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Statement Otávio Donasci
Video-Theater: The Electronic Mask
The mask has always been part of human culture: in ritual, in theater and even in daily life (what is makeup anyway?).
The reason for the mask gets lost in the past. And the magical process of wearing a different being is continuously renewed in popular culture and theater.
Maybe the masks are beings we once were or would like to be.
Studying the mask and, more precisely, the language and expression of theater, I started missing the possibilities that video offers, something I had already noticed in previous works.
I discovered that the actor (the fundamental unit of theater) was composed of equal parts face and body expression.
Then, I replaced half an actor (his face) by a video monitor with which to work on his facial expression.
This electronic sewing originated a new being, in good old Frankenstein tradition: scary because it is different. And funny because it is different.
To me, this is much more than a standalone work: it is a proposal of a hybrid language, with the advantages that hybridism brings.
The connection points between theater and video are unique. Hence the possibilities only Videotheater can explore: for instance, in a death scene, where the cadaver’s face goes out of focus, or an angry being whose mouth is shown in close-up, taking up the being’s entire head.