2001/2002 – Ephemeral installation comprising 6 cabins of MDF and aluminium frames forming a dodecahedron of 600 cm of diameter. Each cabin shows a video of differing length.
Raptured gazes is a video installation composed for six cabins assembled in a circular formation creating a dodecahedron that recalls the Dioramas of pictures at the end of the 19th century, or the current Peep Show. In each cabin a different sequence of a video may be seen. If the viewer wishes to see the entire installation, s/he must enter all six cabins. I started this project searching for public spaces which met several preestablished conditions. The users of these spaces had to make use of their sense of sight to relate directly with the content on offer in these spaces; and the relationship between the viewer and the object of attention should be one of intimacy. The spaces I chose to record on video were: a cathedral, an aquarium, a peep show, a cinema, an exhibition of African art and an internet cafe. All these spaces share one thing in common; they are spaces where the use of cameras or of video is either prohibited or restricted. This forced me to construct a device for hiding a digital video camera. With this hidden camera I recorded the six sequences seen in the cabins. The interest consisted in capturing the intimate experiences of these anonymous persons and their respective objects of desire which may be diverse in nature even though the ritual of approaching them is in the majority of the cases very similar. People in search of pleasure. Likewise, the viewer of the videos, sheltered in the privacy of the cabin, is forced to assume the role of voyeur observing the voyeuristic experiences of others. The watcher watched. The substitutive prostheses of the gaze such as photography, the cinema or the video have emancipated this gaze making us reconsider the limits of representation and suggesting to us that the search for intimacy, and the idea of it, arenothing but myths.
Mendel Art Galery, Saskatoon, Canada i Fundació Tàpies, Barcelona, en el context de l’exposició Indivisuals, comissariada per Jorge Luis Marzo.
