Thirty Three Degrees

33 Degrees touches on complex themes such as the imbalance of power, the representation of the nude in 20th century, passivity, gluttony and human sacrifice. It was first exhibited in October 2017 as part of the Oostende art triennial, titled The Raft. Art is (not) lonely curated by Jan Fabre, which featured Chantal Yzermans along with other internationally acclaimed artists and emerging talent. The theme of the exhibition was formed around the Raft of the Medusa of Theodore Géricault, an iconic artwork of the Romantic Period, which depicts a tragic shipwreck scene off the coast of Senegal and which was critical of the politics that led to the catastrophic death of less important figures in society. Yzermans transforms the complex narrative of the 2D painting into the multi-dimensional artwork that uses the medium of dance and performance, as well as varied technologies such as live chat rooms, live web cams to challenge societal conformity. In 33 Degrees, Yzermans aims to open up a dialogue about the secret world online nude dating and porn websites, removing its anonymity. The artwork seeks to navigate the confluence of technology, visual arts, video, performance, dance, set design and film.

The artwork is comprised of three dark atmospheric virtual  chambers/room  s creating an intense full-on immersive experience. Each room/space  is augmented with an electronic music soundtrack composed by Yannick Franck and Igor Stravinksy’s Rites of Spring.

In the first room, a 1.6-meter square fluorescent platform set on a 33-degree angle, represents the raft at sea. Yzermans applied special photographic effects and photo negatives to create projections of body parts seen in silhouette that fluctuate rhythmically in 15 seconds increments, mirroring the desperate figures clinging to life on the raft.

In the second dark room, a pseudo-naked woman dancing in the same platform is being recorded on a live cam. It is a marathon dance of 6 hours.

In the third room, a real time online chat on dating platform called Chat roulette takes place. A Guest artist/Carlos Aires  sits behind a connected computer and chats with strangers online about life in general and about the dancer in the second room that they both can see. The chat text is projected onto varied screens and exposed to gallery goers, who are now privy to a private conversation in a public space. The illusory sense of privacy is crossed and privacy rights are ignored.

As in all of Yzerman’s oeuvre, the piece revolves around the human body in its physical, cultural, historical and transcendent aspects. As an extension of an earlier work, Partner you, 33 Degrees features the music and themes of Le Sacre du Printemps by Russian Igor Stravinsky. The music and the ballet itself in its time was considered quite shocking, conveying primitive rituals on stage for the first time, whereby a tribe offers a young girl as a sacrifice for a promising spring harvest. In 33 Degrees, the dancer is symbolic of a human sacrifice today. The spectator is aware that a slaughter is taking place.  Here just as in the Raft of Medusa, the spectator is confronted by their role as voyeur or as a willing bystander. The body placed on a pedestal is not only treated as both object for erotic pleasure and fantasy but is really a symbol of sacrifice and a tragic byproduct of societal forces. The result is a cohesive and multi-perspective, a complex narrative about indifference and complicity.

images by Aleksei Kazantsev