DVD 1
Hans van Manen
John Armleder
Fastland/Ground
 

 

video excerpt
John Armleder

video excerpt
Fastland/Ground


 
John Armleder allowed himself to be guided for his contribution by Hans van Manen's choreography. It is a recording of a solo on points danced by Yumiko Takeshima without any musical accompaniment, and aptly described by Thora Johansen as 'whispering percussion'. Armleder called his contribution Roturora Perpetual Glow Machine. This registration of a warm mud field, recorded in Australia, consists entirely of grey tones and is just as minimal as the movements that are characteristic of Van Manen's work. The piece also possesses a similar lightness and clarity. The belching, burping mud keeps time to the dancing feet and seems to transcend gravity. Armleder succeeds in turning what is in itself an extraordinary natural phenomenon into a swinging party. In this respect his contribution is clearly affiliated to the circles and spots with which he has managed to amuse the art world for years.
Fastland/Ground has moved Armleder's film into a museum. In this white cube (grey concrete floor, white walls) various archetypal characters (the collector, the art student) are looking an unseen work of art. All we see are their reactions, from uninterested to total rapture, from amazement to acceptance. The film is interrupted now and then by the words 'actual viewer experience may vary'. Fastland/Ground see art as a democratic experience and in their opinion it is the viewer who completes the picture.