S Y N O P S I S
Hans and Grete, Sue de Beer’s two channel video installation, portrays the psychological lives of recent American school shooters. Considering real-life horrific events and their resulting social phenomena, de Beer finds common ground between terror - calculated acts of violence - and the morbid, escapist fantasies of the horror genre. In Hans and Grete, fictional acts of terror are presented through the lens of teen-age pop culture obsession. De Beer draws on actual events, such as the 1999 shooting massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, which commanded massive public outcry and media frenzy. Set in a nebulous contemporary context, de Beer’s narrative incorporates the characters of German terrorists active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As Icons of underground and counter-cultural movements, these historical events and figures - often in symbolic form - are recycled into popular culture.
“Hans und Grete” were the aliases for Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, who were lovers and the ringleaders of the Red Army Faction, a West German revolutionary movement. In 1970, Ulrike Meinhof, editor of the leftist German newspaper Konkret, aided Baader’s escape from prison, thereby establishing the moniker of the “Baader-Meinhof” gang. As ‘guerrilla” terrorists, the Baader-Meinhof group was involved in a chain of violent
revolutionary actions worldwide. Coupled with the suspicious alleged suicides of several key gang members, their widespread influence elevated many figures in the group to the status of counter-culture legends. De Beer’s video incorporates elements of the
Baader-Meinhof story in the torture psychological dramas of its characters. Media images of Meinhof, alongside rock and goth posters, appear in the work as a visual anthem for the teen characters’ fatalistic credos and dark obsessions.
- Stephen Hilger, ex.catalog Hans und Grete
