Animalperformances

Artist: Joanna Rytel
5 x 2:00 min, Sweden 2002

Joanna Rytel saw laboratory monkeys on TV who looked so bored. They looked ill, sad and disturbed. Inspired of this TV show and the question, what she could do for these animals, she did Animal Performances. But it became something completely different. In her Animal Performances she is dancing in front of sheeps, goats, horses, cows and monkeys. The spectator becomes a voyeur, watching the animals who are watching her. The spectators are deprived of their passive roles. Who is looking at whom and why? Who has the power over the gaze?

run-time: March 2011