Thirty Three Degrees

2017

concept/performance Chantal Yzermans

music Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky

original music by Yannick Franck

scenography Samyra Moumouh

costume Jean Paul Lespagnard

guest performers : Carlos Aires, Jack Davey, Celine Mathieu, Nono Pessoa,

images by Aleksei Kazantsev

commissioned by the International Triennale ‘The Raft. Art is not Lonely’ 2017 , Ostend , BE

CONCEPT

Thirty Three Degrees' is an adaptation of the work 'Partner/You,' in which Yzermans criticizes the laws prevailing in this online universe. Five guest performers scour various sites and forums, searching for the conversations and images that are massively shared by users. What they share instantly becomes common property; any form of privacy and intimacy on the World Wide Web is an illusion.

The base of Yzermans' performance is a 33-degree inclined plane, not coincidentally the basic measure for the Raft of the Medusa as immortalized by Géricault. This iconic diagonal, often found in the visual arts of the Baroque period, has evolved into a source of introspective exploration into Yzermans' own work. Géricault's raft serves as a stage for various figures, the majority of whom are nude and exposed in dramatic poses. Yzermans links this dramaturgy to the excessive presence and shareability of nudity on virtual platforms, dating sites, and pornographic sites in our contemporary society.

The complete spectacle is presented in a dramatic way: the webcam images that are collected are projected onto a large screen in space. Le Sacre du Printemps by Russian Igor Stravinsky forms the basis for a daring soundtrack, in which classical and minimalist electronic music is intertwined. Stravinsky was inspired by various primitive rituals in honor of the budding Spring in pagan Russia, crowned by the offering of a young girl. On those same tones, Yzermans sacrifices the privacy of the chatters by making their most private actions visible. Ordinary images and primary needs are made public and, supported by a museological set-up and classical music, sublimated into art. The visual input is frequently mixed and edited. The room fills with negative prints, framed images and fluorescent surfaces. Yzermans plays with photographic processes; where light is normally converted into image, here image is converted into light. The webcam images dissolve into a fleeting stream of impressions. Yzermans appropriates the bodies, intimate images and sayings of people for the benefit of a larger artistic whole. In this way she exposes the legal elasticity of artistic appropriation in a provocative way.