Christophe Buchel- Last Man Out Turn Off The Lights

Far and away the most exciting thing I've seen at GI this year. At the start you're given a health and safety notice and given instructions not to harm yourself or climb ladders. I started off going into a celtic bar, which is mirrored by a rangers bar on the other side and all of it is contained within a shipping container. At the end of each bar is a ladder (I later discovered that the ladders were intended to be used but H&S decided it was too dangerous. This is a real shame as, having seen the full work, this seemed like an ideal portal to the rest of the work). At this point there was a feeling of anti-climax until we discovered another small entrance which soon revealed itself as a prison entrance. The whole place was eerily spooky but we could hear people tramping on iron grating somewhere inside and a tension started to build. I was vaguely aware of a fear of meeting real or even acting inmates or even something else. All I really knew was that I was quite scared of what might come next. You continue through more unlocked, barred gates which increase the tension each time until you suddenly come out into a wide open space that is filled with the torso of a destroyed passenger aeroplane. It is just a skeleton although some of its outside pieces have been reattached while the rest of its remains lay about, mostly sorted into sections (chairs, dolls, suitcases, oxygen masks etc.) Around the planes carcass are more shipping containers that contain a continuance of the prison. You soon realise that not only is there everything a prison could need, from an arts and crafts room to an autopsy table but that the level of detail is staggering. In fact the two most impressive things about this exhibition are the incredible feat of building this installation in the time required and the sheer dearth of information in the form of objects. There are posters of girls on the cell walls, matches, paperwork stacked high, a ship made from matchsticks and even fire alarms on the walls. In one container there is a workshop for the processing of the plane parts which seems to blur the line between the two but it seems unnecessary. Whether the plane is there as something that the inmates work on as part of the whole narrative or not doesnt seem to need answering. the fact is that through the collection of huge amounts of detail and the meticulous building of a huge environment, this seems to be the only place on earth that you can or ever will experience a very real situation of being in a plane crash, an old firm tension and a prison all at once. This is such an incredible experience that it seems to over-rule the question of 'what does it all mean?' or 'why was it done?'.