Synopsis:
Die visuelle Herrschaft is based on three parts which refer dramaturgically to the porn production "Performers of the year 2008":
In the first part the spectator is listening to an interview in which the performer is answering questions concerning her life in general and in the business. Meanwhile, the artist is setting everything at its place technically. Then she dresses her hair in a ponytail and starts to put artificial red fingernails on her nails. The moment she finishes electro music is hearable.
This is the sign for part two, in which the spectator is shown what the performer has to offer. The artist is losening her hair, stands up and is taking the cam in her hands. She starts to move it to the rhythm of the music. Doing this, she creates a rather explicit dance in front of the camera. The music ends, the artist is sitting on the floor with the cam between her legs. She now pulls the trigger of the camera from the recording to the playing mode.
In the last part the actual sexual intercourse starts. The artist is moving towards the microphone. She is reading ten theses regarding the one-sidedness of the vision. It seems to be a kind of synchronisation. The theses had been developed along the watching of mainstreamporn on the internet and against the background of Bourdieu's Masculine Domination. During the artist's reading a film is showing pictures produced by females. In the run-up to the performance three cameras were distributed with the task to film naked men with an erotic perspective on their bodies. The three filmers were completely free in their form of realisation.
During the whole performance the setting takes places on two halves of the stage: In the left half of the stage the artist is performing while in the right part there is a projection on the wall.
In order to read the lecture, please download it here.
A montage of the performance can be watched here.
Concept/technical and performing realisation: Brigitte Dätwyler
Oeil éxterieur: Boris Brüderlin
Speakers interview: Brigitte Dätwyler und Boris Brüderlin
Texts: Brigitte Dätwyler
Music: Swayzak „Mysterons“
Film:
Camera: Kim Dang, Anet Hofer, Sandra Oehy
Performers: anonymous
Editing: Brigitte Dätwyler
Visuelle Herrschaft from Brigitte Dätwyler on Vimeo.
Documentary film of the Performance
from October 2008
at Kunstmuseum Baselland, Muttenz
15'
http://brigittedaetwyler.ch/performance/die_visuelle_herrschaft
© Brigitte Dätwyler 2010