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  Dominique Milbéo
Oenigma
  France 1999
videotape – 4:26 min
 
Some images elicit questions, let a viewer consider a work in amazement and wonder what they are seeing. The very title of this work by Milbéo tells us what it is about. Oenigma (enigma) comes from the Greek word 'ainigma', meaning mysterious, puzzling and from the Greek 'ainos' (story, fable) and the Greek 'ainissesthai' (to speak in riddles). And that is what Milbéo does when she uses stroboscopic light to show us an image of a doll. At first we see the doll from a distance, leaning against a rather unclear background. Then the camera zooms in, the doll comes closer and its face, with pink lips and two blue eyes, becomes visible, until the screen is totally taken up by these two bright blue eyes. We look at the doll and the two eyes continue to shine during the black intervals between images. We wonder what we are seeing and the effect of the camera technique used makes us wonder even more what we are not seeing: because image and afterimage intermingle, the border between what is being shown on screen and what the eye adds to this becomes unclear. The fact that the entire video was made in one shot with a fixed camera position and by repeatedly zooming in and out of the same image strengthens this effect. In this way Milbéo's puzzle arises from an apparently simple given; it is the simplicity of the image that makes the question more pregnant: what am I seeing? With this she seems to put less emphasis on the content of the image, but especially on the corporeality and the physical characteristics of looking. Her somber story is open-ended, the puzzle she touches upon remains unsolved.

– Carla Hoekendijk
Dominique Milbéo, 1959, Nantes (France)
Lives and works in Nantes (France)

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