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The mutated body Written by Jorinde Seijdel in a Montevideo/TBA publication,1998
Peter Bogers' Apart(1996)
shows images of isolated parts
of the body on four screens, placed next to each other. From left
to right, we see a clenched fist, a head seen from above, an open
hand, and a bare foot, seen from below - these are scanned video stills
moving in a loop. The organs are floating freely in the image, and
show various revolving, vibrating or punching rhythms of motion: the
fist, for example, draws back and then strikes out powerfully, while
the head is turning around, and the other hand and the foot are moving
backwards. In this constant acceleration, the body parts eventually
run amok. Captured in isolation, they seem to want to escape their
predicament, without actually being able to break free from, or come
closer to, each other - as they were controlled from within, but by
a force outside themselves. Frozen Voice and Without the World, installations dating from 1992 and 1994, also include
various parts of the body which manifest themselves in isolation from
each other. Bogers' representations of the body are a far cry from
the humanistic ideology of the body, which is precisely about unity
and wholeness, about the body as an integrated system of connected
parts, governed and controlled by an all co-ordinating higher brain
the subject that imposes its will and identity on the body as the
object. This traditional concept of the body fits in with the philosophy
of progress, in which man controls his environment and bends technology
and matter to his will. What,
then, is the identity and ideology
of Bogers' disintegrated, mutated and alienated bodies? What is their
context and deeper truth? At face value, they are devoid of any kind
of hierarchy, of a central point, which gives them coherence and unity.
The organs, which seem to be in an embryonic state of weightlessness,
are also restrained, held in quarantine, by the hardware and software
of the technology with which they are represented; it is precisely
this technology which defines their context, identity and truth.
Technology is not merely used as a presentation model, instrument,
medium or shell, but rather, is part of the content. Bogers'
bodies seem to be possessed by
an alien bodily order, which has taken hold of them internally. They
are following a logic, which has nothing to do with us. They do not
control technology, but rather, it controls them, mutates them internally.
The traditional rift between body and technology seems to have been
eradicated, to make place for a hybrid fusion. Bogers' bodies are
no longer superior to technology and matter, but rather, are completely
absorbed by them. They are an ecstatic representation of the ongoing
mutilation of the body. This is alarming, but only if considered from
the traditional idea of the pure controlling and controlled body. Now
that the body is becoming more
and more contaminated, not only by external, but also by internal
(bio)technological prostheses and genetic manipulation, now that there
are dreams of cultivating parts of bodies and bodies without heads,
the fusion of body and technology is no longer a nightmare or science
fiction, rather, it has become reality. Bogers shows the body in
a precarious position, but without provoking a nostalgic yearning
for 'the times when all was as it should be' -of course, we now know
that such times never existed, but were only invented in retrospect.
Rather, Bogers' work represents a courageous spirit of survival, and
attempts to let go of the old and familiar, in favour of the strangeness
and uncertainty of the metamorphosis.
The metamorphosis
of the world Bogers'
installations can also be regarded
as attempts to make the fundamental chasm between the inner and the
outside world, between subject and object, between image/representation
and reality, visible and tangible. Bogers emphatically shows the confinement
of the images within the order governing the representation, a strange,
introverted order, which does not belong to ordinary reality. Everything
looks so miss-happen and strange that you are forced into reflection
on the status of both worlds, the ordinary world and the one represented.
It is as if the manifestations in Bogers' work were in a different
dimension, with a different gravity and different laws of space and
time. Considered from the sphere of the normal and conventional, it
is governed by total disintegration and fragmentation, and you are
the observer of alienating, introverted, rituals. There are barely
answers to the whys and wherefores, on the contrary, questions are
raised. There are no co-ordinating, narrative, contexts: the images
mainly relate to themselves and to each other. In Heaven (1995),
the focal point is not specifically the body, but rather, perception
and the experience of time: a great many video monitors, showing
fragmentary images and sounds from life about the house, are spread
over various rooms. The images only last a second and are repeated
endlessly, one second forward, one second back. The whole set-up evokes
an unearthly, constantly tense and alarming atmosphere. Heaven shows an out-of-the-ordinary world, which seems to have come about beyond
our perception. As if something fatal had happened and reality had
undergone a metamorphosis. Ritual 1 & 2, which are presented in direct connection with each other,
once again confront us with the body, but in a different form from
previous works. Ritual 1 consists of an old-fashioned, wooden wall
clock and twelve monitors, placed in a circle on the floor, with their
screens facing inwards. They show video and audio samples of physical
violence from TV films, and are edited according to the strict rhythm
of the ticking clock -this work also bears witness to the special
way in which Bogers deals with sound. Each second, a flash of violent
action can be seen, which, the next second, springs over to the next
monitor. Ritual2 is a large video projection with live images originating
from three black-and-white cameras installed in various areas of the
exhibition building. One of the cameras records the image of the
exhibition gallery itself, and therefore also shows the installations
and observers. Each second, the images vibrate on the tick of the
clock. A table and two chairs are placed in front of the projection
screen. On the table, there is a small colour monitor, with two connected
headphones. Visitors can sit down and view a constant, rhythmical
repetition of violent actions. The
observer standing in the middle
of the circle of monitors, witness to a chain of violent, vibrating
moments, becomes involved in the performance via the camera, which
records and directly transmits his presence. He is no longer an outsider,
but what is he then? Intruder, voyeur, or accomplice? But to what?
What has landed up in? The violence shows itself formalised and ritualised
by the repetitions and lack of context, thus emphasising the passive,
inactive, role of the observer. But at the same time, the rhythm of
the clock has also annexed his image on the screen: He becomes infected
by the same thing that has pervaded the other images, incorporated
into the same order. He under-goes a metamorphosis, in spite of himself. The
way in which the various elements
of Ritual 1
& 2 overflow into
each other, and link the rooms together, makes it difficult to escape
from this 'creepy', introverted, atmosphere.
As
with Apart and Heaven, Ritual 1
& 2 are governed by different laws of space, time and causality.
An alternative reality manifests itself, where the familiar certainties
and stories do not apply. Its logic and coherence is not ours, but
rather, comes from within, from the objects and images themselves.
We become aware that our traditional perception of reality, and of
ourselves, is not absolute, but relative. The unity and coherence,
the seamlessness between the things and events that we think we see,
even in ourselves, perhaps do not exist at all, but serve to maintain
our superior place and position. Considered from this traditional
position, the effect of Bogers' images is uncomfortable and disconcerting;
they condemn us to a condition of solitude. But Bogers does not actually
stage an intimidating, morally reprehensible future, nor do his mutated
bodies express concern. Rather, by making a different order visible,
he enforces a radical turnabout, which undermines our familiar position
and challenges us to assume a different identity, to cast a different
glance at the world and to reinvent it.
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