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  Antonie Frank
Fragment
  Sweden 1999
videotape – 2:45 min
 
Antonie Frank works in Sweden with, among others, skff, a collective for women artists working with art in connection with new media. Her work often has the theme of women and the dangers they are exposed to. In 'Fragment' Frank suggests a memory of a horrible event. The images we see do not tell a story, rather, they refer to an event or a memory of a woman as victim. Precisely what has happened is not made clear. Images of a mouse being touched by a human finger, of children's feet rope skipping, a bare light bulb hanging from a ceiling and swinging back and forth, the head of a young girl looking up, barbed wire, fencing, meat, a woman's hand braiding a girl's hair. 'Fragment' is composed of several different visual elements that alternate with each other. The images are sometimes in colour, then in monochrome. Sometimes we see clear, sharp structures that fit together, then unclear and unfocused images. The music accompanying the images is threatening: you hear soldiers marching, a heart beating, glass breaking and piercing sounds that literally hurt your ears. The video works up to a threatening, ominous climax in both image and sound. All of a sudden the light bulb stops moving and the light goes out; the glass breaks, the girl looks at you penetratingly while covering her face with her hands. 'Fragment' gives you the feeling that something horrible has happened: has this girl seen something horrible or was she herself the victim? A recollection like a nightmare in which image fragments happen in succession. A memory of a horrific event in a camp. A memory of which fragments will always live on in your mind. Something terrible, as a result of which a woman's life will forever be marked.

– Anita de Groot
Camera: Julia Hede
Sound: Paulina Sundin
Production: AP Bild/Agneta Persson

Antonie Frank, 1955, Toronto, Canada
Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden

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