Inventario piso Carrer Banys Nous 15 3º2ª, Barcelona
The starting point of this video installation is the inventory list of an apartment where Annegien lived together with the artist Verónica Luyo Torres. After the lease expired, an agency hired by the owner forced them to return all the objects and furniture in the same place as it was once described in the inventory list. A camera wanders through the rooms, while a man reads the list of objects which had to return to their original positions. An employee attempts to describe everything as accurately and objectively as possible without distinguishing between an ordinary cup of tea and an antique sewing machine. Even a packet of paper napkins, a half full bottle of liquor and a photo of the Pope are mentioned. You would think that the inventory list is produced by a machine, is it not that halfway you can detect some traces of fatigue. Where initially the titles of books were written fully, they are now reduced to “15 more books of 22cm high”.
None of the current residents lived there at the moment the contract started, so we reconstructed the house in its original setting, seven years later, by interpreting the inventory list we got. The belongings of the owner, a lady of advanced age, are mixed with objects and interventions previous residents left. This suggests a false atmosphere of an antique scenario. The house was turned into a simulacrum of domesticity, an imitation of the everyday.
Download the English translation of the inventory list here.
This project is a collaboration with Verónica Luyo Torres
