Laura Horelli

In her current show, “You Go Where You’re Sent,” Laura Horelli examines the life of a diplomat’s wife—which is to say, a life that has been defined by the need to keep up appearances. Issues of representation have been one of Horelli’s primary concerns, but here her subject is her own grandmother, which changes the equation and raises its stakes. The focal point of the show is a video montage of snapshots and official photos from her grandmother’s albums, arranged chronologically and covering stints in Washington, Bucharest, and Helsinki. The sound track combines excerpts from a conversation between the two women with the artist’s own commentary. Since her grandmother, diplomatically enough, sticks mostly to superficial details in her reminiscences, Horelli is left to supply much of the biography’s historical and political background—and when it comes to her grandmother’s inner life, she is left to speculate. Several photographs taken in the grandmother’s flat document the interview itself, showing, for example, the artist’s recording equipment on a coffee table. The exhibition highlights the disparity between what film, or any documentary medium, is expected to convey and what is actually communicable, even as it illuminates the tension between the interests of artist and subject. While Horelli wants to expose the inner workings of self-presentation, her grandmother is invested in maintaining a facade.

Translated from German by Emily Speers Mears.