Index 19: Erik Lavesson and Nik Geene

Index 19 presents two collaborative works by Erik Lavesson and Nik Geene.

Bárbara Corriente (25 mins, video, 2018) is a reconstruction from salvaged parts of a lost video work shown in the exhibition Buena vista plumbing at the 2012 Tbilisi Triennial in Georgia. Reminding of a teleprompter or closing credits of a movie, the video is a downward scrolling rumination on the subject of the modern writer in life, flesh and (less fleetingly) in fiction. The second piece, the sound collage Ford Escorting Richard Russian, (240 mins., stereo, 2012) was produced for the Lüften festival in Frankfurt and played on a loop in the shuttle cars bringing people to the festival location.

Our first days in Georgia were spent in a frankophilian stupor punctuated by moments of pure fear. Going out to get things ended up in cul-de-sacs created by un-uniformed cops with machine guns. Taxis were unlicensed, just a car except that the driver was in constant communication with someone sitting at a desktop giving directions from google maps. Nights in Tbilisi teemed with young american entrepreneurs with buzz cut hairstyles on top of boot camp hard bodies dressed in suits, mixing off-duty attitudes with silicon valley lingo. In hindsight things took on a creepier note, against the backdrop of the American invasion of Georgian politics and business leading up to the parliamentary election in 2012.

Bárbara Corriente is one part recipe for a disaster movie, one part nostalgic lingering on an auto-narrative that is still in the process of happening. Borrowing in structure from self help manuals, but in a vein more reminiscent of a diaristic confession, the video cycles around the space of the attic. The utopian writers’ place of production, distinguishing itself from all other interior spaces by way of its’ steep pitched ceiling, exposed rafters and difficult-to-reach corners, the attic here serves as an adequate portal for looking into the conflicted male headspace.

In Ford Escorting Richard Russian, Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You (from Starship Troopers) plays over sound effects of Kurt Russell beating a clone to pulp in the climax of Soldier. A didgeridoo, dogs barking, shoe gazing, fender kicking, the soundtrack of Tequila Sunrise, an interview with Richard Rush, an interview with Pat Riley (who Kurt Russell’s character, Nick Frescia, in Tequila Sunrise is based upon), the sound of a car not starting, more dogs barking, Mosquito Coast sound effects, a good motorcycle and a really bad motorcycle, off-key whistling over 20th Century Fox trumpets, a Burt Bacharach cover, The Mission soundtrack, fire engines, rain, the final scene in Point Break, the Last Days of Disco …

Erik Lavesson (b. 1982, Uppsala) and Nik Geene (b. 1986, New Plymouth, NZ) met at the Frankfurter Buchmesse in October 2010. Erik Lavesson lives in Saltsjöbaden where he works as a caregiver and internet antiquarian. Nik Geene is an eco-artist and structural gardener living in Buenos Aires.

Index 19 is a series in Index’ front space. Presenting single works, films, readings and discursive events, Index 19 is a space for dialogue with surrounding communities and visitors.

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