Video-Art

• he main station of Zurich was for me the point of beginning in the western world. In 1993 I arrived at Zurich main station and since then I have built up my existence here.
• the main station was chosen as the place of action because in the end it is all about my two identities meeting, merging, and yet never doing so.
• the two identities move around the meeting point, they see each other, but they never meet. Often in my life I have the feeling that I am going in circles. When I meet people from the past, I strongly take on one identity, only to take on the other identity again shortly afterwards at work.
• when the identities meet, it is 9:15 pm, or like the clock in: east (hour hand) vs. west (minute hand). This was a challenge because the shots were taken at 2 am, because the only time at Zurich main station where filming can take place undisturbed is between 1:30 am and 5 am.
• at the beginning of the film the clock is in the focus: The clock hands turn in the usual (clockwise) direction. Symbolically this means: the woman from the east arrives in the west. At the end the clock is in the focus again, but the clock hands turn back quickly. Symbolically this means: The woman in the west is looking for her roots in the east.
• the search for identity has a lot to do with the search for ground, for a firm hold. The camera often switches onto the wheel of the bicycle. The ground and the earth is the connecting element between the two identities.
• the two identities are riding bicycles. I wasn’t allowed to ride a bicycle in the past. This has to do with the position of women in the Arab world, and with the way a woman sits on the saddle. Saddles for women for bicycles are not available. Riding a bicycle was a big dream for me, which I could only realize in the west.