Like a DJ De Bemels scratches images of the dancer Bud Blumenthal to fashion an intimate portrait of a dancer and his reflection in a mirror. The synthetic sound, perfectly synchronized with the images, is the product of the manipulative procedures and intensifies the images on display. 'Rivermen' (May 1999) is an earlier example of De Bemels's collaboration with Blumenthal, and features a choreography for two dancers, with video taking the role of an equal third partner. Here video is no longer two-dimensional décor but 'light' and image, spurring the dancers on and articulating their environment. In 'Soloneliness' an apparently simple relation between a dancer and his reflection is recorded from a single camera position. On closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that this relationship is not so much being 'recorded' as entirely manipulated into a multi-layered, autonomous work by means of various techniques of image and montage. The end product has fully incorporated the original relationship of image and reflection. The dancer's movements (the image) are constructed from accelerations and slowings of the original movements. A state of harmony is reached by means of the sound track's pursuit and magnification of the resulting movements; autonomous still in the synthesis of modulated frequencies. Image and reflection occupy the screen in equal portions. The mirror image is in turn again a manipulation of the image: not one-on-one but a further abstraction, just as the sound is already an abstraction of the total image . The mirror image is recognizably present in its contours as an autonomous form; pulsating there like a primitive form of life. Where video technology may be said to enjoy an equal role in De Bemels's earlier work with Blumenthal, 'Soloneliness' represents the next step in what De Bemels himself has called 'videochoreographic' film. This video won the 1999 Spring Dance Cinema Award.
– Loek Stolwijk |
Choreography: Bud Blumenthal, Antonin de Bemels
Dancer: Bud Blumenthal
Antonin De Bemels, 1975, Brussels (Belgium)
Lives and works in Brussels (Belgium)
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