A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE HOLY BLOOD

The performers in this video are a group of naively dressed up biblical characters, taking part in one of Flanders’ processions of The Holy Blood.
Theys captured the footage during a performance he organized in the Brussels art space ETABLISSEMENT D’EN FACE. The white gallery space is filled from wall to wall with rows of amateur-actors standing on a rising tribune as if they were the audience. Covered under layers of suffocating make-up, almost touching the ceiling in the back, we see men, women and children depicting different characters from biblical stories. They look like something, doing nothing. They just stand there.
The vulnerable tension increases in the absence of audio and in the close-ups . We see them scratching their noses, biting their lips. Holding on anxiously, bored or brave to their props: a naïve painting, an apple, a golden cane or a plastic baby Jezus. They look like the lost paradise is going to appear in front of their glazy eyes, yet nothing happens.
As they are barely moving, they are a reversed procession. Spectators of a non- spectacle. (Femke Van Grootel)