerns both houses of the German parliament in Berlin and
the constitutional court in Karlsruhe. By the new law these invisible borders are not only
affected in their operation but also partially topographically moved (from Bonn to Berlin),
a process, that is directly related to the opening of the borders between east and west,
which has produced new invisible borders by itself. In her video installation Border Patrol Bettina Lockemann deals with the borders that are intertwined in their presence and absence. The installation consists of three parallel video projections, that cannot be grasped together. In each projection the camera follows a woman who walks down the newly defined and shiftet borders of the inviolable precincts in Berlin and Karlsruhe. One gets the impression that not the women are moving but the surrounding itself – urban non-places (Berlin) or an unspecific inner city area (Karlsruhe) – as the camera always keeps the same distance. The images do not reveal where exactly the women are or what meaning the paths walked on have. As the camera is following them constantly their walk is loaded with importance. They mark something that is hinted at but equally withdrawn from comprehension. Iris Dressler |