STAY
Video
Duration video: 6 min. 21 sec.
In a car workshop between the pristine surfaces of car parts and archetypes of mass production, a construction of power is unfolding. A Doberman Pinscher and its owner are the protagonists. The camera floats through the space frequently encountering a dog posing in standstill, commanded by a disembodied voice coming from somewhere in the workshop. A Doberman is a special breed, it is constructed out of many different types of dogs for the purpose of guarding, often used by police or military. It is specifically gracious, loyal, and potentially aggressive to strangers. It needs severe training. Both the owner’s and the dog’s consciousness are formed within this relationship. By the obedient appearance of the dog, it seems to concede to the rules it’s been given. But by knowing the rules it starts to gain power itself. In the constant intermingling of the concentration on the dog’s behavior and the hypothetical assumption of what the dog might do, we recognize a ‘manifest’ and a ‘scientific’ vision, being different but in continuous movement with one and another.
Voice: Joshua Thies
Dobermann Pinscher: Andor
Camera: Lonneke Worm
Sound postproduction: Charly van Rest
Thanks to: DKC Moving Image, Rotterdam
STAY excerpt from Jan Adriaans on Vimeo.
BB15, Space for Contemporary Art, Linz, 2017
Rencontres Internationales, Paris, 2017
Website by Sophie Sanders © 2018
The Wrong, New Digital Art Biennale, 2017