DNCB (2021)
DNCB by Oliver Husain and Kerstin Schroedinger - Multi-channel installation: 16mm, 5.30 min, silent / video, 9.50 min, sound / audio interviews, 10min / 2021 //// DNCB stands for Dinitrochlorobenzene. It is a yellowish, crystalline, and highly toxic chemical used in colour film processing. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, the substance was also used as a treatment in alternative AIDS therapies. The installation combines layered images and sounds that reflect on the complex history of this chemical substance and the self-organised communities who used it. There are three separate channels: A 16mm film, hand-processed with non-toxic organic ingredients Turmeric and St John’s Wort; a video performance enacting gestures and actions taken from oral and written accounts of the specific use of the chemical; and audio interviews with HIV/AIDS activists about their experiences with DNCB in the 1980s and 1990s.
interviews with Ron Rosenes, Tim McCaskell, Darien Taylor, Alexander McClelland / cast and crew: Aliya Pabani, Faraz Anoushahpour, Moira Hille, Ryan Ferko / make-up and props Buzz / music Ain Bailey / foley sounds Manuela Schininá / sound mix Birte Gerstenkorn
exhibitions
2025 / Scientia Sexualis / ICA Los Angeles
2024 / GTA 24 / MOCA Toronto
2022 / Every Moment Counts / Henri Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo
2022 / I don't know you like that / UB Gallery, Buffalo
2021 / I don't know you like that / Bemis Center, Omaha
2021 / The Garden. Cinematics of the Soil / Silent Green, Berlin
2020 / Radical Passivity / NGbK, Berlin (single channel version)
performance version
2019 / mumok kino, Vienna
2018 / schwules museum, Berlin
DNCB - A History of Irritation / copy editing Sylvie Fortin / designed by Aio Frei / English, 42 pages, with inserts / published by Archive Books / 2023 link