gwendoline robin had the difficult task of beginning the festival. the first performer. the first person who is going to take the stage (or in this case pool) and transform the space into her « world. »

and i have to say, gwendoline approached the space and her occupation of it as an informed and visually aware performer. the pool is white with two black stripes. gwendoline was dressed in black and carried a thin glass rod in her hands. she circled the space, making all of it her field of performance, while playing with the rod as a sound making device. at one point the rod broke. immediately i am on the alert, anxious as broken glass cuts flesh. and although gwendoline took the broken glass into her hands once more it was again to play with the sound making quality of glass scratching the wall of the pool. she moved calmly and without haste, as if this was all routine, ordinary even.

next, pages of paper are laid out one next to the other in a diagonal cutting across the pool. wire (like the kind the coyote in road runner would use to detonate an explosive) is taped to the paper and then lit. gwendoline lay down on her stomach at the other end of the paper and put on white gloves. the line lit up and the fire burned in a line towards her. once at her end…i think she put it out with her hands, but to be honest i couldn’t quite make out what was going on from my vantage point.

however, the visual of the black burnt line cutting through the length of the white paper on the white tiled floor of the pool was beautiful. a truly beautiful trace of a performative event.

and it was true. through all of this, her actions were calm, deliberate. in contrast to the explosive violence of her materials, the glass breaking, the detonator wire burning, the body of the performer offered a contrast of stability and predictability. so even though gwendoline ended her performance with an explosive being detonated on her head, (and yes the violence of this action in relation to her body was shocking) the totality of her piece (for me) resides in the sharp contrast of explosiveness with calmness, of white with black.

this performance makes me want to think more about gwendoline’s work, and what it means to blow your own head off. but for tonight i rest with the images she has created that i will carry with me.

gwendoline robin: http://www.gwendolinerobin.be