THIS IS MY HOME

5 channel video installation, 2011
(On 5 flat screens, size variable, 2’00 / 3’00 / 4’00 / 5’00 / 6’00 min., non-sync)

Synopsis:

This is my home. That is my desk. Those are my clothes. This is my bed. I am in my room. That is my partner next to me.

The 5-channel-installation “This is my home” recalls a photographic wallpaper or a gallery of ancestral portraits and employs fictional images of various internal and external views of private houses from various US  films dealing with war veterans particular returnees from the Vietnam war. Theses images are juxtaposed with comments in the form of pieces of texts or sentences taken from a US handbook of self treatment for post traumatic stress disorder for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Central to this is a continuously repeated sentence describing the home environment which is to serve as a device for “earthing” in a peaceful place after a nightmarish experience.

Video Stills:

Installation Views:

Bjørn Melhus: This is my Home, 5 channel video installation on 5 flat screens, 2011, installation view: Live Action Hero, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, 2011

Bjørn Melhus: This is my Home, 5 channel video installation on 5 flat screens, 2011, Installation view: Dublin Contemporary, Dublin, 2011

Annotation:

This work is part of a trilogy and sometimes is presented in conjunction with “I’m not the Enemy” (2011) and “I do not belong in this House” (2011).