Camera Isolata

“Camera Isolata” is a project realized through a special grant for artists during the Sars-Cov-19 pandemic from the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung. The motto of this grant is “Art knows no lockdown”, supporting projects that reflect an artist’s approach to a world in isolation in 2020.
The Latin-derived term “Camera Isolata” characterizes a closed and isolated room—both concretely and symbolically—a space of confinement.

The project “Camera Isolata” consists of three video-experiments featuring six invited artists:

Jane Brucker, visual artist, USA
Miss Hawaii, musician, Japan
Henrik Malmström, photographer, Argentina
Setbyol Oh, light designer, Germany
Ziyun Wang, painter, China
Yohei Yama, painter, Vietnam

At the end, three communication experiments/actions are carried out in three groups within the small online space of “Camera Isolata.” In each case, two artists—who have never met before—spend a set amount of time together in this almost quarantine-like room.

Group 1: Spend time without speaking (meditation)
Group 2: Spend time working (manual tasks)
Group 3: Spend time drawing

When the moderator signals the end of the quarantine period, each isolated artist takes their still-running computer outside until the WiFi connection breaks—symbolizing the limits of our social connection.