UMBRA #2

of LACMANOVIC Valentina

NETHERLANDS, 2018, 00:07:33

Production : LACMANOVIC Valentina
Genre : Video art
Keyword : action, Performance

Summary :
UMBRA#2 is a part of a project consisting of two video performances and a collection of photo performance works around the notion of UMBRA (shadow) and its aesthetic, philosophical anthropological and astronomical aspects.

"Latin for "shadow", umbra is the innermost and darkest part of a shadow, where the light source is completely blocked by the occluding body. An observer in the umbra experiences a total eclipse. " (Wikipedia)

The artwork refers to the allegory of the cave from Plato's "Republic". 
The only way we can observe the reality is influenced by the motion of the astral bodies, creating shadows and shifts in light and darkness as well as in our perception and consciousness.

UMBRA#2 is inspired in particular by the formalisation of the motion of the astral bodies in an Armillary sphere. From its invention to contemporary astronomy, its center has shifted. Umbra#2 proposes to put the human body in its centre (instead of the Sun). It stresses the subjectivity of the observation of the Universe.
In the time of ‘post-truth’, the shadow in the form of commentary of the experience replaces the experience itself. In Plato’s Allegory, the person who dares to leave the cave and face the reality is the Philosopher. In the project UMBRA, the artist is the one who goes in the light and deliberately faces her own shadows.

Filmed from the hand by the artist.

to print