Jewish Folktales retold - Mobile
Elijah’s Golden Finger Mountain Violin, 2017-2018
Video installation commissioned by the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco for the exhibition "Jewish Folktales Retold: Artist as Maggid"
Materials: Aluminum mobile with 2 screens
For the exhibition Jewish Folktales Retold: Artist as Maggid, Mads was commissioned to respond to a selection of Jewish folktales edited and included in Howard Schwartz's anthology Leaves from the Garden of Eden: One Hundred Classic Jewish Tales (2009), which compiles stories from a vast array of countries and centuries, and from both oral and written traditions. When reading the folktales Mads was noticing how most of them had the most elaborate, unusual, and magical moments that would transform the stories in very unexpected ways. Acting as modern maggid—storyteller, Mads chose different uncanny moments from three of the folktales and weaved them together into a new story. A more fantastical and condensed story bringing light to the turning points and transitional moments.
VIDEO MOBILE
The video mobile structure with the two video screens was used in order to break up the common way of viewing video and understanding a certain storyline. In this installation, the screens would rotate independently and the viewer would have to move around with the video screens. Sometimes making the audience have to choose, which screen to follow, which would change the experience and narrative. In addition, viewing the two screens simultaneously also created a different kind of immersive viewing experience as the audience would walk in between and around the screens.