A series of intense political events at a wildlife reserve in Oregon USA are the focus of Søren Thilo Funder’s deeply serious and equally deeply strange video work The Watchers of Malheur (TWEET TWEET). The work combines reportage with speculative fiction, political events with extended periods of waiting, wild nature with a digital sensory apparatus, and filmic construction with virtual transience. Photo-realistic camouflage, a motion capture studio with a horse and a Berlingo car, vast expanses of the American landscape, fetishized optic tech, and a pitiable animated Twitter bird are just a few of the many layers that comprise the transrealistic story of armed combat between ornithologists and militia members on the borders of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
We have invited Søren Thilo Funder to exhibit at Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art because of his unique ability to spot local stories and develop them into universal, highly relevant narratives using detailed chains of events and visually powerful staged dystopias to create a space for political reflection.
