Offering
Gersht, Ori (2011) Offering. [Film, Photography]
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Projected onto a panoramic screen using three projectors, the film presents a cyclical journey that begins with an intimate depiction of a matador being dressed for a bullfight by his armour bearer. This ritualistic procedure takes place in a small, sparsely furnished room and is meticulously executed, almost choreographed. The film moves on to slowly navigate through the architectural spaces of a solitary Corrida and then to the physical encounter between man and beast. Finally, the film returns to the small room of the opening sequence and shows the matador undressing at the end of the fight.
The film aims to depict, with meticulous attention to detail, an intense and private encounter between culture and the sublime, between a matador and a bull, between life and mortality. It is intended to produce an effect that is psychologically penetrating, and that reveals the carnal affection and sensual affinities between man and beast. I aim to avoid taking a moral stand, but to converse with a long painterly tradition of religious iconography. Through contemporary and historical juxtapositions – the film includes depictions of Old Master paintings - I seek to create a timeless space, a space that cannot be anchored, a space that hangs between past and present, between art history and contemporary practice.
Offering forms part of my ongoing series of moving portraits. These include Evaders (2009) and Will You Dance For Me (2011). All three films aim to depict the existential experience of single individuals who occupy a space that is both performative and biographical.
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