On a stage in a theatre space there are six treadmills. In front of each treadmill there is a video camera mounted on a tripod. Six actresses and actors walk and/or run on these treadmills. The speed of the machines varies. The actors recite passages from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, while at the same time looking directly into the camera.

The recorded images and sounds are transmitted live in an art space (gallery or museum). In this space six video screens hang parallel one behind the other.

The screens are front and rear projection screens, which show the projected image both front and back. Thus the image of each actor appears on both sides of a screen.

The arrangement of the projection surfaces makes possible various interpretations of the images depending on the viewer’s standpoint. If s/he stands between the screens, then the actors appear to be running towards one another. But if the visitor takes up a position to the side of the projection surfaces, then the actors are chasing one another. The peculiarity of this projection method is that, no matter what position the visitor takes up, the actors are always moving towards him/her. The spoken text fragments, about love, desire, reciprocation, rejection and disappointment, change their meaning depending on where the visitor is standing. The standpoint from which the installation is viewed, establishes whether the scene being looked at should be interpreted as the abstract romance of a love fulfilled or as the schematic portrayal of the tragedy of a desire rejected. The viewpoint determines the framework of the interpretation of what is depicted. Schematically the position between the screens can be described as “A loves B and B loves A”. A position beside the screens suggests the interpretation “A loves B, but B does not love A”.

The performance takes place in the theatre, the relay in the art space. This transmission from one institution to another changes the context. The transfer of an event, which is performed in a place for the dramatic arts to one for the visual arts takes as its subject the influence of the respective institution on the understanding of what is perceived. Theatre, both as performance and direction, is translated into a visual and sculptural ensemble. Just as in the theatre a podium is understood as a stage and in the art context as a pedestal, so the experimental order of the theatre with its performances by actors and actresses is paraphrased in the art space as a series of moving panel pictures. The theatre play mutates into pictures at an exhibition. The meaning of the performative event in the theatre is changed by the reproductive form (video installation). The performance, of which the installation is a representation, takes place in the theatre. The performance, however, is guided by the representation. An event, which takes place in the theatre, is reproduced in the art space, where the reproductive form stages the event.