A R C H I E F1 9 9 8  
16th
  Viviane Sassen
Blind Date
  The Netherlands 1998
Installatie
 
The Blind Date project is about five confrontations of five pairs of artists. During a short period prior to the World Wide Video Festival they react to each other's work and thinking. This will result in five combined presentations.
Viviane Sassen is a photographer who initially studied to be a fashion designer and only later switched to photography. This background can be seen in her images. She photographs mainly her friends in their own surroundings, thus documenting and describing the life style of a group of youths. She is especially interested in the outside, the appearance, which according to her sends out signals that reveal a lot about identity. Opposed to these 'found' images are Sassen's photographs in which she acts more like the director of a preconceived idea. Here, too, the body is often the main subject, but by her choice of certain details she tries to suggest this body is deformed. By juxtaposing perfection and imperfection Sassen propagates an aesthetic opinion. She shows us a dreamlike, fleeting image of young people about to enter the 'evil' world but who linger for a moment and afford themselves the luxury of enjoying and radiating their beauty in innocence – without, however, denying the 'real' world. What is shocking about this is that we realize that these are young people who have seen and done it all, who shield themselves in a cocoon and live in a sort of vacuum. Sassen is still at the beginning of her career as an artist. She didn't start her studies with the idea of becoming an artist and she still prefers the freedom not to be one, which makes her work so lively and unpredictable.
Sassen's blind date is Dutch artist Mascha de Vries.

Production: W139, World Wide Video Festival


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