Video projected on a white wall, with audio and hand-out, 01’46’’, app. 100x56cm, 2018
Audio: Frédéric Chopin, 'Preludes, Op. 28: No. 20 in C Minor', performed by Nikolai Lugansky Quote: Vaslav Nijinski, 'Diaries', 1919
Vaslav (still)
Citation text that accompanies the work
In this video Billie Q performs a minimal choreography of four gestures.
In the book 'Vaslav' Arthur Japin tells a coherent story based on the (often contradicting) eyewitness accounts of the remarkable performance of famous Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinski in 1919. Billie Q interprets the described choreography on Chopin’s prelude n° 20 in her turn. It would be the last time Nijinski ever danced. Shortly after he was diagnosed with shizophrenia. In the hand-out the story of that conspicious night is told in more detail.
Billie Q interprets Japin’s description of the movements in her own way, relating to Nijinsky’s mental illness, which caused a distance to the people surrounding him. She describes it like this: ‘It’s about not being able to touch certain things, to alter them. To communicate blinded to an equally blinded audience. I can’t really touch or reach you. I can only keep on trying ’till I won’t, ’till I retreat. I’m still looking at you but I don’t see you anymore.'