images et les idées du portrait

Hello Louise,

I liked very much what you said about that dance for you is to be "permeable". And that what you really like to do is to try. That's like giving me big wings for the project. Thanks!

In fact, my expression "the body is full of landscapes" is for me very much related to versatily. It's my way to refer to it. Because we can do so many different things, approach our own body in so many different ways, imagine it in so many different fashions, that I finally came up to the idea that all that diversity is already in us. We only need a concrete spark to awaken it or to feel curious to take a certain path and try. The physical imagination isn't indeed the only way to bring us to a concrete landscape... I guess I put together mind and body in my thinking. This body full of landscapes is for me a whole.

I keep thinking of the idea of a portrait for the piece. And the notions "to present" vs "to represent". How we present ourselves or how we like to present ourselves. Once on stage the limits dissolve, I believe, because in a way I think all we can do is to present. I find that idea very beautiful. You are there, in that space in front of an audience, and that's it. The audience looks at what you do, which is exceptionally magical. And the performance is built together by the performer and the audience. Though I'll think further about it. :)

I came back to a book on portraits I read some time ago. It talks through the different notions of portraits through history, their purpouses and the different strategies painters and later photographers have used to portray. From the initial portrait in a 3/4 diagonal looking at the viewer, to isolated parts of the body, figurative paintings of objects related to a certain person, abstract paintings and blured and superposed photographs.

I came across three images I liked a lot. They keep coming to my mind when I think of our project. Maybe it has something to do as well with the colour of your hair :)

I saw the first one, the "Mirror" by Julia Fullerton-Batten, and the second "Reading" by Anni Leppälä, at the Heroines exhibition in Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in Madrid some months ago. The "Mirror" is glued at the cover of my notebook. The third one appears in the book I mentioned before. I like this idea of a portrait of somebody avoinding the glance.

These are some initial ideas and images...

A hug from a small town in the middle of the fields.

Roser