inhale / exhale
(Maastricht / Hoek Kommel / Brusselsestraat 25)
Michal Butink (The Netherlands, 1975) made ten video portraits of dancers after a difficult dance rehearsal. The video inhale /exhale (2005) was shot after a dance rehearsal by Argentinean choreographer Constanza Marcas in Berlin. On several screens, the sweaty faces of the dancers are shown. They breathe heavily, their eyes are either still full of fire or relaxed and completely saturated. Their chests move up and down, everyone in his or her own rhythm. The sound of breathing, together with the images, forms a new rhythmic work. The portraits render a beautiful impression of what just has happened. The dance has ended, but in the dancers’ eyes the choreography is still visible. On the one hand, this work stimulates both the desire for and fantasy of something that has happened, on the other hand it shows a very personal impression of the dancers surrendering. On the other side of the street, another of Butink’s works, Damrak, is shown (nr. 8).