Abstract

Does a performance have the potential to intensify the experience in the life of a human being? And what is the level of participation required? Having a performative video installation called “Turning Backs” as a central object of study, this essay will address these and other questions.
This work intends to make an analysis that explores the space of the spectator and the transgression of roles: spectator-performer. “Turning Backs” is a piece that aims at the materialisation of the paradox: we are all included in the exclusion. It is based on a performative video installation, which combines image, body and voice in a scenic device to orchestrate two lines of viewers from two opposing fronts in order to participate. Turned back to each other, the audience is a kind of choral corps commanded by two videos. The two lines of seats have no back and force each viewer to use the back of another as backrest. This situation is a strong allegory of economic co-dependence and still, what I will look at is the condition of the spectator.