How to Start a Revolution: Archive Academy, 2009

How to Start a Revolution: Present day

Bored Rebel in Oberpfaffenhofen

Video, 18 min

Actress: Luzi

2009

In Anna McCarthy’s video »Bored Rebel in Oberpfaffenhofen« a fashion
poster in the protagonist’s living room appropriately reads
»Chic Bohème – Allure Couture – Glamour Pop«. The »bored rebel«
alluded to in the title lives in an apartment resembling a time
capsule from the 1950s to the 1970s - filled to the brim with clothes,
LPs, posters and other mementos. With her red boots, tight clothes, badge,
wide red belt, thick black eye-liner and beehive hairdo, she
surrounds herself with female figures such as Eartha Kitt, Loretta
Lynn, Brigitte Bardot, Catwoman, Pin-ups and others - figures which
embody both sex appeal and emancipatory empowerment. Her
demonstratively casual attitude and at the same time an ambivalence
with which she parodies herself in a self-satisfied but bored manner - she hangs
around her apartment singing along to Nina Hagen
»Sie will mit Wasser sich besaufen und paar Blasen blubbern lassen«
(eng. "she wants to get drunk on water and blow bubbles underwater").
The video culminates in her (perhaps faked) call to a former comrade-in-arms,
whom she unsuccessfully tries to convince to embark on new deeds with
her - whereby we never discover what it is they are fighting for or
against. The soundtrack dons the role of the commentator: »If you’re
going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair«.
With her sober shots, reminiscent of the grammar of Godard’s films,
Anna McCarthy (born in 1981, lives and works in Munich) creates
series of environments that resemble 'still-lifes', allegorical right down to
the last detail.

»Bored Rebel in Oberpfaffenhofen« is part of Anna McCarthy’s multi-
part artistic project called » How to Start a Revolution « (2008-9),
which included actions in public space, a newspaper and an archive
(library, showcases with relics of the actions, photographs and films).

Text: Heike Ander