a dance sequence with Laurel Jenkins and Bettina Neuhaus
at the Mark Morris Studio, New York, 2009
at the Mark Morris Studio, New York, 2009
Variations for Two, I
Variations for Two, II
Variations for Two, III
Pas de deux, fragmentation
For a very long time the human body was an enigma, its representation evolving slowly. Then human intelligence introduced into this mastered representation conventions, interdictions, rules, and symbols. When the body was finally revealed, a new vision was born. The mixing of civilizations and the invention of constantly renewed techniques led man to a new apprehension of space, and of the body within space. The work of Marilia Destot operates on one of these frontiers where art and the gaze meet. The body she exhibits in Variations for Two can be seen in three ways: in 6 times, 7 times, and in 42 times. It is a new exploration, de-centered, displaced, to be memorized. It pushes toward a new understanding, a new approach to the body—as captured in dance and movement.
As if caught weightless between photographic and film capture, between that which is no longer, and that which is yet to come, a splintered body, a body unbound and supple for which each of the 42 images presented tells a story we would like to be part of. A body that improvises, repeats, offers uncountable moments of pleasure and mystery. A body in rupture, in continuity, in repetition, in omission. A body that rejoices in showing itself and in being seen. Always in a natural décor, always on the margins of abstraction, where Marilia Destot’s singular invention of the singular body is born: the invention of the fragmented body, and of its pas de deux.
Gérard de Cortanze
Paris, April 2010
Translation by Arby Gharibian
Variations for Two II, in the Fragmented Body Show, at the French Institute Gallery, New York, USA - 2010
Variations for Two I, in the Artbridge - Works in Progress Installation, Brooklyn NY, USA - 2011
