The Color of Your Socks: A Year With Pipilotti Rist follows Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist as she works on various video art installations in the United States and Europe. Director Michael Hegglin follows Rist while she works on various artworks and through all the stages of her major installation, "Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)," which was on display at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, from November 2008 through February 2009.
The DVD, made in 2009, runs 53 minutes. It has no extras, but can be viewed with subtitles in French and English. Languages spoken in the film are Swiss German, German, and English.
Rist began making videos when she was a member of the band Les Reines Prochaines (1988-94). She began concentrating on art and performance art in the '90s and was awarded the Premio 2000 Prize at the 1997 Venice Biennale. The Color of Your Socks shows Rist in 2005 back in Venice, where she represented Switzerland at the 51st Biennale, with her piece "Homo sapiens sapiens," a video projected onto the ceiling of the San Stae church. The beautiful church in Santa Croce became the canvas for her video. We watch Rist and her crew arrive and prepare the church, removing a crucifix and arranging special cots on the floor for visitors to properly view the projection.
Back in Zurich at her home/office, Rist ponders what to call herself — Video artist? Installation artist? Simply artist? Her closest factotum advises her that "Artist" would probably be safest, as it covers the most territory. She is also asked to choose her favorite artists for an online publication. Rist selects Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" and Yoko Ono's "Ceiling Painting" as favorite pieces.
MoMA commissioned Rist's video installation "Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)." Hegglin and his camera are there for all phases of production, as Rist, very hands-on, works with her crew prepping the installation. They built a small-scale model (which ended up being a large constructed room) at her studio to work out all the kinks. The actual installation, which was in MoMA's second-floor atrium, was 25 feet tall.
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