A young family bids farewell to their au-pair girl and leaves the apartment, but before they go, the father forbids her from surfing the Internet. In her annoyance, she gets an idea: she’s always wanted to see if a laptop can be made to float. She puts the laptop on a bast tablet and turns the tap on. In the next image, the kitchen is already a good meter under water, the au-pair girl stands on the kitchenette and tries to send the laptop floating on its way. In the stairwell we see the extent of the flooding, household objects are washed away in the current. Even the apartment the next floor down doesn’t remain unscathed. The deluge continues on its way, tearing down the reigning power system and the bourgeois lifestyle in a slapstick style. Liliy’s Laptop is an updated adaptation of the suffragette film Le Bateau de Léontine (1911). As is characteristic for many suffragette films from the silent era, a bourgeois apartment is thoroughly destroyed by a domestic worker. The relations of power and employment are for a moment led ad absurdum, putting them out of service in a distinctly comic style.
Judith Hopf, born in 1969, lives and works in Berlin. Her art is concerned with histories and aesthetics associated with ordinary everyday culture. She uses expressive forms such as performance, video, sculpture, and graphic work. Since 2008 she has held the professorship of independent visual arts at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. Filmography (selection): Conception of Youth (2012), Zählen (2010), Schulen (2008), Türen, The Evil Faery (both with Henrik Olesen, 2007), Proprio Aperto (with Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Florian Zeyfang, 2006), Elevator Curator (with Deborah Schamoni, 2006), Villa Watch (with Natascha Sadr Haghighian, 2005), Hospital Bondedance (with Deborah Schamoni, 2005), Bei mir zu Dir (with Stephan Geene, 2003).
HD Video; idea, script: Judith Hopf; director: Rebecca Ann Tess; camera: Florian Zeyfang; camera assistance, special effects, compositing: Christoph Manz; set design: Imitat, Adrian Klein; editor, sound design: Judith Hopf; production assistance: Christina Stockhofe; cast: Lily Westermeyer, Stephanie Wurster, Jesko Fezer, Martha Fezer, Phyllis Fezer, Christine Groß, Roman Ott.
