zaterdag 20 februari 2010
Dans un coin de la pièce, une grande et épaisse plaque de verre, mastiquée au mur et au sol, forme aveclángle der murs une espèce d “aquarium qui emprisonne l’artiste.
Il s ‘y tient serré, immobile, de l’eau à mijambes, dos tourné au public.
Un peu plus loin, au sol, quelques gros galets et une autre plaque de verre de même dimension qui repose à plat sur une couche de farine.
L’ action débute sur une belle ‘installation’.
Servie se retourne avec peine dans l’espace qui l’emprisonne et, calmement, avec patience, minuitie et application, il entreprend, a l’ aide d’ un petit uotil métallique, d’entamer, de grignoter la paroi de verre qui l’enserre. Les terrible crissement du verre qu’on entame et qui cède, amplifiés par de micros-contact, créent un environnement sonore très éprouvant pour tout le corps du spectateur.
-Premier incident: Au cours du découpage, Servie se blesse, le sang coule le long de la paroi de verre. Il se lave dans l’eau qui est à ses pieds, s’efforce d’essuyer la vitre, est obligé d’interrompre un moment son action qu’on lui passe du sparadrap.
Puis il se remet à l’oeuvre; les crissements reprennent.
-Second incident: Intervention brutale d’un spectateur ivre ou excédé qui brise d’un coup de pied le reste de la paroi, l’artiste, avec beaucoup de change, s’en sort indemme.
Il explique alors; ‘Je suis désolé, je ne voulais pas de sang, le sang n’etait prévu, cela ne va pas dans le sens de mon action…, je ne peut pas plus continuer mon travail’,- il dit aussi-: ‘le travaille est maintenant achevé’.
vrijdag 19 februari 2010
As if he’s a bad boy who’s been told to stand in the corner, Servie Janssen faces a white wall in a corner of the space. He’s performing in Lyon on the ‘Premier Symposium International d’Art Performance de Lyon’, in 1979. As the camera moves over his body we start to realize that he’s standing behind a man-sized glass plate which is attached to the wall with putty. It creates a small triangular space in the corner. The floor in this corner is covered with an inch of water. Someone hands Janssen a bucket of water which he empties at his feet, increasing the water level a little more. Next, he faces the audience and takes a small tool with which he starts chipping off tiny pieces of glass from the top of the glass plate – seemingly eating away his own cage, but also his own stage.
Bit by bit, the barrier between artist and viewer dissolves. He’s liberating himself in a teasingly slow manner. It wouldn’t take much effort to break the glass and step out of the corner, but this would not do justice to the journey that Janssen is willing to endure to free his body. One can feel the tension between flesh and glass increase. A microphone records the sound that reverberates from the glass; the audio, which resembles the crackle of electrical tension, is played back through speakers in the space. After a while, some unexpected events take place: Janssen cuts his hand and washes off the little chips of glass in the water at his feet, while he waits for a band-aid. Then, only shortly after he starts chipping glass again, someone from the audience apparently cannot bear to watch it anymore and violently interrupts the performance. He is now free but also in shock.
vrijdag 12 februari 2010
Wall , 1978, Performancefestival, University of Antwerp, Belgium, (video, 6’22”)
Faster and faster, Servie Janssen runs through a dark space. The light is extremely dim, which makes it difficult to discern what’s happening among the many bodies present. An occasional light beam shows the artist moving around the audience. He sprints across the room, and when he reaches top speed he bumps straight into one of the walls. Again and again he repeats this action, speeding up while a drum rolls to a climax each time his body hits the hard surface. It becomes an ecstatic ritual that eventually ends due to pain and physical exhaustion.
Janssen pushes his body to its limits, which is characteristic for many performances from the late 1970s. He explores the boundaries and possibilities of human physicality. The brutal clash between hard material and soft skin is seen in his other performances as well, like ‘Prisma’ and ‘Arnhem performance -kantelen-‘. The space where the performance takes place, at Antwerp University, is occupied completely by the actions of the artist. There’s no set stage; the audience as well as the camera that documents this event, have to move around constantly to be able to follow what’s going on.