Trieste

Based on slides shot in 1978 of the Austrian aktion artist Hermann Nitsch. Put away for 24 years the color transparencies are spread out on a light table. The images are examined with a macro lens and captured with digital video. Not so much a reconstruction or documentary of an event but a process of re-imagining. A hundred frames record a 12-hour noon to midnight performance in an Roman amphitheatre in the center of Trieste in Northern Italy. Hermann Nitsch has been creating his unique rituals since the early 1970’s. The blood flows over naked bodies strapped on crosses carried blindfolded senses are tweaked with percussion sounds and blaring brass instruments. Religious iconography operatic orchestrations of cast crew friends and the public who eat dance drink.