Here I will be explaining the parts that compose the project "The Cage" :
- Video 1
- Video 2
- Sound
- The masks
- The Cage installation
and the different elements of each.
Video 1:
Video 1 portaits the feminine and sensual side of Medea.
Video 1 - Element 1:
For the making of video 1 I collaborated with a peer, Iulia Maracine, who created and performed
a choreographic piece.
Video 1 - Element 2 :
An eye was painted on the performers eyelid and then the blinking of the eye was filmed to create a play/illusion between the actual eye and the painted one.
The face painting was created by another peer, Pierre-Marie Laurent.
Video 1 - Element 3:
Close-ups of female body parts performing small, sublte movements.
Video 2:
Video 2 portaits Medea's darker thoughts and aims to create images that symbolise death, chaos and
distortion of innocence and motherhood.
Video 2 - Element 1:
The cutting through a lightbox.
Video 2 - Element 2:
The Milk Experiment.
Liquids like water and milk have a property known as surface tension, due to the cohesive forces of the liquid's molecules.
The surface tension of the water is actually pulling the water away from its container inward toward the center of the surface.
Soap is able to reduce this surface tension.
The two elements of Video 2 were edited together using Adobe Premier Pro CC.
Sound:
The audio of the installation was split in the right and left stereo channels:
- The audio sample playing from the right stero channel included 12 different female voices (like the 12 women of the greek chorus in Medea) reading almost simultaneously different extracts of Heiner Müller's "Medeamaterial", a monologue of the character of Medea.
- The audio sample playing from the left stereo channel included a sound created by moving a metal plate under running water, creating a constant deep buzzing sound expressing mental agony and pain.
Masks:
Two masks were placed on the two sides of the cage, which each of them the audience can see
one video repsectively.
Mask 1:
Looking through the eyes of this mask the audience would be able to see video 1.
This mask was inspired by and based directly on a sentence of Heiner Müller's "Medeaplay":
"The Act of Killing. The woman takes off her face, rips up the child, and hurls the parts in the direction of the man"
This mask was inspired by and based directly on a sentence of Heiner Müller's "Medeaplay":
"The Act of Killing. The woman takes off her face, rips up the child, and hurls the parts in the direction of the man"
Mask 2:
Looking through the eyes of this mask the audience would be able to see video 2.
This mask was inspired by and based on two extracts of Heiner Müller's "Medeaplay":
- "...she laughs without a sound"
- "...she laughs without a sound"
- "The Sexual Act. The male death masks tie the hands of the bride to the bed with the shreds of the wedding dress,
and the female masks her feet."
The cage construction:
The installation was a cage made of metal wire painted red.
On the one side it was closed, while the other side bursted and the metal wire was spreaded against the wall.
From the inside the cage was covered with transit paper, so that the audience would be forced to look through the masks to watch the videos playing inside the cage.
For the sound, two small headphones were placed on top of tha cage , one on the left and one on the right.
Thank you! :)