When we see the title Interview with Saskia Holmkvist we expect to see an interview with the artist Saskia Holmkvist but few minutes into the film it is revield to us that the situation is another. Saskia Holmkvist has hired a media relations expert to train her to deliver a short statement about her work with apparent sincerity and authority. The short statement that Saskia Holmkvist repeats in their training describes her practice with direct reference to this process.
It’s about how we comprehend something as being honest and true, states Saskia Holmkvist. Over the eight minute film, Holmkvist is instructed in body language, posture, voice timbre, eye contact, in a process more associated with political careerism than artistic development. The interruptions, visible microphones, and self-conscious pauses make it clear that even the most stereotypically ‘authentic’ figure – the artist – is capable of, and possibly is always engaged in – a performance. However, the revelation of the performance is itself carefully constructed. Shot in the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, from several angles using hand-held and fixed cameras, the film’s visual language of authenticity is itself a construction, a language created by media such as reality television. So, our supposed access to reality never quite resolves itself.
Title: Interview with Saskia Holmvist
Concept, Film editing, Production: Saskia Holmkvist
Reporter/mediatrainer: Josephine Selander
Cameras: Magnus Liistamo, Ivan Mathias Pettersson, Ulrika Larsson
Light: Ulrika Larsson
Length of film: 8,40 min
Production year: 2005