Skin [2012]

SKIN and LoveRacer
LoveRacer is a techno-baroque trilogy by Klejs & Rønsholdt:
RACER (2011) – a concert performance
SKIN (2012) – an interactive installation
HOME (2013) – an audio-visual installation

LoveRacer is a journey into the epicentre of love. In LoveRacer we investigate different aspects of intimacy and intensity through music, sound, visuals, space and performance.
A structural main theme is the relation between a mechanical force and the delicate sensitivity of flesh and body.
In Racer we introduced video sequences of waving skin. These strangely shaped body objects constitutes the main visual focus in the installation SKIN: We isolate and elaborate this technique and stage it together with the audience in a spatial context.
Skin is both a method and an expression.

The Method
Using a compressor air is blown forcefully unto human skin and the skin is influenced by the air pressure. Recording this with a high-speed camera generates a film of rhythmically undulating skin.

The Expression
The air impact adds a surprising life to the surface of the skin. The result is bodily shapes that are equally familiar and unknown: The moving images reveal the unique structure of the skin; surface, fragility, age and characteristics. In SKIN the intimate secrets are enlarged and exposed to the audience; as an overly intimate and erotic manifestation which becomes equally repulsive and appealing.
The recordings are then mirrored over a vertical axis which in a strange way re-humanizes them, makes them resemble parts of the body you didn’t know existed..

The InstallationIn the installation the symmetrical principle from the video sequences are applied on the room. The darkened room (approximately 15×15 m) is mirrored over the central axis. Each half consist of an Eyeliner projection in the middle of the room and on the opposite wall a large projection. The area between the back wall and the eyeliner is weakly illuminated

The pre-produced video sequences consist of a male and a female version. These are projected on the opposite Eyeliner, thus the male and female video can be seen from either side of the room. As a result of the Eyeliner technique, the audience are not able to see the video projected into the part of the divided room in which they are placed themselves.

Interaction
The audience themselves are a fundamental part of the visual staging: They look directly at each other through the invisible Eyeliner screens. Thus, the audience are not only spectators they are also spectated. The video sequences of the waving flesh are surrounding and embracing them like a cloud of desire, they are unknowingly part of a bizarrely quasi-erotic scenery and at the same time looking at one themselves.

Thanks to Mikael Fock Kulturværftet Helsingør, Klaus Ib Jørgensen Edition-S, Kevin Cunningham, 3LD, NY and Mark Coniglio.