Can

Charlotte Krog, a film and performance artist from Oslo, Norway, Ana Maria Velasco, a painter from Cali, Colombia and Nina Venus met as graduate students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, the SMFA in Boston, USA in 1997.

They formed friendship and founded the “CAN” – a conceptual pool for artistic ideas of all sorts. The CAN was set up virtually, online, accessible to all three at all times, a sort of “idea-trash can” into which all three members of the group could toss their ideas and thoughts, worthy or not, from all three directions of their sometimes whereabouts: Oslo, New York, Hamburg.

This is how the “CAN-B.” project “FUN-DAME” for Berlin developed: A dream was recorded and tossed into the CAN.

“A woman is abducted, she is thrown into the trunk of a car, gagged and bound. The car drives for hours without stopping, the woman looses consciousness and drifts off into a feverish dream – she turns into Jean-Claude van Damme. The car stops and she dizzily awakes, realizing she is just herself. No super-hero with muscles from Brussels. Fear, disappointment and anger transform her and let her simply decide to become FUN-DAME! A female – in the trunk – metamorphosis takes place. Once the trunk is opened she snaps into action and kicks ass.”

At that time all members of the CAN were finishing their graduate programs. The footage for “FUN-DAME” was shot in the studio of a fellow student, the painter Torben Giehler. Being unsatisfied with the development of his current body of work, he bravely consented to let the CAN run wild and have “FUN-DAME” break into his studio at night to mess with his paintings. So they did indeed. Irena Feingold, also a fellow student at SMFA directed the shoot.

By now the members of the CAN had returned to their home countries, continuously communicating through the CAN and further developing the concept “FUN-DAME”. Charlotte Krog was editing the footage, Ana Maria Velasco worked on the story line and Nina Venus worked on the sound effects and sound track in collaboration with Constantin Christofides and soundrats studios.

In September 2001 the CAN presented “FUN-DAME” in Berlin as a video installation, incorporating several artistic media such as live music by the electro-pop-band “rubin”, performances and recitals to transgress boundaries and create a public event in the tradition of a happening.