happy pi?ata, suicide pi?ata   Austria   1998

Uli AIGNER  

Zither music, which was taken from the post-war movie "The Third Man" plays, a woman dressed as a Pinata is standing at the window in a white tiled room, a combination of kitchen and bath. Pinatas are traditional Mexican paper machee figures which inspite of their colorful beauty, symbolize "evil". On all religious holidays and at almost all parties Pinatas are hung and, according to Mexican tradition, the doll or the figures are battered with sticks until the shell, the "evil" element is scattered, and the "good" is released.

The "good" is revealed in the falling of chocolates and candies. In Uli Aigner´s work the Pinata is a woman and a guest in Europe. She is also filled with sweets, but is not battered. She stands in a white room and is leafing through a fashion magazine, tearing out pages in bunches. Doubting herself and her purpose, she fills the bath: she chooses death by dissolving herself. The shell and the contents- the good and the evil unite in the bathtub in a Viennese studio. (Suess)


Exhibitions

sincerely yours, 1998

Sofia Municipal Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria

TED Gallery, Varna, Bulgaria

Specifications

7min 40sec mono color PAL

Technical protocol

Consumer camera (recording); Media 100 (postproduction); Beta SP (master)

Produced together with

Pi?ata/actress: Reinhilde Hanel; Camera: Uli Aigner; Storyboard: Gerhard Paul; costume: Uli Aigner, Vibeke Jensen; Bad: Alois Bernsteiner; editing: Peter Gstach; Music: Agnus Fairhurst "Lowest expectation"; anonym "Zither Musik"

Post production

Zone, Wien

Sponsorship

Bundeskuratorin für Kunst Lioba Reddeker; BKA, Sektion Kunst

Edition

Basis Wien

Copyright

Uli Aigner

Copy to see

Basis Wien, Kunst, Information und Archiv, Wien