Le signe singe

(in collaboration with Virginie Yassef)

dual projection video

2013

Virginie Yassef and I were invited to produce a work in the Hotel Lutetia in Paris, by Parcours St. Germain. We hired a trained baboon, as well as a performer …. and filmed their interaction in the hotel suite we had been given. We told the actor to simply act as if he were waiting, waiting while doing nothing ( i.e. without reading, looking at his phone, working, etc…). As for the baboon, he was given no directions, and simply allowed to roam free. After almost three hours, the baboon flashed its teeth at its trainer, at which point we were told to end the shoot.

Virginie and I filmed with two cameras, each of us choosing their shots and way of filming. I filmed from a static angle, Virginie using a handheld camera. The two projections were shown in alternation on two different walls of the same room.