_Lives in London
Tuin
16 mm-film, twin DVD, 2 CDs (color, sound), approx. 6'
Courtesy of the artist and
Jay Jopling / White Cube, London
view a sequence
3000 KB
Runa Islam and
David Bussel
DB_ Your
work Tuin is based upon a scene from Fassbinder's film Martha. Could you explain
the reference?
RI_ The particular scene that Ive used in the work Tuin is an archetypal
moment, a filmic mechanism thats often used for very romantic parts
in pop-videos, Bollywood and clichéd Hollywood films where the characters
are shot in a 360° rotating view. In Martha it has a very considered use
at a pivotal moment in the film where a new character and a new narrative
are introduced. As a symbol of a total turnaround it signalled a trajectory
of demise for the female protagonist. Fassbinder offers a terrible incite
into the sado-masochistic intrigues of male-female relationships. Its
a very disturbing film, and Fassbinder is particularly profound and notorious
for showing the malign aspects in human motions and relationships. He sees
the people he portrays as incapable of being happy, and tragically beyond
hope. I found the 360š turn so hypnotising that I felt it was enough to take
that moment of spectacle and extract it from the film. My remake was in 16mm
film and I added the use of video cameras, given to the actors to film from
their own point of view. From their perspectives, the woman gets to look back
at the man and my intention was to simultaneously reveal the whole theatre
of the set-up. The camera crew, the equipment and the drama are exposed. The
360š track becomes a very important motif. I think the moment in the film
when the man eclipses the woman is very important, not necessarily for feminist
reasons but for any person whose identity has been overshadowed by anothers.
Fassbinder had used the movement ideologically and had critically calculated
its effectiveness to the plot. I wanted the scene to represent an overall
view creating a dialectic between the objective and the subjective. (..)
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