Rachel Monosov

Rachel Monosov’s work is characterised by a great diversity of media. She uses her performances, photographs, videos and sculptures as a means to artistically explore social and political phenomena. How do social conventions, political power and cultural identities emerge and become established? Her performative installation The Blind Leader questions the effects of violence and control by the authority of the state and the importance of individual freedom and self-determination.

With The Blind Leader, Rachel Monosov has designed a performative installation that is activated in phases by performers. In the exhibition State of the Arts, visitors can also slip into this role and take over the performances themselves. The Blind Leader is about mechanisms of social and political control. How do authorities gain power over people? The artist formulates her perspective with an example: “If someone asks you to sit on the ground with them, that’s one thing. But if someone asks you to sit on the ground while they stand over you, that’s something different”.

The Space In-Between consists of two cactuses that are fixed to the wall so that only a small space separates them. Avoiding injury on the spines of the cactuses calls for a delicate and dangerous balancing act. Any false move can have physical and mental consequences.

The second installation is entitled Waiting Room: a fine, flexible wire mesh defines a tight space into which two performers both force themselves. The power that markings exert, even if they do not represent any real boundaries, is something we encounter in various contexts, but we are often confronted by it in waiting areas. They act as invisible, yet mentally highly effective barriers that are secured by the rules of the social consensus. Here Rachel Monosov alludes to the fact that, for many people, waiting has become an existential condition that forces them to remain in a closely confined, strictly regulated space.
The artist creates another scenario with Finger Print. The installation is a reference to the latent feeling of criminalisation that having one’s fingerprint taken produces. Originally developed to investigate and identify criminals, fingerprints are taken in many other contexts today; for instance, they are a mandatory procedure when entering certain states.

The fourth scene, Forced, consists of a fixture on the wall that forces the performer to adopt a particular posture. The metal rods compel them to remain in a rigid, uncomfortable position that requires tension and self-control. Movement is either completely impossible or highly restricted. The work addresses the issue of individual freedom and the question of who is allowed to enjoy it and who is denied it. Rights to freedom are by no means equally distributed around the world, and the pursuit of them is marked by a lack of fraternity. Our origins and our nationality largely determine the degree of individual freedom that we are allowed to assert.

The global situation is dominated by political conflict, humanitarian crises and the migration that they result in. Against this backdrop, the resilience of our liberal and humanitarian values is proving to be fragile. Do various forms of violence and harsh restrictions become socially accepted too quickly? Isn’t the price that we pay for a (supposed) sense of security too high if fundamental rights are violated or restricted as a result? Rachel Monosov puts these questions to us by creating specific situations into which we can project ourselves – partly mentally, partly physically. With the work’s title, The Blind Leader, she highlights the shortcomings of an authoritarian apparatus of power that leads society to run the risk of blindly following rules and accepting injustices without resistance. In some cases, social rules and conventions that have the blessing of religious, political or ideological authorities are handed down from generation to generation, without ever being questioned. Instead of a reawakened social consensus, what we are often experiencing is the consolidation of authoritarian structures and mechanisms.

Johanna Adam