Mariachi 17 was performed at the Caecilia Hall of Comédie de Genève in Switzerland. This video creates a paradoxical collage effect by compressing a high density of choreographed activities into a 25-minute continuous shot. La Ribot uses her technique of the “body operator,” which she began in 2003 with solos entrusted to dancers and theater performers, where the camera is hand-held by the performers themselves. Travelling Olga and Travelling Gilles (2003), along with Quarto de Oro (2008) and Beware of Imitations! (2014), are part of this series that explores the inframince separating the body in motion from the surrounding space. It is also an experimental response of the Spanish choreographer to the use of video in the world of dance, taking further the experiments conducted by the generation of Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown, where dancers wore cameras mounted on the body either on stage or in the studio. In La Ribot’s practice of body operator, the human figure fades away; it ceases to be the object of the performance. The dance takes place in absentia as the videographic writing replaces the choreographic writing. It transfers into the time-space of the image, simultaneously constrained by the hand holding the tool and expanded through the proprioceptive coordination of the gesture, the reality observed in real time, and the mental anticipation of its representation.

In Mariachi 17, the performers, actions, and setting become one. This time, three choreographers dancers share the videographic construction: Marie-Caroline Hominal, Delphine Rosay, and La Ribot. The work is filmed entirely with a small DV camera, which is tightly integrated into the movements of the three performers. They take turns to hold the role of camera operators, adding complexity to the space and dramaturgy of the image through this multi-authored process. Through the lens of the camera, their movements reveal unusual vanishing points and close-ups in unexplored areas at the backstage of the theater, where La Ribot has created a lively scenario of objects. Mirrors, scaffolding, stage costumes, and architectural photographs filmed in close-ups by Miguel de Guzmán collide in a series of scale and perspective shifts. Excerpts from Hollywood films, synchronized with the continuous shot, reference the artifice of scenography: the famous ballet film The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948), the disaster film Earthquake (Mark Robson, 1974) with its stagy special effects, and the campy horror movie Crimewave (Sam Raimi, 1985). The title of the work, a nod to traditional Mexican music known for its virtuoso tempo, evokes the energy of a vibrant ensemble. The technical mastery of this video-choreography, set to the rhythm of acidic electronic music of AtomTM, creates a disruptive sense of proliferation. In this baroque space, mises en abyme and other optical tricks gradually give way to a complete upheaval of gravity. Shared by the performers of dance and performance, this perception panics and tumbles, stretched along the trajectory of an eye-body.

Marcella Lista, june 2020
Translation : Amy Wang