Wally
2014, video, 2’30”, color
Portrait of Jennie, exhibition view, CCI Fabrika, Moscow, 2015
The video, produced in a CrossFit gym in Baden (Switzerland), shows a physical challenge within a space. The athlete confronts the natural gravity, trying to position his entire body in parallel with the plane of the floor. The heaviness of his body acts as a constant deterrent to the success of his attempts.
A new relation is created between him and the room. The ground becomes one single parallel surface to oppose. Two images are now imposing their presence in a parallel exchange: the body of the athlete and the grey plane of the floor.
The recording camera abstracts them from the context while the point of view of the athlete can only be imagined. His image field is reduced to the ground which becomes a big grey surface in front of him. The whole action is isolated within the virtual space of the video.
Once re-projected, the filmic process opens a light-window into the room and the video gets integrated into the real space. The light defines its occupied portion. The relation between the sport man and his environment is transposed onto the new room, as well as his physical action. Still, the dimension of the video is virtual, as well as the movement. Through the unseen and un-filmed part – the view and perspective of the athlete – we automatically identify with the athlete’s perspective, as we know by experience all the composing elements of it: physical challenge, athlete, floor and grey. In the senses of the observer the tactile pressure of the floor and the encompassing presence of the grey floor start to build an image. At this moment the virtual space of the video and the real space start to merge. The physicality of the athlete and his movements overpass the confined dimension of the frame into the real world.
Exhibitions:
Portrait of Jennie – Video On Display, Villa Bernasconi. Centre D’art, Grand-Lancy, Geneva, 2017
Ri – Flessioni, Ram Radioartemobile, Rome, 2015
Portrait of Jennie, CCI Fabrika, Moscow, 2015
Between here and Now, la rada, Locarno, 2014