The Cryer
DATA OCEAN THEATRE Tragedy and the Goddexxes VI. EXODOS
Video, colour, soundless, 4'/Installation
In collaboration with Outi Condit
The actor cries. The actor is a moirologist, i.e. a professional (paid) mourner. Crying is what actors (athletes of the heart says Artaud) do, right? But how can they do this on cue? Thinking of the climatic and belligerent state of the planet and letting go of the individual and collective emotional overload should be enough though*. In four forty-five-second sequences, the actor is therefore crying, for the camera. Tears are produced by different stimuli for each shot; from the 'emotional truth' of the triggered affective memory (Stanislavki/The Actors Studio methods) to the falsity of the use of a menthol-infused tear stick, through different possibilities of channeling social media or movies crying scenes found online using a wireless earphone... During the winter, Vincent collected on a beach at low tide in Biarritz, his hometown on the Atlantic coast, pebbles covered with dried red algae (Gelidium Sesquipedale) resembling body parts, or landscapes. The algal patterns were extracted from the mineral surface, and transformed into digital filters/tattoos, and placed randomly on the face and body of the crying actor.
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* Reminiscencing A Solastalgic Prologue
