Being more and more recognized by the artistic institutions, the videoinstallation uses the electronic image technology as a basis to develop a contemporary art. The relationship between viewer and monitor changes in a given videoinstallation, as the 2-D image moves out of its plane and expands towards the outer space in order to bring up time and motion to the scenery. The presentation of the 11 videoinstallations, quite diversified among themselves, show the broad possibilities about what could be made and is a unique opportunity to know the work of internationally-renowned artists.
The Shape of Pain is a videoinstallation by Breda Beban and Hrvoje Horvatic, composed by intermittent light sources, projections of video images and two tons of broken glass that covered all the ceiling. The Yugoslav artists explored in a radical perspective the visitors’ physical and bodily participation, integrating symbolic and sensory elements.
artists
Works
Curator's text John Wood, 1994
The Shape of Pain
The work by Breda Beban and Hrvoje Horvatic is characterised by strong emotions, and at the same time by ritualistic self control and self-abandoning stance which results in highly metaphysical dimensions to each piece. Often referred to as the Tarkovsky’s of video, they have developed a finely-tuned style that is remarkable not for showy technique, but for its subtlety and restraint.
In their early single screen videos they drew their inspiration from Central Europe’s riche cultural heritage (from Byzantine painting to body art), and unlike much contemporary art, their use of its imagery and symbolism was not simple pastiche, but an attempt to situate their own work within a cultural perspective that has a past as well as an eternal present inhabited by consumer societies. This early tapes were slow, evocative and meditative, dwelling on our perceptions of time and place, and were characterised by long shots, fixed camera, subtle changes of light, and repetitive ritualistic movements by Breda Beban in a painted costume.
In 1989, after 9 strong video pieces (made just in three years), the piece entitled Geography revealed a change. The image had a more singular presence; there were less performance sequences and the costumes disappeared. In an almost prophet-like way Geography predicted dramatic and tragic changes that were about to happen in their native country, by anticipating the new tension of loss and dislocation which evolved reached its peak in the video installation The Shape of Pain, premiered at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney in 1992.
The Shape of Pain is a stark, powerful piece in many ways. There is a strong physical experience involved when the viewer walks into one of the most expressive installations built in recent years. The floor is completely covered with a thick layer of broken glass, and as one performs the simple act of walking into the installation space, the glass starts breaking beneath the feet, almost instantly provoking/ creating feelings of uneasiness and fear. By the time one’s whole body is in the process of adjusting to the sound of glass cracking and to the gloomy low light atmosphere of the hole piece, one instinctively proceeds towards the centre of the space where a bright red square starts slowly appearing on the floor. As the eyes grow accustomed to its presence and begin to follow the light gently reflecting itself throughout the whole glass surface, the red square beautifully shot video images start flowing from one into another, followed by strong drumming sound. Then, suddenly an image of razor-blade, slowly cutting a palm along the lifeline, almost cuts into the viewer’s eye. Exposed to the vulnerability of skin the mind immediately recognises the sharpens of each single piece of broken glass, (the same glass that one is still standing on), and goes back to the initial fear, and definitely back to the notion that one of our biggest fears is to experience pain.
Video images and the drumming sound disappear as suddenly as they came. Again the red square stars slowly building itself, the silence becomes even more significant than before and one becomes aware that the vibrant dark colour of the walls has the unique velvet-like, ash-like quality of flame marks. Just by touching it one can live a trace and destroy its carefully laid surface.
After experiencing The Shape of Pain it takes time to pin down all the elements contributing to the power of this piece. On the formal level there is an ingenious understanding of the materials used to build the installation: the electronic media is treated as source of light, the broken glass layer on the floor as a surface reflecting light and the walls covered with flame marks as a surface absorbing light. Beyond all that there is a unique achievement in Beban and Horvatic capability to communicate a dramatic, tragic personal experience through a sublime, almost alchemy-like artistic achievement, directly into our own existence.
ASSOCIAÇÃO CULTURAL VIDEOBRASIL. "10º Videobrasil: Festival Internacional de Arte Eletrônica": de 20 a 25 de novembro de 1994, São Paulo-SP, 1994.