A bees incident

A bees incident 1A bees incident 2A bees incident 3A bees incident 4A bees incident 5

In collaboration with Naomi Hennig
2013 - 2015, 4-channel video installation on monitors, Dimensions variable
Handout

A bees incident is based on a visit conducted into the UN controlled buffer zone that separates Cyprus in a northern and southern part. Within the confines of this ‘no man’s land’, official strict regulations and policies coexist along with the specific individuals assigned to administrate its control and the local civic actors claiming and occasionally renegotiating its ‘terms of use’.
The four-part video focuses on a minimal incident involving a swarm of bees -one of the many conflictual events resulting from the civil agricultural activities interacting with the presence of the UN troops in the restricted zones of the island. Thereby, it seeks to question the nature of the event as such, showing it as an ambiguous amalgam: a construct of consciousness and unconsciousness, narration and diffusion, of politics and ideology, of reality and fiction, contingency and causality.
The multiple viewpoints and accounts of the different actors involved in the incident are traced and confronted with each other, leading to a reflection on micro-history and a humorous questioning of the broader historical narrative which is structuring the present status quo on the divided island.