Faits divers is a French journalistic term for ‘human interest’ stories, a way to provide an encounter with the unexpected and extraordinary ruptures in everyday life. In this small film we play with a faits divers as a starting point for a scene where in fact not so much else is taking place. The film shows an everyday situation with a man who is reading and drinking coffee. The faits divers in the newspaper causes another faits divers, an accident in the present situation of the reader.
The scene is repeated several times by the performer in an attempt to reproduce the video technology by means of his own doing. The actions are also performed in slow motion to then be put back to normal speed by video technology. The interest was both in the challenge of applying the ‘technology’ of repetition and slow motion in performing this scene, and in what that could produce in return. The reversal of roles between the two media ‘artificial technology’ and ‘authentic performance’ are mixed up in the process, creating as an outcome a disturbed ‘normality’.
A film by Mette Edvardsen with Philippe Beloul
Performed by Philippe Beloul
Camera Mette Edvardsen
Edited by Heiko Gölzer
Project commissioned by La Porta - Barcelona
PRESENTATIONS:
Idiorhytmias, MACBA (Barcelona) 3 - 5 May 2018
Retrospektiv, Black Box teater (Oslo) 1 - 10 October 2015
Sobrenatural 2, La Porta/ Barcelona December 2008
To view on www.laportabcn.com