I am here <performance, live video, research> 2013

Video performance

The work I AM HERE was situated in a building in the Oosterstraat in Groningen, which is amongst others a former school, shopping mall, club and cinema. During the creation process of I AM HERE. the building was just about to be renovated again, which gave the impression of a space dictated by a circle of destruction and rebuilding. The former use as a cinema served as the main inspiration.

The spectators entered a totally dark space and where positioned in front of a TV. A projection started on the wall showing a hardly recognizable close up on popcorn. This projected video stream played backwards from popped to un-popped corn, it represented the reconstruction of a past we make in our minds when we do an expedition through an old building. Meanwhile did somebody holding a live camera and a flash light, which image was shown on the TV in front of the spectators, discover the space, but only fragments of it. A hunt of traces. Sounds are to be heard, recorded once and live once. The circle closes when the live camera finds a pot with fresh popped corn, whose smell fills the space. We end with the same image as we started.

This narrative work focus on sound and image separately. It used the attributes and history of the building it was located in and recreated the first expedition in this space the artist experienced. It is a hunt for traces, for clues that make sense passing by hints that don’t make any.

2013 – Groningen