Frieder Haller's first solo exhibition with 14a opens in Hamburg
Installation view.
HAMBURG
.-14a is presenting Frieder Hallers first solo exhibition with the gallery titled Scum Scam Scum. The film of the same name is the second part of the trilogy Good times, bad times, which consists of Architecture (2019), Scum Scam Scum (2021) and 24/7 ist kein Leben (tba).
Scum Scam Scum is a chamber drama that comments on the underlying structures and dynamics of relationships within (post-) modern societies. The film is composed of multiple sequences, in part dramatic, that are characterised by humour and pathos. At the beginning of the film, the viewer gets a glimpse of an evening among friends, which promptly develops into a ruthless power play amongst the different characters. In moments of rejection, the characters egocentric goals, deep-seated frustrations and insecurities as well as their own intimate desires and personal aspirations are revealed. While the conversations are on the surface, often composed of seemingly one-line platitudes that remain rather abstract in their banality, they are coinstantaneously simultaneously funny. To make this explicit, Haller constellates dialogues and actions from his own conversations with friends, his dreams, sitcoms such as Friends or Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten and movies from Hal Hartley or Rainer Werner Fassbinder that seem familiar at first, but through the course of the film transform into exaggerated and brutal modifications of daily life.