online video
ANALOGIES
programme
Yoann Lelong
Genèse, 2016, 32 mn
Yoann Lelong, just like John Sanborn, is a witness of dance companies’ achievements. Neither of them are passive, and they invent a form by filming dancers. They do not act in the same moments of choreographic creation. Yoann Lelong focuses on rehearsals and moments of searching, when the gesture has to be found and starts all over again in order to be perfected. He follows the choreography of Anne Nguyen and hip hop dancers, during the creation of the piece called Kata. At the same time he also follows the rehearsals, this time of a musical work, that of the musician Les Gordon (on the Kitsuné label). The two worlds, both thus searching, are adjusted by the artist to make a new film, an unpredictable object with the magic of liaisons. John Sanborn gives his unusual interpretation of the piece Tassel, a contribution from the group “The Living Earth Show” with Travis Andrews and Andy Meyerson and the Post:Ballet company with Robert Dekkers as choreographer. In his camera movements, and in the editing of multiplied, colorized and speeded-up images, John Sanborn gives us his vision of “Tassel” This is not the static capture of a camera placed in a corner and meant to record the moment. John Sanborn becomes one with the company, and works with it.
Behind all artistic works there lurks a busy task of research, an irregular itinerary made up of advances and doubts. By putting into perspective the work of two artists using different disciplines, the film retraces those moments of improvisation, repetition and hesitation which are part and parcel of a work in the making. The movements of the hip-hop dancers of the choreographer Anne Nguyen (creating her piece Kata) are overlaid by a musical work of the musician Les Gordon (of the Kitsuné label), two worlds which, though different, complement each other to create a new and unusual form.
Be it a danced piece or a musical work, the impression of ease and mastery aroused by the discovery of the finished work is always flagrant. What creative process lies behind this sensation of fluidity and perfection? Does does the future work come into being from raw and apontaneous matter? It is from this angle that the film tries to catch and transcribe the genesis of an art work, nurtured by the dancers’ working and rehearsal sessions, as much as by the musical work composed in the manner of improvisation.
Questioning, attempts, adjustments, repetitions… All so many necessary stages required by the creation of an artistic project, ongoing movement wavering between the artist’s initial projection and the project in the making, polymorphous and versatile matter. As a mirror of this continuous genesis, the film ends up by itself becoming the object of its idea. YL
John Sanborn
Tassel, 2016, 9 mn 12
Tassel | The Living Earth Show | Post:Ballet.
Tassel is a work of media invention, created using video editing to produce an otherworldly view of movement and physical impulse that projects what the musicians see and feel as they provide accompaniment to dance. Art interprets humanity because we need stories in order to survive. Music subverts stories because it transcends reality. What happens when the two collide?
Inspired by the evening length collaboration between « The Living Earth Show » (Travis Andrews and Andy Meyerson) and Post:Ballet (choreographer Robert Dekkers) called “DO BE”, Tassel investigates what we think about when we listen to music as well as the temporal fugue state created by contemporary dance.
Tassel is directed by media artist John Sanborn, whose blending of vigorous camera movement, innovative editing and chromatic storytelling results in a unique experience that engages the senses as it searches for meaning in a chaotic domain.
I work as if composing a symphony, mixing composition and movement through the concept
of mental landscape. I use digital art and moving image to create analogies, offering a poetic transposition based on the observation of an environment by triggering a succession of events, natural cycles that will become media. JS