Indian Circle

Eugenia Balcells
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This video-performance registers an action executed by a musician Peter Van Riper inside a closed room. The whole of the film, recorded in just one take and in real time, is structured around the interaction between the camera, the performance and a very specific space. A complex relation between these three elements is thereby created.

Our experience of the space on screen is mediated by the sound of the different instruments that Van Riper uses during the length of his performance. All these sounds are recorded by the camera, which is fixed in the centre of the room. It registers the spatial and sound evolution of the performance, so that an interesting dialogue between space and sound is generated. Both dimensions mutually configure each other, they affect and redefine each other during the performance.

As in other works by Balcells, such as Fuga, this piece instances a reflection on the different relationships that are created between image and space. In this case a new element is introduced, sound, which adds another level of complexity to this couplet. This piece, with a distinctly experimental character, no doubt presents an interesting visual and sound meditation, and constitutes a brilliant contribution by this pioneering artist to the tradition of video art in Spain.

Technical datasheet

  • Title: Indian Circle
  • Direction: Eugenia Balcells
  • Production: Eugenia Balcells. 1981.
  • Team:

    Càmera: Eugenia Balcells
    Música: Peter Van Riper

  • Duration: 00:25:32
  • Original format: VHS
  • Formats: Betacam Digital - DVD
  • TV systems: PAL
  • License: Copyright