What kingdom. Of all damn human. Animals. Nothing important
” In the Spinnerei, Leipzig the bare bruised walls signal the end of the industrial era in Western Europe. This place formerly so loud, was left empty and silent. Here Melody Panosians performance What kingdom. Of all damn human. Animals. Nothing important takes place.
The artist, arranged a space with carefully selected objects that find a use during the performances but actually (above all when there is no performance but only the installation) invites the spectator to guess what they could mean.
When she is performing the artist changes clothes and in particular wears what could be an « African costume » (self-made from a colored printed cloth) and a « futuristic costume » (blue and skin-tight) which contrast with each other and are brought to life by the artist’s body.
These costumes bring back a lot of feelings. The « African » pattern evokes another continent and perhaps another time (is it the past?) It appears to be loose-fitting, natural and noble. The colors stand out against the grey/white concrete walls of the Spinnerei. In Wassily Kandinsky’s theory of colors, red or yellow are associated with movement, and white with immobility . As for the « futuristic » costume, it is more reminiscent of 20th century science-fiction movies where humans would have left the earth…
The result (what we can see during the performance) could be summed up as follow: a woman, alone in a free empty place, convokes distant worlds to coexist on stage for a few minutes. Her strength is memory, dream, imagination. With the help of costumes and of the whole performance choreography, she creates with refreshing energy her own visual world. “
- Antoinette Belin, 30 May 2012
tape in camera standing on tripod, direction wallpaper, floor and red eggs in a fish bowl.
i come in talking about the space, ” i have some sort of objects in a room with 3 walls i cannot get it all together, i am pretending like no one will notice the evident ” then i make the audience repeat my name King together, until it sounds loud enough they keep on repeating my name my right hand is formed and heavy and i walk cross steps and my head circles around my torso, ” louder…louder! ok enough ” i get the plastic guitar put it between my legs as tail i go to the floor look at their standing feet. like a dog, right hand hurts on dog. i put on the speech (invitation text) which rejects them as audience ” i take every opportunity to take revenge upon you ” then i get into holy mary plastic vail swimsuit costume and out of house wife costume. in holy mary plastic vail swimsuit now i need someone from the audience ” i need a favor, concerns milk, it is fun “. I put on King video on my mac, it is a music video for Jazz Jam. pours milk on me while i am upside down. acrobatics with legs and feet. putting coal on my feet and hands like sport. wall is dirty now. then i put eggs with back to audience in my swimsuit red eggs in stomach pink water coming down between my legs looks like i am menstruating or peeing. becomes pink lake with the milk on floor. i go to the front again, remove the stop sign in front of the camera on my way…
lay down leg spread backwards…demonic and very flexible. crush the red eggs, while a song for me is being played a song about gifts. the eggs come out of my swimsuit close to vagina and neck crushed red eggs come out of my swimsuit close to vagina and chest too. i massage the crushed eggs into my skin. now when the song Les étoiles et les cochons is playing i undress…yes naked under i am wet. change into queen exotic dress while the dress is lying horizontal on the floor; legs spread and my flesh. fabric feels very nice against my skin, i spread my limbs on floor. i come up and dance in triangle shape; dance is only crossed steps that also make me twirl. after the song Les étoiles et les cochons is finished comes 30 min of filming that i clean up the space with a crown. ” i need a favour, concerns filming, it is fun ” some one from audience films every last 30 min of each performance. i want each time to be different. cleaning up takes time. with crown. different interactions happen every performance: on one occasion 2 other performers from another show came in and i asked them to join.
and i take them in. i want to be alone now. you may leave when you feel like. tape finishes.
Kindly supported by Swedish Arts Grants Committee
