École des Beaux Arts in Bedburg-Hau, two performances

For the last five years the art initiative „ArToll“ in Bedburg-Hau hosts once a year a group of art students and their teachers from the École des Beaux Arts (EBA) in Versailles. With limited facilities available, they have to work with the materials they bring along or collect artefacts around the building or during exploration travels. In this year Arielle Benzekri gave the visitors of the exhibition a fine example of a performance with pieces she picked up from her voyage by bus to the nearby Dutch city of Nijmegen just across the border. She collected among other things Dutch journals and wrote down keen observations about the Dutch in their daily life, comparing them with her experiences in France. More political themes like borders and refugees are also mentioned. As far travel notes are concerned she is in the good company of Madame de Staël and Voltaire, the last one visited the castle of Moyland in Bedburg-Hau and made some, how can it be else, some mocking remarks about the adjacent city of Cleve. The vibrant and lively young artist started her performance in her room, full of signs of travel, read aloud from a book, dressed to go on a trip and then took her audience by surprise as she rushed off with two crutches on a terrain with obstacles, pretending to not be able to use one leg. A lively performance, covering experiences with life outside of the comfort zone, not easily forgotten.
The other performer, Amélie Deboichet, took her audience on a less breath taking trip, titled “Blockage”, on which she slowly and laboriously pushed a seemingly heavy rock like dark obstacle in the presence of a dark larger than life model of a person. Something is happening, suspense is in the air, which each observer of the act could relate to. She wisely wore a sleeveless dress and her bare arms on the dark background told a tale of ongoing toil, even more so than the rest of the body. Some actions reminded of great classical sculpture and painting, dealing with a toiling human body, and indeed after a while one finds oneself in a never ending story with no progress and no escape, a metaphor of the human condition.
Both performers deservedly received a warm applause!
Seen on April 14, 2018 in the ArToll building, Bedburg-Hau, Germany. Contributions about previous visits can be seen here..."