Grace Schwindt: Only a Free Individual Can Create a Free Society, The Showroom

London – based German artist Grace Schwindt is finally being rewarded with her first London solo exhibition of newly commissioned film installations which are perhaps her most ambitious to date. Schwindt, who is part of an influential crew of young film makers in London that often combine video projection with live performance, responds in these works to her experiences in late twentieth century Germany and specifically to the perception of freedom in a left-wing society. 

As we would expect from Schwindt, the feature-length film is complimented by complex choreography, sets and props which expand the cinematic space and give the audience a sense of specific time and space where social relations and political theory result in exclusion or destruction.  

The film itself is based upon an interview Schwindt conducted over the telephone with a left-wing activist as he was driving a taxi back from the countryside to the city. The dialogue is rife with reflection as the driver considers his role in radical left-wing German groups in the 1960s such as the Frankfurt School, the Outer Parliamentary Opposition and the Baader Meinhof Gang. Throughout the conversation Schwindt slowly demonstrates that every seemingly disconnected word, movement and gesture relates to the resulting extremist ideology.

In this whirlwind of an exhibition, Schwindt plays with the boundaries of social and political structures to make us think again what freedom means to us.