In So Much I Want to Say, Mona Hatoum claims the right of free speech in the face of censorship. A voice off repeats the title insistently all through the tape, while the image, taken from a performance, shows her mouth gagged by hands, and contradicts the desire for expression.

The first means of presenting this work was by satellite transmission during the Vancouver to Vienna Slowscan exchange. The videotape is the recording of this. It carries the image transformations and the time lag between sound and image, through which te spectator perceives the subject.The sound, heard before the image comes through, places the spectator in front of a blank screen, waiting for the visual element. The clear voice repeating "So Much I Want to Say ", is delivered at normal speed, and influences the orientation of the spectators thoughts.

The image shows the reason for this revendication, without linking it to any particular socio-political context. The artists face is shown in close-up, gagged by male hands. Movement is broken down into a series of fixed shots, which are swept from the screen, from top to bottom, every eight seconds. The hands move from page to page, allowing the screaming mouth to appear, only to gag it again. This slowing of the action has had an effect on the way tension and emotion are communicated. Now, the lines and expressions of the face mainly define these. The treatment of the subject with the slow rhythm, black and white solarised images and the mosaic weave - has moved from a live recording of a performance to a consecrating showing.

This videotape shows the desire to speak and be in contact with the world beyond borders. This dimension takes on a particular meaning in the artist's work: with the criticism of the socio-political situation of the artist's native land (in Changing Parts, she deals with violence on the individual in a war context), and also with the prolongation of close relationships beyond separation and exile (in Measures of Distance, she approaches her relationship with her mother).

Thérèse Beyler