There is a Crack in Everything is a five–channel video installation by Marie Steinmann, presented in a

specially designed pentagonal room.

 

The viewer enters this hermetic space through a narrow gap and is placed in the middle of the room, confronted with five screens showing the awakening of the everyday life in Kibera, the biggest slum in East Africa. In real–time, the swarming of people turns from nocturnal darkness into early morning; on the way to work, to school or even aimlessly to the camera and away from it.
 

The rising sun accentuates the centre of all five images: in the middle, standing in contrast to the nervous vitality all around, a child, motionless, staring into the camera. Each of these five children wears the costume of their choice: what they want to become in life.
 

A pilot, a ballerina, an astronaut, a doctor, and a soccer player. The perfection of their costumes stands in contrast to the obvious poverty of the surrounding world.
 

The possibilities and impossibilities of life are reflected in this one–hour staged observation, co the viewer to reflect on the hopes and limitations of their own existence.