On the evidence of his video 'Just there: a place I do not know' (1996) the eternally restless Bambozzi was already then preoccupied by his subject: the quest for the untraceable, the desire to capture the intangible. The grass is always greener on the other side of the mountain, might be one rather simple way of summarizing that work. In 'I have no words' Bombazzi bores into deeper layers and weaves together several related themes into a whole which is more complex than the work of 1996. As the title suggests, the impalpable here acquires the form of the inexpressible and sometimes even the inconceivable. The video is the first part of a triptych to be called 'Torments'. It is impossible to describe feelings or strong experiences to another person in a way that enables her or him truly to grasp your meaning. In this video Bambozzi attempts to sketch various moods and untouched feelings which are difficult to express in words. As one of the characters says: "This is the idea of telling something which is so hard to understand and, at the same time, so simple". In this interweaving of fiction and documentary impressions and self-expressions pass by on the screen, and we are offered metaphors to which we ourselves can attach different meanings — in the end everything is subjective. However, the division of the work into chapters with titles such as 'Hiatus Vertigo Suspension' and 'Concrete absence - A lump in the throat' offers us some help in the interpretation of the metaphors. There is, for instance, the regularly recurring image of a gigantic one-armed cactus, usually seen standing by the edge of the road. In the little chapter 'No way out' the now forked cactus seems to be suggesting that there is indeed an alternative route and that we can choose the direction our lives will take. Most of the other images seem to confirm the precise opposite: that there's no way out, in fact, either for inexpressible experiences or for the course of our lives. The way through the desert is straight, stretching away to the horizon before us and behind us, and no one can escape death. In the chapter 'I don't know what I miss' the cactus has been decapitated: a definitive choice has been made. Or does it symbolize emptiness and absence? The emptiness of the abyss, which is another regularly recurring image: you can either plunge into it or stand on the edge enjoying the view. Running through the video is the unfolding tale of two kleptomaniac girls. A voyeuristic camera follows each of them separately through the city and catches them in the act of stealing. When they remonstrate with him the cameraman gets into conversation with them. He does his level best to understand them, trying to imagine their most intimate feelings, but he cannot quite manage it. Each in her own way, the girls are suffering from an absence. One of them is tormented by her lack of memory: "I have no images. No image recorded of things." Do they steal as a way of filling the emptiness in themselves? For the sake of the brief kick of the act of theft? Or are they seeking to console themselves for something? But the camera is just as much a thief as they are, for in showing pictures of them it is stealing their experiences, their words and their likenesses. But the recorded image will never be anything more than a surrogate. Neither a photograph, nor a video, nor even memory can replace real experience. Bombazzi seems to realize this with painful acuteness. He will never be able to make his meaning completely clear to us, for he too lacks the words to define things adequately. Moreover, words are again always susceptible to the listener's subjective interpretation. 'I have no words' is the record of this recognition, but it is at the same time the beginning of an 'alternative route': instead of trying to convey your feelings and experiences you can also supply your audiences with material from which they can create experiences for themselves.
– Lies Holtrop |
Lucas Bambozzi, 1965, Matão SP (Brazil)
Lives and works in São Paulo (Brazil)
Sound, music: Livio Tragtenberg
Production: Eliana Grossmann
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