Doppelagent-in / Double Agent
“Double Agent” outlines selected works of Moira Zoitl's artistic practice from 1998 until present. The video works, dealing with the stories of people from various cultural backgrounds, and also with the artist's family context, are often installed in expansive spacial settings. She creates spaces of (hi-)story that place a focus on the spacial and temporal context of the people portrayed. Hereby architecture and the built environment are used as a constituent element of the protagonists.
“A common denominator of the works are the (auto-)biographical approach as well as the highly constructed formal structure of the videos. The emotional closeness between the artist and the protagonists and the supposed authenticity of the stories told, are counteracted with stylistic means to undermine the documentary's claim to truth and the private envolvement of the autobiographical elements.” writes Doris Berger on Zoitl's early video works. As a "double agent” in front and behind the camera, Moira Zoitl oscillates between her position of the passive object of a video and the active author, and thus exposes the mechanisms of narrative portraiture.