PutYourHandInTheSlot |
A performance shown at GOMENES I by Netting The Work
in the context of the Athens Biennale 2015-2017 OMONOIA. April 2016 / Athens |
A take on the hidden and exposed, the intimate and the public, on desire and embarrassment as on the the socially imposed importance of putting preferences into strict systems of binary nature.
An experiment to isolate the connection/contact of two persons from expectations in association to any kind of visual a priori information one might think to receive in all sorts of personal relations.
A suggestion to imagine any receptor according to one's dreams, sexual orientation, gender, shape, size, ethnicity, capability, political orientation or age - while engaging in simple shortlived passive/active connections during this performance.
Behind the curtain is only the touch itself - void or full of all other connotations.
In this piece the audience was invited to approach the black curtain, kneel as if in a prayer or confession and put a hand through a hole to the other side. Soon enough it became apparent there was a body on the other side interacting with the hand. Was the body naked or dressed? Male or female? How intimate was the contact? The person in the dark, behind the curtain did not know to whom the hand belonged. The person in front of the curtain was teetering between two worlds. One hand was exploring the body of a stranger in the dark, the rest of the body was being watched by dozens of peers and photographed by several photographers at once.
A powerful collision between the public and the intimate, shame and desire.
(text by Marino Pascal)
An experiment to isolate the connection/contact of two persons from expectations in association to any kind of visual a priori information one might think to receive in all sorts of personal relations.
A suggestion to imagine any receptor according to one's dreams, sexual orientation, gender, shape, size, ethnicity, capability, political orientation or age - while engaging in simple shortlived passive/active connections during this performance.
Behind the curtain is only the touch itself - void or full of all other connotations.
In this piece the audience was invited to approach the black curtain, kneel as if in a prayer or confession and put a hand through a hole to the other side. Soon enough it became apparent there was a body on the other side interacting with the hand. Was the body naked or dressed? Male or female? How intimate was the contact? The person in the dark, behind the curtain did not know to whom the hand belonged. The person in front of the curtain was teetering between two worlds. One hand was exploring the body of a stranger in the dark, the rest of the body was being watched by dozens of peers and photographed by several photographers at once.
A powerful collision between the public and the intimate, shame and desire.
(text by Marino Pascal)
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Photo credits:
Nikolaos Stathopoulos Alexandros Kaklamanos The password to stream the video can be obtained by contacting the artist. Video credits: Maria Nikiforaki, Spyros Emilios Tzimas, Rilène Markopoulou (The dark room recordings were shot under IR light) |