IsayUsaySsay

Name   : Irene de Groot
Time   : 15.00-17.00 (De Balie Theatre)
Subject: Mortal Acts. The Tactical Body.
Date   : Saturday 20 January 1996

Initially announced as a workshop, the session 'Mortal Acts. The Tactical Body', turned out to be a round table discussion. The issue remained the same: the symbolic use of the body in art and political intervention. It was decided to look at the art works of three of the participants first. Ross Sinclair's video called 'Sounds Of Young Scotland' shows him singing without any instrumental accompaniment, standing with his back towards the camera, looking out over the green highlands of Scotland. He's only wearing shorts, so we can see that the words 'real life' are tattooed across his shoulder-blades. The romantic lyrics, that would be described as highly nationalistic nowadays, are about 300 years old, and were quite political at that time. I did not exactly know what to do with it, but it was almost moving to see such a big man in such a vulnerable position; he is not even singing in tune..

'Patina du Prey's Memorial Dress', a video by Hunter Reynolds, is even more moving. It shows a drag queen in a black hoop-dress with thousands of names on it, printed in white. Every name represents an aids-victim. "For all the men, women and children who died of aids and who are struggling the hiv virus", a sub-title says.

Contrary to the videos of Sinclair and Reynolds, showing vulnerability and beauty, is Paul Garrin's work. Both the documentary about the Thompson Square Riot and his art works 'Arena', 'White Power' and 'Border Control' express a lot of violence. In the last two cases, an interactive installation is shown, in which the movements of the audience are tracked respectively by the sight of a gun and a by white pitbull. What Garrin tries to say with this is that wealth and power are ultimately self-destructive.

Despite this politically correct aim, the suggestion was raised from the public that today's media reproduce a huge amount of violence, just because it sells: "It is said to evoke discussion, but it smacks in my face again and again, in all kinds of media. I'm fed up with all this violence." Although I share this opinion with regard to television, it seemed a bit overreacted in this case, presuming some 'higher' motive of an artist. In the march of the discussion, it appeared that it is impossible to draw a deviding line between art and politics. David Garcia (editor of Almanac, an Amsterdam based tactical television program on art) pointed at the fact that aids activism has been the initial drive for this Next 5 Minutes conference. As he first thought of art as an hermetically sealed world, he was surprised to see what artists could actually bring about with regard to aids activism. Garcia's remark was directly weakened by Reynolds' statement that a certain political engagement already existed; the artists' engagement was the cause for aids activism rather than art itself. Still, the three artists have in common that they believe in the artwork's capacity to start a dialogue with people; to be a catalyst for discussion. However, Reynolds immediately added that although his work might be political, it is primarily social for him. He does not see it as a form of activism. "While performing, like yesterday night in Paradiso, I'm not thinking about political targets".

The use of the body in art inevitably raises the question of gender. Although I did not even notice it myself (for it were mostly men on stage during the whole N5M conference, as usual), it was striking that the artists that were being discussed were all male. Reynolds replied at this comment from the public that he himself felt very uncomfortable about this. Suffice it to quote Paul Garrin: "All art is political, also denial"...

Irene de Groot (igro@xs4all.nl)