Trespass
Video
10:24
Rio de Janeiro, 2009
Video
10:24
Rio de Janeiro, 2009
Trespass (2009) is a video work but can also be considered a performance. A black-and-white exercise captured on film, it involved using a mirror to reflect sunlight and using it to draw on the cityscape.
Over the course of just over 10 minutes in a silent film, we watch a body of light wandering through the streets and sidewalks of an upper-class neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, heavily monitored by security guards and cameras. This presence then crosses over the walls separating public spaces from private properties, invading the façades of houses. This act of trespassing ends up revealing aspects of private life that were supposedly meant to remain in the dark. In addition to shedding light on social, historical, political, and economic aspects, the work is also a form of long-distance communication or a messenger. The last house invaded by the light was a psychiatric hospital, where the patients are unaccustomed to any form of communication with people passing by their gates.
There is also a discussion here about the construction of the image. The use of elements such as light, shadow, the mirror, and reflection revisits key issues in the history of the technical image (whether video or photography), and in this context, the work of American artist Joan Jonas. Considered one of the pioneers of working with video and performance, her practice is marked by experimentation, mixing new imaging technologies emerging in the 1960s with historical references, such as silent cinema and magic shows.
Over the course of just over 10 minutes in a silent film, we watch a body of light wandering through the streets and sidewalks of an upper-class neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, heavily monitored by security guards and cameras. This presence then crosses over the walls separating public spaces from private properties, invading the façades of houses. This act of trespassing ends up revealing aspects of private life that were supposedly meant to remain in the dark. In addition to shedding light on social, historical, political, and economic aspects, the work is also a form of long-distance communication or a messenger. The last house invaded by the light was a psychiatric hospital, where the patients are unaccustomed to any form of communication with people passing by their gates.
There is also a discussion here about the construction of the image. The use of elements such as light, shadow, the mirror, and reflection revisits key issues in the history of the technical image (whether video or photography), and in this context, the work of American artist Joan Jonas. Considered one of the pioneers of working with video and performance, her practice is marked by experimentation, mixing new imaging technologies emerging in the 1960s with historical references, such as silent cinema and magic shows.