The content of Ruth Hommelsheim’s project She turns round laughing picks up on her earlier work Bewahrungen from 2007. Taking family photographs, she examines the demeanour, expression and gestures of the photographed, removing them from the actual photographs and hence from their social context. Knocked out of their background, these figures acquire a performative character as soloists of their selves. Hommelheim takes this opportunity of having them re-enacted by the same individuals, now decades older. With gravity, wit and irony, they are then placed in relation to one another in a pictorial space. The focus of this interaction between release and re-enactment is once again on individuals and their posture. By eliminating the earlier context, duplicated singularity becomes a performative event, allowing for the emergence of new relational contexts beyond the confines of time. With impressive clarity, the dance of the figures begins.
