Eva Teppe

Private Matter #1, 1999

A man and a woman are walking across a meadow. They stop, walk towards each other and touch. What are they doing? Is it a love scene or a game? Are they arguing? Who actually filmed it all? Private Matter #1, 1999, is part of a two-part mini-series, based on the artist’s collection of old 16mm and Super 8 films that were frequently used by amateurs in the 1950s to 1970s. Eva Teppe uses clips from this found footage, whose origins and circumstances she is generally unfamiliar with, for her installations in which the projecting equipment is also visible. More strongly than in amateur photography, the video material suggests that it might have been used for purposes of supervision and monitoring. Thus, Private Matter #1 records events that would not otherwise be perceived by people. However, the pair which acted so strangely in Private Matter #1 was indeed watched by someone with a camera – obviously, as the scene would otherwise not have been recorded. We are not aware whether the people shown agreed to being filmed, what the reasons for recording their encounter were, or in what circumstances they were filmed.