Hold On
video index
 
HD, 5:25 min., 2016
View video on VIMEO - password: Hoffmann

 
Participating: Keven lee, Katie Philps, Ilya Krouglikov, Melanie Lebrun


Four people are gathering in a vast room. Suddenly one gets weak and is about to collapse. The others try to keep her upright, though two of them cannot use their hands and arms, whereas the third one can only use her/his hands and nothing else. Their movements result in a chaotic and intimate, sometimes violent, at other times sensual struggle, like a dance of caring and indifference.

All four move like one organism, an entity, which experiences a sick member or limb, and trying to regain functionality. The imposed restrictions of not using hands or body create a very fragile situation in which one’s movement that is not inline with the others can lead to falling and failure. Once a person falls it is impossible to bring her up. Their clothing suggests an office or corporate environment in which their extremely busy but disengaged actions of helping might be an obligation rather than a selfless, human reaction.

The sound creates an atmosphere of a large empty space that echoes only the sound of people’s actions, their footsteps and breathing.


Exhibition at Occurrence, Montreal, 2016