Quotedious (video installation)

Ieropoulos, Fil (2016) Quotedious (video installation). In: REPETITION/S: Performance and Philosophy in Ljubljana, 22 - 24th September 2016, University of Ljubljana, City Museum of Ljubljana.

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Abstract

“‘Can there be a world which is neither happy nor unhappy?” Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-philosophicus Quotedious is a series of videos filmed between 2011 and 2016, viewed either one-byone in a randomly generated sequence, or simultaneously as a multiscreen installation, featuring the same person doing – largely – one thing each time, in each frame. The shots chosen are mostly of reworkings/rethinkings of daily routines, twisted and creatively transformed through the repetition of ‘boredom’ and/or the moment of self-realisation of performativity. Through an almost obsessive mechanical enactment, and oscillating between the trivial and the surreal, the videos discuss our relationship with the uncanny comfort of daily repetition, and tread the thin line between the delightfully automatic and the scarily self-reflexive. Pleasure and passivity coexist at all times, and the viewer cannot fathom whether the performer on screen is in any way emotionally affected by the actions he is performing, or at what exact point actions are signifiers of impact/change. The shots either wrap around themselves in loops or develop geometrically; in all cases they eschew the traditional satisfactions of narrative sense or closure, resisting the presentation of any sort of cause-and-effect connectivity. To invoke Kierkergaardian terms, in this video it is impossible to tell whether repetition is aiming backwards toward melancholy or forwards toward transcendence and happiness. What constitutes an acceptable, ‘sane’ enactment of routine action? How many brushes of the hair are reasonable before one is accused of OCD? How many Haribo Bears eaten in one go underline clearly enough the turn from a set-up of boredom to an act of celebration? Can a face be wrapped in cling film nonchalantly? And if so, how can a viewer be sure the same lack of joie de vivre is maintained as the repetitive layers of cling film defocus the performer’s face? Does the danger of deafening oneself become serious as the number of inner-ear cotton bud spins increase? Is this question even remotely valid, and is the overall work meant to be understood as bearing any resemblance or relationship to real life acts in the first place? These are some of the thoughts and questions that might come into your mind while browsing through this video collection. Feel free to add your own.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Other)
Depositing User:	RED Unit Admin
Date Deposited:	12 Jul 2023 12:35
Last Modified:	12 Jul 2023 12:35
URI:	https://bnu.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/18757

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