highlike

Alexandra Dementieva

Limited Spaces N2
On approaching the piece, the viewer must mount a bicycle and start pedaling at a suitable and steady speed — only then will the projection of a film onto the screen start. In order to watch the film to the end one has to continue cycling without stopping. This work is built around a performance, produced by two actors: a man riding a bicycle and a woman, who, concealed behind the screen, moves depending on the man’s velocity, unintentionally creating changing reliefs which resemble sculptures. The abusive nature of the relationship embodied in the performance clearly draws on the ancient Greek myth about sculptor Pygmalion and his “artwork” Galatea on the one hand, and on the other references more contemporary feminist discourse, something to which the artist is far from being indifferent. The faster the man pedals, the faster and more forcedly the woman moves. Few trained artists could withstand such a speed.