BLUE MOON

Single Channel Video, 4 min., 1997
Double channel video/ installation, 4 min., 1997

Synopsis:

“Mickey went to Europe, the Smurf went to America … this is called cultural exchange.” (BLUE MOON)

A Smurf, alone in the Californian desert, is humming Elvis Presley’s iconic Blue Moon. The Smurf, for Melhus, represents an exchange between Europe and America, an exchange and a difference in cultural identities. The Smurf is a blue dwarf developed by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford, while Mickey Mouse of Disney fame, possibly America’s biggest influence on the world, is a mouse personified. BLUE MOON describes the displacement of this cultural exchange through the importing and exporting of cultural capital, as a display of power and control.

Video Stills:

Bjørn Melhus, Blue Moon, Single Channel Video, 4 min., 1997, Video Still

Bjørn Melhus, Blue Moon, Single Channel Video, 4 min., 1997, Video Still

Additional Crew:

Camera Assistance: Sabine Nolden