Inkijk # 22: A workshop in Rouen

In March 2000 Saskia Janssen and George Korsmit gave a workshop to students of the Académie des Beaux Arts in Rouen, France. The idea was to make a work with the whole class that could, with a minimum of means, shed new light on a day in the life of an average art student. The event, which was like a performance sans audience, was recorded on slides and on video. A special montage was made of the resulting theatrical images for the Inkijk.

This video portrays the realization of a work of art in which the students themselves form the base materials. The students took up their positions against the wall of an exhibition space that is normally only reserved for more conventional works of art. Using the metal hand and footrests, each student chose a different section of the wall in order to form a live composition. The combination of the alternating and repeating moving images that were projected onto two screens, created an intriguing choreography. The choreography toys with ideas regarding the nature and presentation of a work and features an interesting inversion of perspective on behalf of the audience.