In “Breathing Loop (family portrait for A Future Adaption)” by Cécile B. Evans, the edition turns into an animated moment itself. The exhibited work is related to the development of Evans’ video installation For a Future Adaption, about the struggles of a family to adapt the ballet Giselle. In it, a rubber plant – in the role of the director – and a camera, are themselves forced to adapt as the modern world collapses. In the edition, we see the arrival of a third element that unpredictably intertwines the different worlds at play: a baby. These narrative interconnections take their first steps in the making of this edition. As with classic cel animation, the depicted characters exist as three separate layers brought together into one scene. Over the course of the eight frames, slight alterations produce movements in the characters that signal a single breath being taken- the beginning of what is known in animation as a “breathing loop”. In their artistic practice, Evans focuses on the human condition and its emotions as they come into contact with ideological and technological structures. Their work has been shown at 9. Berlin Biennale 2016 and Haus der Kunst Munich, and is held in public collections such as MoMA in New York and the Whitney Museum, among others. Currently, Evans is working on a collaboration with the National Ballet of Marseille for the group exhibition Liquid Life at Kistefos Museum in Norway, a continuation of the ongoing adaptation which has been most recently shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
– Text by Elisa Maria Schmitt