Sieben bis zehn Millionen

Stefan Panhans makes elaborate video pieces in which the sets are worked out in meticulous detail while the protagonists’ action is kept to a bare minimum. In Sieben bis zehn Millionen (Seven to Ten Million), a young man garnished with hip-hop headwear and a fur-lined hood stares into the camera performing an hysterical staccato monologue reminiscent of music video in which he reports on the predicament of purchasing an unnamed digital appliance. He bemoans the exhausting “labour of consumption”, the daily bewilderment and surges of paranoia in the electronics market. The painstaking search for products elevates the purchase decision to an existential, all but religious status, in perfect accord with the aspirations of the globalised entertainment industry’s marketing strategists and product developers.

(Introduction by Angelika Richter)