Paradox of Intimacy

Group show De VROM Den Haag “35titles” – pre-end exam exhibition

A five meter high tower is the first thing you become aware of when you see this work, it is standing on a balcony in the entrance hall of the VROM building a former government building. You can only see the work from a great distance as well as the platform on top of the structure and the two performers on it. These two persons almost do not move but they are all the time in physical contact with each other. Three binoculars spread all over the space allow the viewers to get a close look on the performances.

This work concerns different relations and contacts through the play with distance and closeness. There are three major layers towards the work. One deals with the isolation of the performance and their performers, created through the big distance of them to the audience. Another one is the invasion of the beholder or voyeur into the performers private sphere. The third layer is the predominance of the performers, who are indeed in a physical higher position. But not only that, the two people in the performance are also obviously sharing something that the audience can only guess or notice but never become part of. The beholder will always stay only the viewer.