In the folds of the night, in the slit opening onto dreams, the author-witness, whose body we perceive fragments of, projects filmic image-souvenirs in a series. The screen is like a divided strip, attacking the body of the dreamer, composing his fragmented self-portrait. Apparently, it is his experience of performance that led Marcel Odenbach to put his body on the line, explored by the spectator's gaze, through a succession of screens that open and close on violent scenes. It is in this work, long entitled Mille Meurtres, that he invented the use of the dividing strip within the image. This “slit-o-scopic” vision is the true face of voyeurism, showing fragments from Goya's Caprices and excerpts from American films (Hitchcock is the central reference), all focusing on fear and violence. The scene reframed and removed from its context at first seems unreal and yet full of terror, owing to the off-screen presence of a hidden, amputated part. This phantom limb overwhelms the image with its absence, saturating it through successive sliding effects that become unbearable.
A funerary mask sways, with its eyes and mouth shot through with rays of light.

Stéphanie Moisdon
Translated by Anna Knight