do-over (2016), installation view, l’étrangère gallery, London, 11.2017-01.2018, photo: Andy Keate
do-over, 2016
video, 3’20”, HD, colour, stereo sound, aspect ratio 16:9, loop, DOP: Mikołaj Syguda, participant: Daniel Sałaciński
Joseph Constable (Assistant Curator at the Serpentine Galleries in London): „Whereas in restraint (2016), Stefański partners the mechanical motion of ‘pure movement’ with a politically-charged recontextualisation of Sultan and Mandel’s source image, in the video work, do-over (2016), he moves much closer to Brown’s definition. A male figure stands isolated and surrounded by a black background, proceeding at intervals to exert forceful gestures outwards into an empty space. Each paroxysmal movement appears as an outburst of frustration or aggression, whilst the subject’s face shifts from concentration to an apparent sadness. For this work, the artist worked with a musical conductor, asking him to act out from memory fragments of a particular musical composition, but without the presence of an orchestra. Denied the feedback loop that he would usually receive from each orchestral movement, the figure’s actions are not only decontextualised, but they also become internalised as if caught in a perpetual cycle of expression and repression. In a similar manner to how Brown describes each pure movement, where preceding transitions and build-ups are removed, so the expected flow and crescendo of music is replaced by an erratic breakdown of gesture. Through each choreographed, physical exertion, what persists is a sense of relentless endeavour on the part of the conductor. The American choreographer, William Forsythe, describes choreography as eliciting action upon action: ‘an environment of grammatical rule governed by exception, the contradiction of absolute proof visibly in agreement with the demonstration of its own failure’ ”.
do-over (2016), installation view, l’étrangère gallery, London, 11.2017-01.2018, photo: Andy Keate
