PORTRAITS RALENTIS

With this work De Mey presents a series of portraits of some important figures from the 1990s art and cultural scene (for example the performers of Rosas Dance Company), but also of children and friends. The characters portrayed go back to De Mey’s work ‘Barbe-Bleue’ (‘Blue Beards’).

Whereas in the latter work the famous eponymous tale is told, in case of ‘Portraits Ralentis’ a soundtrack is missing. The camera is situated at the subjects’ eye level, as in the classical portrait. What links the men and boys—women are absent—in this work, is the fact that all of them wear a dark coat or shirt. The related work ‘Portraits Rouges’ features the same men, but in quick succession, filmed through a blue-red filter; in this work, however, the speed has been slowed down. The subjects look therefore more serious, but paradoxically, they also become almost weightless.

This work has been digitised in the frame of DCA Project