Training Lounge is an installation constituted by video tapes, objects and short texts. All these elements are strongly connected to each other in order to create a network, a space for training, for survival, both physical and psychological. The work approaches the question of the double and alienation through the stereotyped image of a woman seen in fashion magazines.
In this work the video medium is used at one time as a microscope allowing the perception of almost invisible areas (the gap under a door), and even impossible spaces (the space created by my mouth talking to my own ear), at another time in a macroscopic way as a surveillance camera, in order to totally control a certain situation.
In both cases the camera films words and gestures which are simple, repetitive and displaced to absurdity.

In this installation the elements are distributed in three units:

- The first unit contains two sofas, three video tapes shown on monitors placed on metallic trays and a video projection.
In the video tape “Speaking to myself - From mouth to ear” one can see me talking to my own ear through a mirror system and trying to reassure myself.
The two other tapes “The slit I” and “The slit II” show two hands attempting vainly to block up or to enlarge the gap under a door. The objects used therefore are organic (leaves and branches) as opposed to the clinical aspect of the setting.
The video projection is an excerpt of the tape “Speaking to myself - From mouth to ear”, but mute and slowed down. The very short distance between the mouth and the ear becomes a space in itself on the wall, a space constantly endangered by the closeness of the mouth to the ear.
This first group constitutes the training as well as the settling down of a relaxation space for the viewer (the lounge).

- The second unit includes a file and a telephone placed on a desk, a chair and three monitors supported on the wall by metallic trays.
The file contains short texts, which analyze the development of the training within a pseudo-scientific manner.
The phone rings constantly like a kind of signal, and if the viewer picks it up, a voice tries to reassure him/her. When he/she puts the phone down, it starts ringing again.
Through the image of a surveillance camera the video tapes “Introducing my blood sister I, II, III” show a body double, a blood-sister-character, playing the former training in its own way.
This second group constitutes a representation of the first one, an attempt at structuring, controlling and analyzing the result of the training.

- The third unit is constituted by a large monitor presented on a moving tray on the floor. This one functions as a moderator between the two other groups. It shows a video tape titled “The bed of leaves”, in which we see a closed door and dead leaves arriving little by little under it and invading the floor of the space.

The addition of all the different sounds of the video tapes (buzz, whispers, cracks, ringing) produces a sonic environment that precises and determines this idea of a virtual survival area, of a mental space.

Installation views at Attitudes, Geneva

Installation views at Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam

Installation views at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam