C.O. Journeys
C.O. JOURNEYS
(c.o. = camera obscura)
C.O. Journeys invites you to take your seat in a cinema-sized camera obscura. A camera obscura is an optical device whose properties have been known for centuries: when a light source shines through a tiny hole into a dark interior, an inverted image of the outside world appears on the opposite wall. According to art historian Jonathan Crary however, the camera obscura is more than just an optical instrument, it is as it were a philosophical metaphor for the ambiguous relation between man as an observer and the world.
In C.O. Journeys the spectator is placed inside the image while at the same time experiencing the odd realization that the performance is taking place outside the box and more specifically behind him or her. From this situation the creators develop a series of stories the origins of which are difficult to trace. Without any hierarchy these different elements are juxtaposed, cut up and restructured. In this way an ambiguous relation comes into existence with the images and the information that reach us in the darkened box. Their origins are difficult to localize, explicitly throwing us back on our own bodies and subjective points of view.
In C.O. Journeys the spectator is anything but a passive viewer; he or she participates in the complexity of an image. Using simple means, Bailie and Ragg offer resistance to the superficial ‘gaze of the consumer,’ to the constant stream of images we have to digest on a daily basis.
Credits
Concept & Realization: Joanna Bailie & Christoph Ragg
Outside Eye: Charlotte Vandevyver & Helga Baert
Production: Mokum vzwCo-production: Buda (Kortrijk), Vooruit (Gent), Workspace (Brussels)
Realization camera obscura: Lucas Coeman, Jan Vandenbussche
Realization costumes: Gilberte Voorspoels
In collaboration with: Netwerk (Aalst)
With the support of: the Flemish Community, De Pianofabriek Werkplaats (Brussels)
Thanks to: Rosas, Bains::Connective, Nadine