Text by: Andreas Baur, Clea Laade und Anka Wenzel
Villa Merkel Städtische Galerie Esslingen
Paperback, 120 pages, 8 x 10 in., English
Irish contemporary artist Willie Doherty's (b. 1959) latest video installation, Home, revolves around the timely issue of refugees and immigration. Questioning the context of migration and social affiliation, Doherty, who witnessed Bloody Sunday in his hometown of Derry, Northern Ireland, explores the multiple meanings carried by a single image in his nourish video narratives that often incorporate appropriated images from the media. The large still images, installation shots plus outtakes from the two featured videos, The Amnesiac (2014) and Buried (2009), presented in this slim exhibition catalog from Villa Merkel, Esslingen, challenge the viewer to distinguish authenticity from fiction and the nature of actual threat from generalized fear in relation to immigration potent subjects in our troubled times. dOCUMENTA participant in 2012 and representative for Ireland at the Venice Biennale (2007), Doherty's often claustrophobic installations have been shown from Tate Modern to MoMA, PS1 to the Carnegie International and throughout Europe.
